Applied AI: Let's Build a Tutor Bot!-Applied AI: Let's Build a Tutor Bot!

Video Transcription

Video Summary

Karen Kitching, a teaching professor at Georgetown, leads a hands-on workshop on building “custom GPTs” (or Perplexity “Spaces”) for education. She emphasizes she’s not an AI expert, but an experimenter who learns through trial, error, and testing. Participants are asked to download two files: a step-by-step guide and a “knowledge file” (course materials compiled into one PDF).<br /><br />She first demonstrates two example bots: (1) a Syllabus FAQ bot that answers only from the syllabus/schedule and refuses unrelated questions, showing how to reduce hallucinations by restricting sources; and (2) a course “learning assistant” built from lecture slides, exercises, and quiz items that can tutor students and generate interactive practice (e.g., quizzes and scenario-based problems) when prompted well. She notes that better prompts yield more structured learning experiences and shares sample prompts instructors can give students.<br /><br />Kitching discusses access limitations: creating GPTs typically requires ChatGPT Plus, while Perplexity offers free Pro accounts to educators (and students), making it a practical alternative. She addresses copyright concerns, describing contrasting publisher responses (McGraw Hill denying permission; OpenStax granting permission) and encourages using instructor-created materials, seeking permission, or using open-source texts.<br /><br />Participants then build a CVP (cost-volume-profit) tutor bot by naming it, adding a description, uploading the knowledge file, and pasting detailed behavioral instructions (scope limits, tone, refusal policy, no web search). She shows how to test the bot, confirm it cites the knowledge file, and verify it stays within scope. She concludes with ideas for broader uses (role-play, assignment validation) and notes ongoing experimentation with completion codes for grading.

Keywords

custom GPTs

Perplexity Spaces

education workshop

Syllabus FAQ bot

hallucination reduction

learning assistant bot

prompt engineering for instructors

knowledge file PDF upload

copyright and permissions

CVP (cost-volume-profit) tutor bot