About the Session
This session will explore the design and use of CITE GPT, a custom AI (Artificial Intelligence) chatbot created as a project in the University of British Columbia (UBC) Master of Educational Technology ETEC 511 class, to support students and educators with academic writing, citation formatting, and ethical information use in a reflexive way. The aim of this session is to demystify the design process, showing our successes and failures, which may lead to participants being better informed or trying this skill themselves.
Developed using OpenAI’s custom GPT framework and grounded in the principles of reflexivity, digital literacy, and educational usability, CITE GPT serves as a model for how AI can be thoughtfully embedded into academic practice.
Participants will be led through the coding process of creating a chatbot, engage in hands-on experimentation with the chatbot, be encouraged to make a chatbot of their own, and explore how the system-level prompt and knowledge base can shape user experience, all while reflecting on how AI can support, not shortcut, learning. This is done by emphasizing critical thinking, ethical engagement with technology, and student agency.
Together, we’ll reflect on how to use AI tools responsibly in our teaching and help students develop agency, not dependency. By the end, participants will leave with a concrete sense of how to evaluate, adapt, or build their own tools to support academic success.