The aim was practical from the start. Most students already use tools like ChatGPT, Gemini or Claude for their studies, so the real question for a university is no longer whether to use AI, but how to use it well and honestly. This post sums up the four chapters we covered, the prompts we shared, and the rules we suggested for classrooms.
Why AI Connect for a school of education
A school of education trains the people who will go on to teach everyone else, so how its faculty and students work with AI shapes how many future classrooms will use it. That is why AI Connect starts from everyday academic work (preparing a class, explaining a hard idea, revising for an exam, reading research) rather than from technology for its own sake. No coding or technical background is needed.
Webinar 1 · 10 October 2026
The first session built the foundation: what today’s AI tools are, and how to get useful work out of them.
Chapter 1: Understanding AI
We started with what AI assistants actually do. They have learned patterns from a very large amount of text, and they write answers by predicting what should come next. That makes them very good at explaining, drafting, summarising and rephrasing, in simple English or in a regional language. It also explains their main weakness: they can sound completely confident while being wrong, and they can invent facts, quotes or references that do not exist.
- Good at: first drafts, simple explanations, examples, summaries, practice questions and feedback.
- Weak at: up-to-date facts, exact figures and citations, and anything that needs real judgement about a person.
- The rule that follows: treat AI as a fast but sometimes careless assistant, and always check its work.
Chapter 2: Working Effectively with AI
The second chapter was about prompting: the instruction you type decides the quality of the answer. A vague question gets a generic reply; a clear one with context gets something you can use. We shared a simple habit that works with any tool:
- Give context: who you are, the subject, the class level and the time you have.
- Say exactly what you want back: a list, a table, five questions, a 50-minute plan.
- Treat the first answer as a draft: ask for a simpler version, another example or a different format.
- Check before you use it: facts, numbers and sources, every time.
Webinar 2 · 17 October 2026
The second session put those basics to work on the two things a university does every day: teaching and research.
Chapter 3: AI for Teaching and Learning
For faculty, preparation is where AI saves the most time. We walked through ready-to-use prompts for planning a unit. Each one gives a first draft that the teacher then checks and improves with their own experience:
- Learning goals: “Write 5 learning goals for [topic] for 2nd-year students.”
- Lesson plans: “Plan a 50-minute class on [topic] with one group activity.”
- Notes and examples: “Explain [topic] with 3 real-life examples.”
- Mixed-level classes: “Rewrite this for weak, average and strong students.”
- Case studies: “Create a short case study on [topic] with 4 questions.”
In the classroom, AI can explain a topic again with a new example, suggest discussion questions, or play a customer, patient or interviewer for role-play. Quiz tools like Quizizz and Kahoot show in seconds who has understood. One simple activity: give students an AI answer with a few mistakes in it and ask them to find the errors. It builds critical thinking and shows that AI is not always right. For tests, AI can draft question papers, answer keys, marking rubrics and first-round feedback, while the final marks stay with the teacher.
For students, the message was to use AI to think better, not to skip thinking. These prompts turn a chatbot into a study partner instead of an answer machine:
- Personal tutor: “Don’t give me the answer. Ask me questions.”
- Understanding a topic: “Explain [topic] with an everyday example.”
- Revision: “Quiz me on Unit 3, one question at a time.”
- Writing: “Give feedback on my draft. Don’t rewrite it.”
- Exam planning: “Make a 3-week study plan for my exams.”
- Notes: upload your own class notes to NotebookLM and ask for a 10-point summary.
Chapter 4: AI for Research and Academic Work
The last chapter moved from the classroom to academic work: dissertations, papers and literature reviews. AI can help you understand a dense paper, compare studies side by side, sharpen a research question, outline a chapter and tighten your own writing. What it cannot be trusted with is the evidence itself.
- Use it to read faster: summaries and plain-language explanations of papers you have actually opened.
- Use it to think: questions that sharpen your topic, gaps to look for, and counter-arguments to your own position.
- Never take a citation from AI on trust. Find every source yourself and read it before you cite it.
- Follow your university’s and the journal’s rules on AI use, and say clearly where and how you used it.
Using AI safely and honestly
Both sessions came back to the same ground rules. They are short enough to share with any class:
- Teachers: check facts before using them, because AI can make mistakes and invent references.
- Teachers: never type student names, roll numbers or marks into public AI tools.
- Teachers: tell students clearly what AI use is allowed for each assignment, and keep final marks your own decision.
- Students: use AI to understand, then write in your own words.
- Students: say when you used AI, and check important answers with the textbook or your teacher.
- Students: submitting AI answers as your own work is cheating, just like copying from a friend.
AI use can’t be stopped completely, so the most dependable answer is assessment that shows real learning: short vivas, work done in class, drafts submitted along the way, and questions built on local or personal examples. AI is a helper. The teacher is still the guide.
Open to more universities
AI Connect is now open to universities across India. Sessions can be for faculty, for students or for both, online or on campus, as a single webinar or a series like the one at GGSIPU. If your university would like a session, reach us through the For colleges page.