Ms Karina Yuen, EdTech Development Specialist at AICET, conducted a prompt engineering workshop for 31 academic and professional staff at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT) on 26 November 2025. The session introduced participants to AICET’s pedagogy-driven approach to designing AI-powered learning experiences, highlighting the central principle that the value of AI in education lies not in technological novelty, but in the pedagogical purpose it serves.
The workshop began with a conceptual overview of large language models, outlining their conversational fluency and ability to sustain dialogue, while emphasising that such ease of interaction does not, on its own, ensure pedagogical effectiveness. Participants saw how educational chatbots must be intentionally designed to introduce meaningful challenges, support productive struggle, and simulate authentic human interactions in ways that align with the intended learning goals.
Attendees were introduced to AICET’s structured prompt-writing framework, which emphasises defining the AI’s role, shaping its character and interaction style, and establishing clear rules and guardrails for how classroom conversations should unfold. This approach ensures that AI systems do not merely assist learners, but instead provide the appropriate level of friction, guidance, and challenge required to achieve specific educational outcomes.
A key component of the workshop was the hands-on segment, where participants interacted with different versions of the same chatbot built using different prompting strategies. This allowed attendees to experience firsthand how precise prompt engineering influences the quality, tone, and effectiveness of AI responses, and how different models perform across various educational scenarios. This practical segment underscored how effective prompt design can enable educators to translate tacit teaching expertise into explicit, structured instructions that can reliably guide AI behavior and support desired educational outcomes.
The workshop concluded with a discussion on model selection, chat evaluation strategies, and how educators can iteratively refine AI behavior to support different discipline-specific needs, from interpersonal role-play to knowledge-intensive tutoring. This closing discussion reinforced the importance of intentionality and rigor in educational AI design.
AICET’s collaboration with SIT for this workshop reflects a shared commitment towards equipping educators with the practical tools and conceptual frameworks needed to integrate AI meaningfully into Singapore’s higher education landscape.
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