Delivering a humanities education with ChatGPT

I have written a book, “Delivering Personal Digital Conversation-based Learning with ChatGPT: A humanities education for all.” You can access it here. (BTW, this book should be free for now. You can read the HTML version directly in your browser or get a download link emailed to you if you want either the EPUB or PDF versions.)

This book lays out an entire two-year humanities education in twenty subject areas. We designed the curriculum to be completed by an individual or by small groups of students. ChatGPT Plus created the outline, all introductory and explanatory text, guiding questions, writing assignments, and final exams without any subject matter expertise from me. My only responsibility was to come up with a clickable set of URLs for the articles and videos. I did not edit the generated text or course contents at all.

Further, ChatGPT Plus would be the tutor (in the Socratic sense…albeit quite imperfectly) for the student throughout the entire curriculum. It would help the student, answer questions, provide feedback on written essays, and evaluate (not grade) the final exam.

I wrote the book with three different goals in mind:

1. to enable interested students to get an education in the humanities with a 1-on-1 tutor without the usual high cost of that tutor,
2. to help academic leaders realize what type of personalized education can currently be delivered outside the bounds of a higher education institution for about $500 over two years, and
3. to show faculty the level of teaching and mentoring available to students for $20 per month.

Finally, this book serves as an introduction to the idea of “Personal Digital Conversation-based Learning.” With ChatGPT, we can make this ancient style of teaching relevant (and inexpensive) for all. I would love to talk with any instructional designers out there about working on a publication on this.

Actually, I’d love to chat with anyone about this book. I have found the learning experience to be extraordinary. If one were able to get a few friends to go through it together, one could end up with a pretty good education by the end.