The Power of Prompt Engineering: How to Take Control of AI-Powered Authoring With 360Learning

If you work in L&D, you’re familiar with the promise of AI: free up your time and make course creation a breeze. Just think of how much more you can accomplish if you’re able to generate the first draft of a course in just one click. Or how refreshing it is to know that you’ll never again be faced with “blank page syndrome”. 

But chances are, you’ve also got this tiny nagging feeling…are you really confident in the quality of AI-generated courses? Won’t you lose a little too much control if you delegate content creation to a machine? 

We get it—and we have just the thing to put your mind at ease. When it comes to retaining control with AI, the magic word is prompts.

The way you instruct (prompt) AI is absolutely key to the quality of the course it will produce, and the level of control you’ll maintain. It’s a skill that any L&D professional will need to master to stay current. The golden rule? A well-crafted prompt leads to an effective, engaging course. So, what’s the secret to writing the perfect prompt?

Below, we’ll share some simple best practices, and explore how platforms like 360Learning make it even easier to streamline the entire process.

Short on time? Check out the following video for a recap of 360Learning's prompt engineering capabilities:

Why prompt engineering is the foundation of (good) AI-generated content 

You know you can’t sacrifice quality for speed, no matter how busy you are. AI is a powerful tool for fast-tracking content creation, but you need to be confident that it won't put your reputation on the line.

This is where prompt engineering comes in. Exactly how you instruct your AI—if and how you include guidelines on branding, compliance, or instructional design best practices, for instance—means the difference between a course you could have created yourself from scratch, or subpar work that doesn’t pass the smell test. 

(In fact, ‘prompt engineering’ has become a skill in its own right—one that we’ve got a certification for, in case you need to brush up.)

Let’s take a closer look at some factors you should consider when writing your AI prompts.

Prompting engineering for company culture

Organizations work hard to create a sense of belonging and purpose through their company culture—it’s important for employee engagement, retention, and business prosperity. 

So it’s crucial that every course your L&D team creates embodies this culture. In other words, your training should sound and look like your company. That’s why including instructions in your prompt about tone of voice, text formatting, or language preferences (US or British spelling, for instance), is a must. That way, AI can apply the same rules across the board.

And, even better—if your platform is equipped with prompt management functionalities (like 360Learning is) you can configure these guidelines once in your settings. Then, presto—all subsequent courses your AI creates will follow these rules. You save countless hours, all while maintaining quality control.

But alignment with company culture isn’t the only thing you need to consider. For learners to even finish a course, it needs to be engaging.

Prompt engineering for pedagogical best practices

It’s hard enough getting learners to engage with even the most well-designed courses. So when content is anything but top-notch, it doesn’t stand a chance.

A well-crafted prompt should also include pedagogical best practices (like maximum course duration, course structure, and the like). This is especially true if you’ve decentralized content creation to more junior or non-L&D subject-matter experts, who may have limited instructional design experience. 

And, you guessed it—pedagogical guidelines can also be baked into your AI settings as preconfigured templates in 360Learning, meaning you can set it and forget it. 

Lastly, there are legal considerations that virtually all organizations need to take into account when designing training material. How can you ensure anyone creating content on your watch follows these rules? 

Prompt engineering for compliance

With compliance training in particular, L&D professionals’ reputation is truly on the line. And when it comes to data security, confidentiality, and labor, environmental, or competition regulation (to name a few examples), the devil is indeed in the details.

Poring over courses line by line, hoping to catch even the smallest liability, is not how you want to spend your time. It’s much more efficient to rely on AI to comb through every last word.

Once again, you can include this in your prompt each and every time—or you can rely on built-in templates that you can apply in one click. 

With a smart approach to prompt management, you can have the best of both worlds: speedy course creation and total control over its quality.

Controlled by humans, assisted by machines—never the other way around

To get the most out of AI, you need a human in the loop. AI is there to support you in the heavy lifting, empowering you to drive more impact— but you always have the final say.

This vision has driven our entire product roadmap since we started experimenting and building with AI. This is no doubt why, in April 2024, almost 20% of the courses on the 360Learning platform were created with AI—more than 3,100 courses produced by 600 forward-thinking companies. 

Why are so many of our clients excited about our AI functionalities? Here’s what Marie Bati, Learning & Development Manager at Europcar, has to say: 

"Setting up custom prompts, converting a document into a course, generating quizzes, translating courses automatically...360Learning's AI features help me save time and generate ideas!"

Are you ready to see similar results? You can see our AI in action with a free demo, or read more on our website.