Hello friends,
Greetings from Barcelona.☀️
Thanks for reading The Quest, your weekly round-up of tips and insights to help you design and lead exceptional online sessions that your group members will love.❤️
In today’s edition, I’m sharing the results of a recent experiment where I used Chat GPT to design a virtual session.
Spoiler: I made one big mistake – but learned an even bigger lesson.
Let’s jump right in!
Do I use AI to help design my online courses, workshops, or webinars?
Nope. I don’t. Not for designing live sessions, anyway.
Now, don’t get me wrong—I’d love a sparring partner that throws out brilliant ideas I’ve never thought of.
But when I first tried using Chat GPT for creative input? The results were… let’s just say, less than stellar.
I do use it for other things, but when it came to session design, my first attempts were bad enough that I swore it off for a while.
I figured it just wasn’t ready for something as creative and nuanced as designing a live session.
But I decided to give it another try.
I thought, “Surely it’s evolved over the past few months, right? And I’ve gotten better at crafting prompts.” So, I decided to give it another shot.
I entered the details for an upcoming session and waited, hopeful.
It still didn’t hit the mark.
⚠️ The questions for breakouts were confusing.
⚠️ The session started with the facilitator talking for 10 minutes straight. (Yawn.)
⚠️ There was no warm-up before the first 15-minute breakout.
⚠️ The group discussion was a report-back from the breakouts. Boring!
⚠️ The closing? “Facilitator remarks to re-iterate the theme.” 🙄
It was a generic, run-of-the-mill session design.
Zero engagement from the start. No connecting early and often. And endless missed opportunities for participants to share insights.
But I realized I was making a big mistake.
That’s when it hit me: I was asking Chat GPT to create the first draft.
But here’s the thing—the first draft is where your creative ideas belong. It’s where the magic happens. You can’t outsource that.
So, I decided to flip it around.
I wrote my own first draft and then asked Chat GPT to improve it using the framework I use for designing engaging live sessions.
Here’s what happened:
✔️ It helped me tighten up the prompt questions for the breakouts. That was helpful.
✔️ It suggested running a poll at both the start and end of the session to gauge shifts in thinking. OK, interesting idea.
⚠️ But it still struggled with structuring the flow of engagement and interaction.
⚠️ And it didn’t quite get the hang of picking the right digital tools at the right times.
I guess that makes sense.
Chat GPT is a language model, not a facilitator (though it does a pretty good impression of being human sometimes).
The takeaway?
I might start running my drafts through Chat GPT to see if it can add something new.
But the heart of the design—the creativity, the engagement? That’s where we, as humans, do our best work.
What about you?
How do you use AI in your session design process (if you do)?
Just hit reply to this message and let me know. (I respond to every message.)
This Week’s Facilitator Finds 💪
In this section, you’ll find curated events, resources, tips, and tools worth checking out.
1/ 💻 Nathy Ravez’s Home Studio Set Up. Check out this LinkedIn post from “La Workshoppeuse” where Nathy shares her travelling studio set up. Perfect for facilitators on the move.
2/ 🌟How to Help Students Learn to Listen to Each Other’s Stories. A post from Greater Good Magazine with some great tips for fostering active listening, especially in classroom settings.
💌 Thanks for reading The Quest
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Creatively yours,
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