Module 2

Prompt Engineering with ChatGPT, Gemini & Claude

Prompting is simply briefing an assistant properly. The difference between a useless answer and a usable one is almost always the brief, not the tool. This module builds one repeatable prompt structure, then shows how the three main assistants behave differently with it.

Session: Day 1 · 10.45 am – 12.45 pm
Tools: ChatGPT · Gemini · Claude
Outcome: Your own prompt library

The three assistants

All three do the same core job. Each has a free tier that is more than enough for teaching work. Learn one deeply, then keep a second open for a different perspective.

ChatGPT

OpenAI

Open

Free access: Free account; usage limits on the strongest model
Best for: All-round drafting, quizzes, images, data files, custom GPTs

Strengths for teachers: the most flexible generalist. Handles uploaded PDFs and spreadsheets, generates images and diagrams, and can be saved as a reusable custom assistant for a subject or class.

Use its memory: tell it once who you teach, at what level and in which syllabus, and later answers arrive pre-tuned.

Google Gemini

Google

Open

Free access: Free with a Google account
Best for: Anything inside Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drive, YouTube and NotebookLM

Strengths for teachers: lives where school work already lives. It can read a Drive document, draft straight into Docs, help build Slides, and summarise a YouTube lesson video.

Best pairing: Gemini for anything Google-shaped, including NotebookLM in Module 4 and Google Vids in Module 3.

Claude

Anthropic

Open

Free access: Free account; daily message limit
Best for: Long documents, careful writing, rubrics and feedback tone

Strengths for teachers: the strongest at long, careful text. Paste a whole syllabus, chapter or policy and it holds the detail. Its writing is measured and needs less editing.

Nice habit: ask it to critique your own draft rubric or worksheet before you use it.

	ChatGPT	Gemini	Claude
Pick it for	Quizzes, images, mixed tasks, data files	Docs, Slides, Sheets, Drive, YouTube	Long documents, careful writing, rubrics
Reading your files	PDF, Word, Excel, images	Drive files, PDFs, YouTube links	Very long PDFs and text
Makes images	Yes	Yes	No (diagram code and descriptions only)
Watch out for	Over-confident invented facts	Shorter answers unless you ask for depth	Tighter free daily limit

Anatomy of an effective prompt

Weak prompts leave the assistant guessing. Strong prompts answer five questions before it starts.

1
Role (also known as Persona)
Who should it be? “You are an experienced university [subject] lecturer…”
2
Task
One clear verb. Draft, explain, rewrite, compare, generate, critique.
3
Context
Learners, level, syllabus, time available, language, what they already know, what they struggle with.
4
Format
Table, 5 slides, 10 MCQs with answer key, 300 words, markdown headings.
5
Constraints
Tone, vocabulary level, what to avoid, “mark anything you are unsure about”, “no invented references”.

Weak

“Write a lesson plan on photosynthesis.”

Generic, textbook-flavoured, wrong length, wrong level. You will rewrite all of it.

Strong

Role + task + context + format + constraints

Usable on the first or second try, because nothing was left to chance.

Set it once

Custom Instructions for ChatGPT

Before you write any prompt, teach ChatGPT who you are. Custom Instructions are saved preferences that ChatGPT applies to every conversation, so you never have to repeat your style, language or level again. Find them under Settings → Personalization → Custom Instructions.

ChatGPT settings open on the Personalization tab, showing the Custom Instructions text box — ChatGPT settings — the Custom Instructions box applies your preferences to every chat.

Here is a sample set of writing instructions well suited to Malaysian educators — paste it into the box and adjust to taste:

Sample custom instructions

Write like a real person, not a chatbot. Use British English. Vary sentence length: mostly short, with the odd longer one for rhythm. Never pad.

Things to avoid completely:
- Closers that summarise what you just said or end with a tidy moral. Just stop when you're done.
- The "it's not just X, it's Y" construction.
- Repeated use of three-part lists used for effect. Two examples or four are fine.
- Em-dashes as a default connector. Use full stops or commas. Use em-dashes only when told or needed.

Things to do:
- Get to the point in the first line.
- Let sentences or paragraphs be uneven. No consistent repeated structure. Real writing isn't perfectly balanced.
- Pick one good word over a string of adjectives.
- Skip the Oxford comma.
- Use a concrete example or a small analogy when it helps rather than abstract description. Be precise.
- Gunakan Bahasa Melayu Rasmi DBP untuk teks Bahasa Melayu

With instructions like these in place, the prompts below start from a much stronger base — you only describe the task, and the style is already handled.

The master template

You are an experienced [subject] teacher for [level/grade], teaching in [country/syllabus].

Task: [one clear instruction].

