Resources - ChatGPT for Faculty Session

# Webinar Companion Guide

Follow along during the session

May 13, 2026

Follow along with the webinar: ChatGPT for Faculty

Use this guide during the ChatGPT for Faculty webinar. You’ll see practical ways faculty can use ChatGPT to plan courses, review files, brainstorm explanations, analyze data, support research, and set up repeatable workflows.

The best way to follow along is to pick one workflow that matches your role, try the prompt, and then keep iterating. Treat ChatGPT as a collaborator: give context, review the output, and steer it toward what you need.

Resources to bookmark

ChatGPT: https://chat.com

OpenAI Help Center: https://help.openai.com

ChatGPT Cookbook: https://cookbook.openai.com

OpenAI Academy: https://academy.openai.com/home/clubs/work-users-ynjqu

Codex changelog: https://developers.openai.com/codex/changelog/

What to remember

Key ideas

A good prompt usually includes three parts: the task, the context, and your expectations for the output.

Start broad when you need ideas, then follow up with more specific constraints.

Uploading a file is often the easiest first workflow because you can ask ChatGPT to summarize, review, or improve something you already have.

For research and data work, use ChatGPT to create a first pass, surface patterns, and suggest next steps. You still make the final academic and professional judgment.

The strongest recurring workflows are specific, predictable, and easy to review.

Feature availability can vary by plan and admin settings, so use the tools available in your workspace.

Mini-demo: Build a stronger prompt

Follow along

Use this structure:

[Task] Generate a comprehensive case study on consumer delivery drones. [Context] Focus on data from the last 6 months, and focus on India. [Expectation] Structure it for graduate-level students and output the report as a Word document.

Then ask ChatGPT to improve your prompt:

Help me refine this prompt. Ask me 3 questions that would make the output more useful for my course.

What to notice

Broad prompts are useful for exploration. Specific prompts are better when you need something you can actually use in a class, report, or research workflow.

Demo: Brainstorm weekly teaching workflows

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I’m an Associate Professor of Biology at Arizona State University teaching BIO 181 to 180 first-year students. What are 3 practical ways I can use ChatGPT in my weekly teaching workflow? For each, give one example prompt I could use.

Then follow up:

I’m preparing a 75-minute BIO 181 lecture on cell signaling. Suggest 5 interactive activities I can use with 180 first-year students, including timing and simple facilitation steps.

What to notice

The first prompt gives you options. The follow-up turns one option into a classroom-ready plan.

Demo: Make ChatGPT yours

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Open the Personalization section of settings and draft answers for these fields:

What do you do? I work at a university supporting teaching, research, and administrative innovation. My role is to help faculty and staff explore how AI tools like ChatGPT can enhance productivity, creativity, and learning outcomes.

What traits should ChatGPT have? Be clear, accurate, and helpful. Provide examples relevant to higher education — teaching, research, and university operations. Ask clarifying questions when my request could mean different things, and suggest smarter or more efficient ways to complete a task.

Anything else ChatGPT should know about you? I collaborate with faculty, staff, and administrators across multiple departments. I often work on projects that involve course design, policy development, student engagement, or communications. I value responses that respect academic integrity, privacy, and the goals of higher education.

What to notice

Personalization works best when it gives ChatGPT durable context about your role, audience, standards, and recurring work.

Demo: Review a file

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Upload a syllabus, rubric, assignment, article, grant narrative, lecture notes, or student-facing instructions. Then try:

(Download this syllabus)

I’m an Associate Professor of Biology at Emory University, and I’m uploading the syllabus for my upper-level Immunology course. Please read the file and summarize what the course covers, what students are expected to do, and where the syllabus could be clearer or stronger. Give me a short faculty-friendly readout with the main takeaways and a few practical suggestions before I share it with students.

What to notice

ChatGPT can give you a first pass. You decide what to accept, reject, or refine.

Demo: Use Voice for lecture prep

Key ideas

Voice is useful when you want to talk through an idea instead of writing a polished prompt.

You can interrupt, redirect, translate, rehearse, or ask for a shorter version.

Follow along

Open Voice Mode and say:

Hi ChatGPT. I’m an Associate Professor of Political Science at Georgetown University teaching an introductory course on American government. I’m about to deliver a lecture on the separation of powers. Give me a short, student-friendly overview of the 5 key concepts I should cover, and explain them using a simple analogy that would help first-year students understand the topic quickly.

