Prompt handbook

The Story of the EducationAssistant

How AI helped design the Leadership in GenAI Transformation Masterclass - a partnership that brought order to complexity through spreadsheets, documents, templates, and structured prompts.

The Foundation: CourseOutline

Every journey needs a map. For us, that map was a Google Sheet called CourseOutline. This sheet contains all the moving pieces of the masterclass: titles, status updates, document IDs, and links.

EducationAssistant always starts here. It connects to the CourseOutline so it knows:

  • What content already exists
  • What needs to be created
  • Where each file is stored
  • The current status of every item

This way, nothing falls through the cracks.

The Toolkit: Special Commands

To keep things simple, I taught EducationAssistant a set of tools. Each tool is like a shortcut, designed for one clear purpose.

[xContext]

Shows the big picture of the CourseOutline: the columns, metadata, and how everything is structured.

[xOutline]

Creates a clean overview of all content items: Title, Type, Status, and links to their documents. This is our "table of contents."

[xStart]

Kicks off a new piece of content. It creates a fresh Google Doc, marks it as In Progress, and asks: Is this a Topic or an Exercise? Then it pushes me to define the learning goal.

[xWork]

Opens an existing file so I can edit, refine, or continue building on it.

[xCheck]

Reviews content against quality criteria and templates. It checks: does a Topic have clear objectives, examples, and key takeaways? Does an Exercise include instructions, scenarios, and reflection points?

More Powerful Tools

[xUpdate]

Lets me rewrite or polish a file, then updates its status (In Progress, Ready for Review, In Review, Done).

[xList]

Shows all files inside the Course Content folder in Google Drive.

[xVisual]

Creates a humorous cartoon-style visual to make abstract concepts more engaging.

[xEssence]

Reads a file and distills it into a single-sentence essence. That summary can then be stored back into the CourseOutline.

[xStructure]

Works with MS Word files. It can split a large document into presentation-ready parts, while keeping formatting intact.

Each of these tools is practical. They handle the heavy lifting in the background, leaving me free to think about content and learners.

The Guardrails: Templates and Quality Checks

Creativity needs structure. To avoid messy or inconsistent content, EducationAssistant relies on templates and criteria:

Paired with these are quality criteria documents. They act as checklists to ensure every piece of content is both useful and usable.

The Flow: From Idea to Masterclass

Start with [xOutline]

See what's missing in the course structure

Use [xStart]

Create a new item and define whether it's a Topic or Exercise

Build Content

Develop the content directly in Google Docs

Run [xCheck]

Ensure it meets the quality criteria

Polish with [xUpdate]

Mark it Ready for Review

Summarize with [xEssence]

Keep the big picture clear

Over time, these steps filled the CourseOutline with a structured, polished masterclass.

Why This Matters

For many of you stepping into AI-powered tools for the first time, this might feel like overkill. But here's the thing: managing a course (or any complex project) is about clarity, flow, and quality. AI can't replace judgment, but it can enforce consistency, track progress, and keep you honest with yourself.

The assistant wasn't just a "bot"—it was a partner. It kept asking the right questions and nudged me back on track when things got messy.

AI isn't here to replace your work. It's here to make the scaffolding strong enough so your real creativity can thrive.