2  Practical tips and considerations

As of this moment, the most popular LLMs are:

These have a wide range of usage, going from free accounts to different tiers of paid subscriptions. The following use-cases are independent of the model used.

*Llama doesn’t have a dedicated website but it is available as a companion in Meta apps, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

2.1 Summaries and outlines

A powerful way to use LLMs in college is for summarizing information.

FOR STUDENTS

Using LLMs to summarize class notes.

Try:

give me the most important points from these class notes [attach or copy paste notes]

FOR INSTRUCTORS

Using LLMs to identify key concepts from sources.

Try:

give me the five biggest ideas in this article [attach, copy paste, or include URL]

Nowadays, most LLMs have the option to take multiple input formats (multimodal). You can include a combination of text, image, videos, slide decks, and others as part of your prompt.

LLMs provide with very good summaries, however, as we will see throughout this course, there could be shortcomings such as hallucinations and context bias.

Remark: Summarizing entails subject specific knowledge. In other words, creating a summary requires to define what is important or relevant from the given information. What is important might be a slightly subjective task.

Providing LLMs with more context can make results more effective.

Try:

Instead of the simple prompts from before, try adding more context including detailed descriptions about the course, the type of resource, the audience, and the expected focus,

These notes are from a first year college biology course aimed at non-majors focusing in the previous weeks on cell theory, cell organelles and their functions.

2.2 Wikipedia++

More than summarizing given information, LLMs can also help with searching for very specific information on the web.

The internet is full of information about virtually any topic known to humans -to some degree-. Sometimes navigating this can be difficult. LLMs can be used for gathering information to course concepts, tools, or strategies.

For students For instructors
you can prompt for information about a class topic and even for references and online resources.
Try:
what are eigenvalues for the disk? Search for resources on the internet.		 you can use LLMs to search for teaching strategies, group activities, or assignment ideas.
Try:
give me ideas for worksheets for eigenvalues of the laplacian in 2D domains. find examples on the internet from college courses.

One of the advantages of using LLMs is that they are pretty helpful even if you are not 100% sure on how to phrase your query. In this case, an edge with regular web searching is that just a vague description of a question can still provide useful information.

Many of the outputs include references that can be used for checking the accuracy of the response and to go deeper into the topic. As usual, beware of hallucinations.

2.3 Translate/rephrase

A very useful implementation of LLMs for courses is to translate and rephrase text. This is particularly relevant for communicating ideas in more approachable language, as well as for ESL (English as Second Language) individuals.

For students For instructors
Use LLMs to rephrase questions or problems. You can prompt to rephrase something with less or more technical language. For ESL students, prompt LLMs to translate the questions or materials into your native language. Use LLMs to simplify language or to provide clarifying notes. You can also use them as a way to proofread your material and to calibrate the academic level of it.

2.4 Grammar and coherence

Not only ESL students and instructors can benefit from a grammar/phrasing check up! Using LLMs as personalized writing aids can help polish drafts without loosing your voice.

For students For instructors
in the following text, keep my voice and fix grammar issues. [text...] check the following text for coherence, clarity, and typos. make sure the language is clear for a freshman level calculus course for math majors. [text...]

2.5 Examples and follow ups

Another practical use of LLMs is the ability to generate examples of certain topics, as well as to produce follow ups, just like in a regular conversation.

FOR STUDENTS

You can prompt to generate examples of a topic or concept.

Try:

give me an example of balancing chemical equations

With the example provided, ask follow ups to clarify, rephrase, or modify the answer

why do we need 2 H2Os on the right in step 4?

FOR INSTRUCTORS

Generate ideas of possible examples to explore in class

give me ideas for problems involving the schrodinger equation for a sophomore level chemistry course without using differential equations.

As a follow up you can prompt for suggestions on the activities

suggest an activity in groups for 20 minutes based on problem type 4.

2.6 Hallucinations

A common consideration when using LLMs are hallucinations. These are non-factual responses or made-up references. It is important to always fact check responses generated by any LLM.

A good strategy is to take LLM outputs as initial drafts, starting points, or broad insights about a topic.

Newer models are getting better with handling hallucinations, however we shouldn’t blindly trust the output of an LLMs.