Sparking Creative Course Design with Custom GPTs
Effective course design requires sustained creative energy. This energy can be hard to find in the middle or end of a semester or when assigned a new course to teach. While ChatGPT or other LLMs can help with brainstorming, a custom GPT can be trained on existing course documents. This training helps a custom GPT “remember” that initial context in each new conversation. This, in turn, saves time and energy and can help maintain focus in course or assignment (re)design. In this presentation, I will briefly demonstrate the setup of a custom GPT and explore a use case for redesigning (parts of) a zombie-themed writing intensive course.
Amanda (Mandy) Taylor, California State University, San Bernardino, US
Mandy Taylor is currently an instructional designer at CSU San Bernardino. She holds an MA in English Composition and Rhetoric, an MS in Instructional Design and Technology, and will receive her Ed.D in Educational Technology Spring 2026 from Boise State University. Her research interests are varied. She has published on Supernatural, The Walking Dead, and the Apollo space program. She has also co-edited essay collections on Supernatural and Good Omens.
