If you work in technology, you know how important it is to have powerful AI tools at your fingertips. The rise of advanced language models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT has opened up a world of possibilities for automating tasks, answering questions, writing code, and augmenting human intelligence.
But won’t AI make your work less… human? Finding the right balance allows for AI to make your work more efficient, while still containing the knowledge and skills that made you successful without it. Using AI to automate repetitive tasks, answer basic questions, write code, and help brainstorm are several ways to incorporate artificial intelligence into your original work.
In November 2023, OpenAI announced the launch of GPTs, custom versions of ChatGPT that can be created by users to do specific tasks:
We’re rolling out custom versions of ChatGPT that you can create for a specific purpose—called GPTs. GPTs are a new way for anyone to create a tailored version of ChatGPT to be more helpful in their daily life, at specific tasks, at work, or at home—and then share that creation with others. For example, GPTs can help you learn the rules to any board game, help teach your kids math, or design stickers.
OpenAI’s Blog: https://openai.com/blog/introducing-gpts
Since that update, more than 3 million custom versions of ChatGPT have been created by users. In January 2024, OpenAI launched the GPT Store, where users can try GPTs created by other users and companies. These GPTs are easy to build with no coding required, and can be extremely useful to users. It should be noted that currently, GPTs are available only for ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise users, but OpenAI “plan[s] to offer GPTs to more users soon.“
We’ve tried many GPTs and come up with our list of the top 6 GPTs that are useful for IT instructors. Try these, and try creating your own GPTs to use in your classroom!
Comptia A+ Exam Study Coach is just one of many certification exam study guides found on ChatGPT. Each of these GPTs is designed to ask questions and help users study the material specific to this exam. Whether you’re teaching an A+, AWS, or Cisco CCNA course, there is a GPT that can help you come up with practice questions and prepare your students for the certification exam.
This GPT specializes in crafting “tailored, engaging content with an emphasis on quality, relevance, and adherence to precise word counts.” While we didn’t find Write For Me’s writing to be very precise to the given word count, it surpasses the basic ChatGPT model in content creation, offering a valuable tool for anyone looking to produce high-quality written material.
We tested 10 GPTs specifically for writing emails, and found Email King to give the most natural answers. We provided it with an email we received and outlined a desired response, and it wrote a courteous, concise reply. We see this GPT helping educators save time by streamlining email communication effectively.
This innovative GPT develops comprehensive course materials, including descriptions, outlines, learning outcomes, and key lesson points for any course. All it needs is a topic and an audience to create all of these, though the more information you can input, the more accurate these will be. We recommend inputting a course description or basic outline created by you and seeing what it can give you based on those materials.
AutoExpert (Chat) excels in answering any question from the perspective of an industry expert. It then gives options for other points of view that might have a different take on the inquiry, giving the user an in-depth answer to any question.
Consensus is an AI search engine that searches academic papers for insights. The Consensus GPT searches the Consensus database to deliver concise insights and citations from scholarly sources to help in your research.
Although the ethics of AI-assisted grading remain a topic of discussion, the Rubric Driven Grading Assistant introduces an intriguing concept. By uploading a grading rubric and student assignments, this GPT evaluates the work against the criteria, providing objective feedback. While its assessments require instructor review before final grading, it presents a potential for making the evaluation process more objective and efficient in educational settings.
While these are the GPTs that we found best fit as aids for an IT instructor, they’re definitely not the only options. The integration of GPTs into education opens up a possibility for AI to enhance teaching and learning in any classroom. These tools above offer a handful of possibilities, but it’s up to each instructor to determine which tools are best suited to be used in their classroom.
Embracing AI means preparing students for the real world that they’ll be entering after graduation and keeping up to date with an evolving landscape. Let’s work together with technology to empower students to reach new heights, and use a little AI assistance to make learning an adventure worth embarking on.
