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Reading

Each week you will work through a topic as a conversation with an AI assistant, then check what the assistant told you against the sources linked on that week's page. The conversation is the reading; the sources are how you check it. See Course Materials in the Syllabus for why the course works this way and what you need in order to get started.

Each week

Plan on about an hour: 30–45 minutes for the conversation and the sources, and 15–30 minutes to write the report.

  1. Open the page for the week and read the objectives.
  2. Start a new chat and paste the standard prompt below.
  3. Paste the week's block, which you will find on that week's page.
  4. Work through the conversation from start to finish.
  5. Open the sources and check something the assistant told you.
  6. Fill out the reading report and upload it to Canvas.

Do the checking yourself. Don't paste the source links into the chat, and don't ask the assistant whether it was right. The point is to compare what the assistant told you against something it never saw.

The standard prompt

Paste this first. It is the same every week, so you may want to save it somewhere you can get to quickly.

I am a student in an undergraduate database systems course.
Help me work through this week's reading.

<<< I will paste this week's topic and objectives next. >>>

How to work with me:
- Cover one idea at a time. Keep each message short.
- End every message with a question for me, and wait for my
  answer before you continue.
- Use small concrete examples: tables with a handful of rows,
  queries I can read at a glance.
- When I get something wrong, say so plainly and show me why.
- When my answer is right but incomplete, say what is missing
  before moving on.
- If you are not confident about a detail, say so.
- Every few exchanges, ask whether I have questions of my own,
  and answer them fully before returning to the objectives.

Do not:
- Summarize everything at once or lecture me.
- Solve problems from my homework. Your own examples are fine;
  explain the idea and let me write the code.
- Open a reply by praising my answer.
- Tell me I am right when I am not.
- Flatter me when I catch a mistake. Just fix it.

Start by asking what I already know about this topic, then work
through the objectives in order. Cover every objective in depth,
even if I answer quickly, and stop when they are done.

Then paste the week's block, which supplies the topic, the objectives, and one line describing how the assistant should teach that particular week. That one line is the only part that changes. Three versions of the line appear over the semester, depending on whether the week is about understanding an idea, practicing a skill, or learning your way around documentation.

Reading reports

Download the reading report template and use a fresh copy each week. Upload the completed file to the corresponding Canvas assignment.

Reports are graded as a whole, not question by question. A report that shows you actually had the conversation and actually opened a source will receive full credit. The second question, which asks what you checked against a source, is the one that matters most.

Ask follow-up questions

The point of a conversation is that you control the pace. If an explanation goes past you, say so and ask for a smaller example. If something contradicts what we did in class, ask about the discrepancy, and bring it up in class.