From comfort to strategic proficiency
This section will help you become strategic and proficient using GenAI for a range of purposes, including for: your learning, navigating difficult conversations, mentorship, academic resilience, project management, and more!
We emphasize an earlier comment: throughout your use of GenAI, you are responsible for using the tools responsibly and ethically.
If in doubt about how the tools can/should be used (or not), please ask/discuss in advance. Those discussions might involve your supervisor, professor, colleagues, collaborators, and others. The previous section has some guidance to do that, and you can use the Module on Navigating difficult conversations to support your efforts!
Getting comfortable with GenAI
The goal of the first part of this section is to become (more) comfortable using GenAI, while incorporating and addressing the concerns and considerations.
Tip! Use prompt engineering to get to the best AI outputs you can. Prompt engineering “helps generative AI models better comprehend and respond to a wide range of queries, from the simple to the highly technical.” – IBM, 2024-11-06
More info: Prompt engineering: 10 tips for content editors using generative AI
This module is not designed to teach you everything about using GenAI; rather, our focus in on its strategic use. While we have a few activities below to help you get some practice, we also encourage you to try out other learning opportunities about the basics of GenAI. For example: McMaster University’s Module on GenAI, uOttawa’s Library Guide on GenAI, and IBM SkillsBuild – Artificial Intelligence Fundamentals (free course).
Activity
- Choose a GenAI tool and spend 10 minutes (or more) trying out prompts and conversations, being mindful of the concerns/considerations we’ve discussed.
- As starting points, you could use some of the activities from other modules in the course, prompt a summary of your research field, etc.
- Leave out personal, confidential, and private information unless you have verified how the specific tool will store and use that information
- Review the following situations [situations to be added] where a person has used GenAI.
- Identify as many concerns and considerations as possible.
- How would you recommend proceeding to better take the concerns/considerations into account?
- What are the potential advantages of using GenAI in this situation
- Using a GenAI tool, practice having a difficult conversation with a colleague. You can adapt this activity to one that seems more relevant to you, if you wish. (Module on difficult conversations)
- Export your conversation and identify what you might do differently next time.
- Ask the AI what you might do differently/improve next time.
- Review your conversation to identify concerns/considerations; anything to change/improve?
- In your Workbook, summarize the key aspects of GenAI that you will need to focus on. Those aspects could be the ones that aren’t as easy for you or that you don’t know much about.
Feedback: thank you for doing that work!
As we move forward, we’ll describe some ways that you could use GenAI. Ideally you would pick and choose a few that are newer to you and suggest your own approach in the LEAD Discord space.
GenAI for Language support
- Natural language processing (NLP): NLP techniques can help to process and comprehend written text more efficiently. They can help summarize lengthy articles, extract key information, or analyze the sentiment and tone of textual content. You can prompt it to draft a text (e.g., email, abstract, essay), shorten a text, rewrite it for a different audience, etc. Be sure to have permission to do so in your context.
- Improve text: Correct spelling and grammar, simplify text, create a draft from an outline, rewrite for a different audience or word count.
- Translate audio and text: Quickly translate audio and articles into the language of your choice, which could be the language you’re more comfortable in, one you want to practice, etc. Some of our currently favourite tools are Otter.ai and DeepL.
Using GenAI strategically for learning
When using AI to support your learning, remember to align your approach with YOUR values, SMART goals, and metacognitive assessments. Head to LEAD’s intro module [link] for a recap. AI will always provide outputs and suggest options. It’s up to YOU to control the path. Here are some of the ways you can use GenAI strategically to support learning:
- Metacognitive support:
- (a) write down your areas of knowledge/skill strength and weakness. Prompt the AI to test your self-assessment. Remember that it’s not automatically right and you should assess its assessment—What is accurate? What isn’t?
- (b) Once you’ve had a few GenAI conversations, tell the AI to summarize your areas of strengths and weakness.
- (c) Take it a step further with additional prompt engineering. For example, provide a SMART goal and tell the AI to tailor a learning plan anchored in your current knowledge; if you don’t have sufficient chats saved, provide it with additional information to work from.
- Create a learning strategy and plan, including prioritizing (can adapt for different settings, neurodivergence, etc.), specific timelines, breaking down tasks, etc.
