Core 2 · Workflow Enhancement
Core 2 · Workflow Enhancement
Start from your own plan, then let ChatGPT Edu or Copilot Chat draft or refine
One hour on Zoom | Have your browser open next to Zoom, plus one real (non-sensitive) task | Runs weekly in the fall term and repeats in spring — dates announced by school email
Didn’t bring a task? Download a fictional demo file (nothing sensitive). The links are also posted in the Zoom chat during the session. Study description (Word) · Committee email thread (Word) · Seminar attendance data (Excel) · Three abstracts (Word)
What You’ll Leave With
This session picks up where Core 1 left off. If you can sign in to ChatGPT Edu and type a request, you are ready. By the end of this hour, you will be able to:
- Pick a weekly task where AI can save you time
- Start from your own plan, then decide: should AI draft it, or should you write it and let AI refine it?
- Get a document, email, or spreadsheet into Copilot Chat or ChatGPT Edu by pasting or uploading it
- Use AI as an editor: tighten language, catch inconsistencies, and find what’s missing
- Check the answer before you use it, and save one prompt you can reuse
Run of Show
| Time | Segment |
|---|---|
| 0:00–0:05 | Welcome back: how did your Core 1 task go? (Zoom chat) |
| 0:05–0:15 | Plan first, then draft or refine |
| 0:15–0:20 | Check before you use it |
| 0:20–0:25 | Guided start: upload a file to Copilot Chat (follow along) |
| 0:25–0:44 | Activity 1: Three everyday jobs (pick one) |
| 0:44–0:55 | Activity 2: Your own task: plan, then draft or refine |
| 0:55–1:00 | Wrap-up and one thing to try this week |
- Put Zoom and your browser side by side, or use two screens if you have them. You’ll watch the instructor’s shared screen and work in your own browser.
- React with 👍 in Zoom when you finish a step, so the instructor knows when to move on.
- Stuck? Say so in the Zoom chat. Paste the error message (never sensitive content) and we’ll help.
- Demo file links are posted in the chat.
- Outline (your plan): a few bullets in your own words: the point, who it’s for, and the key facts. You write this, not the AI.
- Draft vs. refine: in a draft, AI writes from your outline. In a refine, you write and AI suggests improvements.
- Upload (attach): adding a file to the chat with the + or paperclip button, so the AI can read it.
- Recipe: a prompt that worked, saved with blanks so you can reuse it.
- Copilot Chat: Microsoft’s AI chat, free to everyone at Drexel. It is not the same as the paid Copilot inside Word and Excel, which Drexel does not have.
Welcome Back (5 min)
At the end of Core 1 you were asked to do one weekly task with ChatGPT Edu. In the Zoom chat, type one line: what did you try, and did it help? If you didn’t get to it, type the task you’ll try today.
Plan First, Then Draft or Refine (10 min)
Start with your plan. Before you ask AI for anything, write a few bullets in your own words: the point, who it’s for, the key facts, and what “done” looks like. It takes two minutes. Without a plan, AI fills the gaps with generic or made-up content. With one, it works from your content, and you can check the result against your plan.
Then decide what AI should do with it.
| When | Examples | |
|---|---|---|
| AI drafts from your outline | Routine, low stakes, and you know the content | Meeting recaps, reminders, announcements, status updates, turning notes into a table |
| You write, AI refines | Your expertise, judgment, or voice is the point, or the stakes are high | Grant aims, manuscript sections, recommendation letters, performance feedback, policy language |
| Leave AI out | Sensitive information, or the decision itself | Student records or health information, deciding who gets hired or funded, sources you haven’t opened |
AI as your editor. For the middle row, and for anything you’ve written, these three prompts do the most good:
- Refine the language: “Make this clearer and shorter without changing the meaning. List what you changed.”
- Catch inconsistencies: “Check this for anything that doesn’t match: dates, names, numbers, or a term used two ways. List them; don’t rewrite.”
- Find what’s missing: “This is a [type of document] for [audience]. What would they expect that isn’t here? List it; don’t add it.”
