From Ideas to Interactive Learning: Creating Classroom Activities with AI
What if you could describe a learning activity in everyday language and turn it into an interactive experience students can use in their browsers? In this practical workshop, Richard Gosselin demonstrates how instructors can use ChatGPT to create educational games, simulations, and critical-thinking exercises—without prior programming experience.
Beginning with the Monty Hall probability problem, the workshop explores examples across disciplines, including economics, biology, physics, psychology, history, philosophy, and English composition. Activities range from quick classroom exercises to branching historical scenarios and simulations of the challenges of traveling to Mars and returning safely. Throughout, the emphasis is on purposeful learning: asking students to apply concepts, examine evidence, explain their reasoning, and reconsider assumptions.
Participants learn how to write effective prompts, request useful feedback and explanations, and refine activities when the first version does not work as intended. A brief, accessible introduction to HTML, CSS, and JavaScript explains how these familiar browser technologies make interactive learning possible. The workshop also addresses testing, accessibility, sharing activities through Canvas, and realistic expectations about AI processing time, account limits, and costs.
The session distinguishes activities that can emerge from a single prompt from more ambitious projects that require dialogue, correction, and testing. Participants are encouraged to experiment alongside the demonstrations by opening ChatGPT in a separate browser window.
The goal is immediate application: participants leave with practical prompts, supporting guides, and a repeatable process for turning a teaching idea into an activity they can test and adapt for their own students.