- Summarize the state of a field: Have the GenAI tool summarize the state of a research field or area, which can help you quickly understand what’s happening in that field. With the vast amount of information available online, AI-powered search engines and recommendation systems can assist in finding relevant research papers, articles, books, and other resources quickly. Remember to check the accuracy of the outputs.
- Intelligent tutoring systems: AI-based tutoring systems can simulate one-on-one interactions, providing personalized guidance and feedback to graduate students. These systems can adapt to your progress, identify areas of improvement, and offer targeted instruction, ultimately enhancing your learning outcomes. You can also manually have a generic GenAI system tutor you, including prompting it to identify your strengths and weaknesses or suggest improvements.
- Personalized learning and adaptive systems: AI can create personalized learning experiences tailored to your specific needs. Adaptive learning platforms can assess your strengths and weaknesses and deliver customized content and recommendations to address your individual requirements. These systems can adapt over time, optimizing the learning process and maximizing knowledge retention. Be sure to verify the accuracy of content and concepts, as many AI systems will invent information to fill gaps.
- Practice: use GenAI tools to practice skills, from genetics problem sets, to practice scenarios, to navigating difficult conversations. For example, ask the AI to play the role of the person you’re talking with, give the context, and practice; then you can ask for feedback.
GenAI for your research
- Data cleaning: Many ways to approach this – tailor your prompts to get the best results.
- Data analysis and research: AI can help you analyze large datasets and conduct advanced research. Machine learning algorithms can assist in identifying patterns, correlations, and insights that might be challenging or time-consuming for humans to discover.
- Data visualization and storytelling: AI-powered data visualization tools can help present research findings and complex concepts in more accessible ways. Remember to check the outcomes. The AI will provide outputs, but these may not be appropriate for your purpose. Your critical thinking is vital!
GenAI for your everyday life
Other AI tools (not necessarily GenAI):
- Virtual assistants and chatbots: AI-powered virtual assistants and chatbots can provide immediate support and answer queries. Whether it’s clarifying concepts, providing references, or guiding you through complex topics, these intelligent assistants can be a valuable resource, available 24/7.
- Collaborative and social learning: AI can facilitate collaboration. Virtual study groups, online forums, or AI-powered collaborative platforms can connect students with similar interests, enabling them to share knowledge, discuss research ideas, and receive feedback from peers.
- Learning to cook: you can have the AI guide you through each step or you can get it to critique your own proposed recipe and approach (or any other variation!).
While AI can be a powerful tool for learning, developing a solid foundation in your field of study to critically evaluate the outputs generated by AI systems. AI should be viewed as a complement to traditional learning methods rather than a replacement.
Activity
Instructions:
1. Choose one of the possible uses above, ideally one that’s relevant to your current context. For example, you may want to have the GenAI tool summarize the state of a research field or area. Consider starting with something that you’re very familiar with, before heading into the unknown.
2. Evaluate the tool’s responses to your prompts. What aspects are correct, incorrect, complete, or missing? Do you think the GenAI tool did a good job? Evaluate the references in the same ways.
3. Repeat the previous tasks with another GenAI tool. What is the same, different, or missing altogether? Use your professional judgement / subject-matter expert knowledge.
4. What will you need to be aware of as you move into less familiar areas? For example, some people need to remember to validate the references, while others need to practice using a few different prompts to really get the information they’re seeking.
Activity: Becoming more strategic
Much like scrolling on a phone and letting the device choose what content you see next, AI tools will readily provide an incessant flow of content. Be sure to stop and reflect regularly, apply your learning skills, and make the tools work for you, your values, and your SMART goals!
Here are some ideas:
1. Apply metacognitive skills: what are your areas of strength and weaknesses using GenAI, with respect to your values and SMART goals?
2. What are the next steps for your learning? Make a plan. For example, you may want to:
a. Practice having a difficult conversation with a colleague
b. Create a learning strategy and plan.
c. Create a project timeline.
d. Work on your mentorship skills.
e. Build academic resilience skills.
As you gain comfort using GenAI, work to become more purposeful and strategic. Consider:
- When will you use GenAI, and when not?
- How might you make the tools best work for you? Consider which tool, what prompts and information it needs, and what to do with the information.
- How might you use GenAI for YOU?
We wish you the best as you use GenAI in your everyday life, including your career! We’d love if you could share your questions and uses of Gen AI in our LEAD Discord channel. While you’re there, feel free to join in on conversations in the others sections, too.