Asking for a list, not a rewrite, keeps the writing yours and makes each suggestion easy to accept or ignore.
Which tool to open. Both are free to you and signed in with your Drexel account. Both let you paste text or upload a file.
| Copilot Chat | ChatGPT Edu | |
|---|---|---|
| Where | m365.cloud.microsoft/chat | The Drexel ChatGPT Edu workspace |
| Good for | Quick summaries and edits of Drexel documents and email | Longer drafting, going back and forth, and (in Core 3) saved assistants |
Drexel does not have the Microsoft 365 Copilot license, so the Copilot button inside Word, Excel, and PowerPoint is not available. You don’t need it. Upload the file to Copilot Chat or ChatGPT Edu (or paste the text), ask for what you need, and copy the answer back into your document. In Outlook, everyone has the Summarize button at the top of an email thread; see Copilot for Email.
Never paste in health information about a person, student records, Social Security numbers, or identifiable research data. When in doubt, leave it out or make the details up. Full details are on the Tools & Access page.
Check Before You Use It (5 min)
Core 1 showed that AI can sound sure and still be wrong. Once AI is part of your weekly work, that turns into three quick questions before anything leaves your hands:
- Verified? Is it right? Check it against your plan and the original. Names, dates, and numbers are where AI slips most.
- Disclosed? Should I say AI helped? For official documents, anything research-related, and anything going outside the school, be open about AI help. Follow Drexel’s AI guidance and ask your supervisor or PI if you’re unsure.
- Yours? Does it sound like me? Cut generic phrases and put your own voice back in. If it doesn’t say what you mean, it isn’t ready.
If any answer is “no,” it isn’t ready yet. For longer or higher-stakes documents, a second review in a fresh chat helps: paste the draft and its source into a new chat and ask it to list, with quotes, anything the source doesn’t support. Core 4 shows how, and spends a full hour on checking and disclosure.
Guided Start: Upload a File to Copilot Chat
Guided Start: Upload a File to Copilot Chat
Goal: Everyone can get a file into the chat and get an answer back.
Download the demo file Workshop2_Demo_StudyDescription.docx (a fictional study description). The link is also in the Zoom chat.
Open Copilot Chat. Go to m365.cloud.microsoft/chat and sign in with your Drexel account. Look for the shield icon, which means enterprise data protection is on. No shield? Check that you signed in with your Drexel account, not a personal one.
Upload the file. Click the + (or paperclip) button next to the message box and choose the file. You can also open the file and paste the text in.
Type and press Enter:
Summarize this document in 5 bullet points for a project status update.
Ask a follow-up:
Now make it 3 bullets for a busy dean.
React with 👍 in Zoom when you have an answer. Summarizing something that already exists is a safe first job: the content is already there, and you can check every bullet against it. The same steps work in ChatGPT Edu.
Activity 1: Three Everyday Jobs
Activity 1: Three Everyday Jobs
Goal: Do a common job from start to finish: get the material in, ask three things, check the answer, and copy what you need back out. Use Copilot Chat or ChatGPT Edu. Use the demo file, or your own non-sensitive material.
Job A — Summarize, rewrite, and find the gaps in a document
Upload Workshop2_Demo_StudyDescription.docx (or keep the chat from the guided start), then type:
- “Summarize this document in 5 bullet points for a project status update.”
- “Rewrite the first paragraph for a community advisory board. No jargon, 8th-grade reading level, 4 sentences.”
- “What would a funder expect in a study description that isn’t here? List the gaps; don’t rewrite.”
Check it: does the plain version keep the facts right? Are the gaps it lists real ones? Step 3 is AI as an editor: it points out what’s missing, and you decide what to add.
Job B — Sort out an email thread and reply from your outline
Upload Workshop2_Demo_EmailThread.docx (a fictional 6-message committee thread) or paste in a long thread of your own, then type:
- “Summarize this thread. List every decision made and every open question.”
- “List the action items as a table: owner, task, due date.”
