Transforming the Way Kids Prepare for School Exams with ChatGPT
Create Personalized Study Materials and Flash Cards from Any Learning Content in Minutes
Generative AI will become indispensable tools for the future of learning. If you are a parent, you will know the stress of supporting your children in learning for exams. Learning how to learn is challenging for adults, and even more for children.
Chat-based AI tools like ChatGPT can help you create learning support systems for your children and for yourself. It will make learning for any subject more effective and preparation of learning materials less tedious.
Here is an approach I've used in the past. At the end, you'll find a link to an app that will automate this process for you.
Tailored Flash Cards for a History Test
Scenario: Your daughter will have a history test next week. You've got 12 pages of learning material and a list of 6 learning goals. The test will require written answers to demonstrate knowledge and understanding.
Problem: Just reading the 12 pages will only marginally increase your daughter's knowledge. It won't prepare her for the typical questions in the test.
Solution: Use ChatGPT to Create flash cards for each of the learning goals based on the learning material.
We will first import the material and goals into ChatGPT, use them to produce questions and answers, export them in a specific format, and finally import them into a flashcard learning app.
Tip: If your learning material is not in English, you should translate the prompt to the language of the material for better results.
Step 1: Import the Learning Documents
Assuming the learning material is on paper, use either the ChatGPT mobile app [iOS|Android] to photograph the pages (little camera icon next to the chat line), or the regular web app to upload them as images one by one. Before uploading, use the following instruction:
I will give you images from a test on [topic, e.g. Roman history]. Whenever I give you an image, transcribe the text from the attached image.
This should give you the text for a) the learning material, b) the learning goals. Copy-paste it and store it in a separate documents for now.
Depending on the material you have, ChatGPT might not be the optimal tool for transcription. Alternatively, you can use a scanner with image-to-text recognition (OCR), or just type in the text if it's short enough. Use whatever your setup allows and is quickest.
Step 2: Condense the learning material
Depending on the amount of text, I recommend to condense the learning material in order to save ChatGPT's memory and prevent forgetting.
You can do this with the following prompt in a new ChatGPT window:
I will give you a text about [topic, e.g. Roman history], chapter by chapter. Condense the text, capturing all essential details for learning. Provide the condensed text as bullets.
This is the first chapter:[Copy-paste the first chapter from your document].
This prompt will shorten the text down to 50-30% of the original length, making it easier to work with.
Step 3: Instruct ChatGPT for the preparation of questions and answers.
The next step is the heart of the process: Creating questions. Open a new ChatGPT window and use the following prompt.
Act as a learning coach for [topic, e.g. Roman history].
I will give you Source Material and Learning Goals.
First, ask me what Learning Goal to cover.
Then ask me for the Source Material.
Based on the Source Material and Learning Goal, create [X, e.g. 5] test questions and corresponding answers. The questions and answers should formulated in appropriate language for [audience, e.g. 9 year olds] and fit onto flashcards. Use a format which allows easy copying of tab separated question-answer pairs. Use the following example to guide your output:
question 1?;answer 1
question 2?;answer 2
question 3?;answer 3
At the end, ask me for the next learning goal. Start asking me for the first learning goal.
ChatGPT will now ask you for the learning goal and start generating question and answer sets. Copy-paste those into a new document for later. Then repeat this for all learning goals. If you have a lot of learning goals, ChatGPT might forget its goal after a few rounds - in that case, re-paste the prompt again as a reminder.
Step 4: Check the answers
ChatGPT is fallible - it may misunderstand things, forget what it was supposed to do or just invent something. For this reason, you should check the output before utilizing them for learning. You can either do this by hand, or ask ChatGPT to do it in a new Chat window:
Act as a fact checker. I will give you a list of questions and answers for [topic, e.g. Roman history] test for [audience, e.g. 9-year old students]. Check if the answers are correct. If you find errors, provide corrections in the following format. Words in CAPITALS are my placeholders:
Error:
QUESTION, ANSWER
Correct:
QUESTION, ANSWER
Use this output to correct the list of questions.
Step 5. Import the questions and answers into a flashcard app.
Flashcards are a great way to learn, for languages and other topics. Flashcard apps are better for learning than paper flashcards, as the apps can optimize the intervals between repetitions for better learning results. I've made great experiences with Quizlet, but there are many other apps out there (Anki, Chegg, Brainscape, etc.)
In the case of Quizlet, create a new learning set, click on "+Import" and copy-paste the questions and answers into the data import box. Do this for all Q&A cominations that ChatGPT has produced. You can also do this in batches, i.e. start with a couple of questions and add more cards later.
Is this an efficient approach?
It depends on the complexity and amount of source material. If you have a short vocabulary test, you're probably better off just entering the words into the Flashcard app yourself - often you'll find official learning sets online.
But if you're dealing with a larger knowledge field, this approach can help you to quickly cover the whole field with many different questions. It's a scalable way to create many Q&A sets by getting the tedious work out of the way: Inventing question variants, making sure you covered all learning goals, typing and making sure the format is correct. In the end, your brain will have more capacity to support and motivate your child to learn - and that's something ChatGPT will have a hard time to do.
As always: Prompting is a way of thinking - so feel free to play around with prompt formulations and add your own flavor.
Ready to Go: The Flashcard Wizard
If you don't want to go through these steps yourself, you can use the "Flashcard Wizard" I've created as Custom GPT. It will guide you through all the necessary steps and provide you a lot of flexibility for all kinds of learning goals:
Try out Flashcard Wizard! (Custom GPT)
How do you use ChatGPT to create learning material? Share your comments below!