Context:
- Learners: [size of class, ability range, language level]
- They already know: [prior knowledge]
- They struggle with: [common difficulty]
- Time available: [minutes]

Format: [exact structure you want, e.g. a table with 3 columns / 6 slides with 3 bullets each].

Constraints:
- Language: [simple English / bilingual / academic]
- Do not invent facts, references or statistics. Mark anything I should verify with [CHECK].
- Ask me up to 3 questions first if anything important is missing.

The single best habit

End prompts with “Ask me up to 3 questions first if anything important is missing.” The assistant stops guessing and interviews you instead.

Essential strategies

Give an example. Paste one question or paragraph in your preferred style and say “match this style”.
Iterate, do not restart. “Keep the structure, make the language simpler and shorten section 2.”
One task per prompt. A lesson plan and a quiz in one request produces two mediocre halves.
Ask for options. “Give me 3 different openings, each in one sentence.” Then pick.
Name the audience out loud. “Explain to a first-year undergraduate who has never seen statistics.”

Advanced patterns worth learning

Pattern

Chain of steps

Ask for the outline first, approve it, then ask for the full content one section at a time. Quality rises sharply on long materials.

Pattern

Persona pair

“Draft as the teacher, then critique as a strict moderator, then give the improved version.”

Pattern

Rubric-first

Give the marking rubric before the task so the output is already aligned to how you assess.

Pattern

Reverse prompting

“Ask me the questions you need answered to produce an excellent version of this.”

Pattern

Level ladder

“Explain this at three levels: struggling, on-track, advanced. Same content, three versions.”

Pattern

Bloom sweep

“Generate 2 questions each for remember, understand, apply, analyse, evaluate, create.”

Ready-made prompts for common teaching tasks

Lesson plan

You are an experienced [subject] lecturer for [year of study]. Draft a 60-minute lesson plan on [topic] for an undergraduate class.

Format as a table: Time | Lecturer activity | Student activity | Materials.
Include a 5-minute hook, one formative check in the middle, and a 5-minute exit ticket.
Students struggle with [difficulty]. Language: simple English.
Mark anything I must verify against my course outline with [CHECK].

Learning activity

You are an experienced [subject] lecturer. Design an active learning activity on [topic] for a [duration]-minute tutorial with [class size] undergraduate students.

Give me: (1) the activity name and the learning outcome it addresses, (2) step-by-step instructions as you would give them to students, (3) grouping and timing for each phase, (4) materials needed, (5) how to debrief and check understanding at the end.
It must work in a normal classroom with no special equipment.
Students struggle with [difficulty]. Mark anything I should verify with [CHECK].

Explain a hard concept

Explain [concept] to a first-year undergraduate with no background in it.

Give me: (1) a one-sentence definition, (2) an everyday analogy from Malaysian daily life,
(3) a worked example, (4) the single most common misconception among students and how to correct it.
Keep the whole thing under 250 words.

Quiz with answer key

Create 10 multiple-choice questions on [topic] for [year of study] undergraduate students.

Rules: 4 options each, only one clearly correct, distractors must reflect real student misconceptions.
Spread across Bloom levels: 3 remember/understand, 4 apply, 3 analyse.
Output as a table: No | Question | A | B | C | D | Answer | Why the distractors are tempting.

Differentiate existing material

Here is my existing tutorial handout: [paste].

Produce three versions with identical learning outcomes:
A. Support version — simpler language, more scaffolding, sentence starters.
B. Core version — light edit of mine.
C. Extension version — an open-ended challenge task.
Keep each to one page.

Feedback comments to review

Here is a rubric: [paste]. Here is a student response with no identifying details: [paste].

Write draft feedback: 2 specific strengths, 2 concrete improvements with an example of how to fix each,
and one next step. Warm, direct, no praise inflation, under 120 words.
Do not assign a final grade — I will decide that.

Assessment with rubric

You are an experienced [subject] lecturer and assessment designer. Create an assessment task for [topic] at [year of study] level, aligned to this learning outcome: [outcome].

Give me: (1) the task brief exactly as you would give it to students, including submission format and deadline wording, (2) a marking rubric as a table with 4 criteria and 4 performance levels, with clear descriptors in each cell, (3) the weight of each criterion in percent, (4) one short worked example of a high-quality submission.
Do not invent references or statistics. Mark anything I should verify with [CHECK].

GROUP HANDS-ON TASK

0/3 tasks

Goal: Compare how ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude respond to the same teaching brief, then reflect on which assistant best fits your needs.

Submit your presentation materials (slide/doc) to the Padlet Showcase.

Finished this part?

Mark it complete to update your progress meter and move on.