- “Write a reply from my outline: (1) syllabus draft by July 20; (2) who owns the accreditation crosswalk update? Two friendly sentences.”
Check it: did the summary list a decision nobody actually made? Did the reply stick to your two points, or add something you didn’t say? A routine reply is a good place for an AI draft, as long as the points are yours.
For your own email: in Outlook, the Summarize button at the top of a thread gives a quick summary without copying anything. The Copilot for Email page shows what else works.
Job C — Make sense of a spreadsheet
Upload Workshop2_Demo_SeminarAttendance.xlsx (fictional monthly seminar attendance and catering cost for six units: EOH, Epi & Biostat, HMP, Community Health & Prevention, the Urban Health Collaborative, and the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute), then type:
- “Summarize this data. What stands out?”
- “Write an Excel formula for a new column E that says ‘Over’ when cost per attendee is more than $12. Tell me how to copy it down.”
- “Which months had the lowest attendance? Suggest one chart I could make in Excel to show the trend.”
Open the file in Excel and paste the formula into cell E2. Check it: work out one row by hand (October, EOH: $402 ÷ 29 people = about $13.86, so it should say “Over”). How many rows are flagged?
Quick Reflection
In the Zoom chat: which of the three prompts saved you the most time, and what did you have to fix?
Activity 2: Your Own Task — Plan, Then Draft or Refine
Activity 2: Your Own Task — Plan, Then Draft or Refine
Goal: Do one real task you need this week, starting from your own plan, then save the prompt so next time takes less effort.
- Plan first. In a blank document, write 3–5 bullets in your own words: the point, who it’s for, the key facts, and what “done” looks like.
- Decide: draft or refine? Use the table above.
- Routine task? Paste your outline and ask AI to draft from it (recipe 1 below).
- Your expertise or high stakes? Write it yourself, or use something you’ve already written, then paste it in and ask for a list of improvements (recipe 2 below, or the three editor prompts).
- Improve it with one or two follow-ups: “Shorter.” “Warmer tone.” “Put it in a table.”
- Do the final edit yourself, and check it against your plan. Is every point from your outline there? Did anything get added that you didn’t intend?
- Save it as a recipe. Copy the prompt into a Word document or OneNote page called “My prompts.” Replace the details with blanks in [brackets].
Recipe 1 — draft from my outline:
You are a [role]. Write a [type of document] for [audience] from my outline below. Use only what’s in the outline; mark anything you had to guess. [your bullets]
Recipe 2 — refine my writing:
Here is my draft of a [type of document] for [audience]. List anything unclear, inconsistent, or missing. Don’t rewrite it. [your draft]
No Task of Your Own?
Use Workshop2_Demo_Abstracts.docx, three short fictional abstracts. Upload it and type:
Summarize each abstract as one row of a table: population, method, key finding. Then draft a 3-sentence email to my research team on what these mean for our pedestrian safety work.
Then ask for one change: “Make the findings column use numbers, not adjectives.” Check it: compare every number in the table with the abstracts. Confidence intervals are easy for AI to get wrong.
Wrap-Up (5 min)
- Plan first. A few bullets in your own words before you ask AI for anything.
- Draft or refine? Routine and low stakes: AI drafts from your outline. Your expertise or high stakes: you write, AI refines.
- AI as an editor: tighten language, catch inconsistencies, find what’s missing. Ask for a list, not a rewrite.
- Before you use it: Verified? Disclosed? Yours?
- Save the prompts that work as recipes.
In the Zoom chat: one thing you’ll try this week.
Try this before Core 3: save two recipes, one that drafts from an outline and one that refines your writing, and use one of them again next week. Bring them; we’ll turn them into tools you can share.
Looking Ahead
Core 3: Reusable Assistants — turning the prompts that work into things you and your team use again: shared Projects in ChatGPT Edu (one workspace for a group’s files, instructions, and chats), custom GPTs, a shared prompt library, and a first look at assistants that take several steps on their own.
Give Feedback on This Workshop
Your feedback directly shapes how these workshops are revised and what gets scheduled next.
In the first question, select the session you attended.