Then try:

Thanks, that’s helpful. I have some international students attending — could you please repeat that in Mandarin?

Then redirect:

Let me interrupt you there — I’d actually like to check how this sounds in English again. Let’s wrap this up: could you give me a short 30-second introduction I can use to open my lecture?

What to notice

Voice is especially helpful for brainstorming, rehearsing explanations, translating key concepts, and turning rough thinking into language you can use in class.

Demo: Create images

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Create an illustration of a modern university campus library during finals week. The scene should include diverse college students studying together, some using laptops, some using notebooks, and one student quietly using an AI assistant on their screen. The mood should feel calm, focused, and optimistic. Use a warm color palette and illustrate it in the style of a Pixar film, with slightly whimsical details.

Demo: Draft and revise in Canvas

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Open ChatGPT, select Canvas, and paste:

Draft a letter of recommendation for Maya, a senior in my Behavioral Economics seminar at Northwestern University, who is applying to a master’s program in public policy. Use the rough notes below to write a warm, specific, and credible first draft. Keep it under one page, avoid overclaiming, and leave placeholders anywhere I should add more detail.maya, senior in my behavioral econ seminar, spring 2026. applying to master’s in public policy. really strong analytical writer. final paper was on default options and retirement savings decisions, one of the strongest in the class. made a good connection between the research and real policy design. not the loudest person in the room, but very thoughtful in discussion. asks precise questions. worked well with peers during case discussions. interested in behavioral science + public policy. i can speak to her writing, analytical ability, maturity, and readiness for grad-level work.

Then highlight a section and try:

Make this sound warmer and more personal, but still professional.

Or:

Make this more measured. I do not want to overstate what I know about the student.

Then ask:

Tighten this to fit on one page and make sure the letter focuses on graduate-level readiness, analytical writing, and public policy fit.

What to notice

Canvas helps move from rough notes to a polished draft while keeping you in control of what changes.

Demo: Use Deep Research

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Start with a research brainstorming prompt:

You are assisting a researcher at the University of Gothenburg, Department of Marine Sciences. Please brainstorm five underexplored or emerging research topics related to marine ecosystem responses to climate change, such as ocean warming, acidification, or deoxygenation. For each topic, explain why it is scientifically important, what gaps exist in the current literature, and which research methodologies, such as field studies, remote sensing, lab experiments, modeling, or meta-analysis, could be used to investigate it.

Then choose one topic and ask:

I would like to learn more about [topic]. Can you run Deep Research on this topic?

Another example:

Research the latest trends in U.S. creative writing courses. Focus on current syllabi, course themes, assignments, readings, workshop models, AI use, genre trends, and publishing pathways. Summarize key patterns, standout examples, and include links to strong sources.

What to notice

Deep Research is not only for formal researchers. It is useful anytime you need to get smart quickly on a topic and understand the source landscape.

Demo: Analyze data

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Upload a dataset, then try:

(Download this dataset)

Using the dataset provided, which includes county-level U.S. labor market indicators from 2000 to 2024, including unemployment rates, median wages, labor force participation, inflation-adjusted income, education levels, industry mix, and region: Can you analyze how labor market outcomes changed across regions before, during, and after major economic shocks, especially the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic? Please identify the strongest trends, regional differences, and unusual outliers. Create clear visualizations that would help undergraduate economics students understand the patterns, and suggest 3 discussion questions I could use in class.

What to notice

The workflow can turn a large dataset into teaching material: charts, trends, outliers, and discussion questions.

Demo: Schedule with Tasks

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Every Monday morning, create a concise weekly briefing on recent developments in economics that would be useful for an undergraduate macroeconomics course. Focus on inflation, labor markets, interest rates, GDP growth, fiscal policy, and major global economic shifts. Include 5 key updates, why each one matters for students, and 2 discussion questions I could bring into class that week.

What to notice

The value is consistency. You already know you need current examples; the scheduled task reduces the weekly friction of starting from scratch.

Demo: Think about workspace agents

Try:

Help me identify one repeatable faculty or research workflow that could become an agent. Ask me 5 questions about the process, inputs, outputs, and review steps, then suggest a simple first version.

What to notice

The best agent ideas come from real recurring work, not abstract automation.

Demo: When to use Codex

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Try this reflection prompt in ChatGPT:

What to notice

Codex is best when you want an agent to operate on real files or build repeatable technical support for a workflow.

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Resources - ChatGPT for Faculty Session

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