Course: Using Artificial Intelligence (AI 101) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Quinn
Module: Week 6 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objective covered: Objective 2 — Apply effective prompting techniques — including simulations and reusable templates — to accomplish real-world tasks and evaluate AI output critically.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 6 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Week 6 Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates assume a Tuesday/Thursday pattern with Week 6 meeting Tue Oct 14 and Thu Oct 16, and end-of-week work due Sunday Oct 18, 11:59 p.m.

(A) Module 6 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 6: Rehearse Before You Go Live

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module. Bring your laptop to class.

You have spent the past three weeks building a complete prompting toolkit: having conversations and using emphasis (Week 3), structured prompts and meta-prompting (Week 4), few-shot examples and control (Week 5). This week you add two techniques that make everything you have learned compound.

Technique 1 — Simulations. You can instruct an AI to adopt a role — a difficult customer, a skeptical hiring manager, a historical economist, a supportive tutor — so you can practice or explore a situation before it happens. This is Skill 7, and it is genuinely powerful for rehearsing hard conversations, stress-testing plans, and learning new material on your own schedule.

Technique 2 — Your reusable prompt library. Every time you write a prompt that works well, you have two choices: let it disappear or save it with placeholder variables so you can apply it to the next similar task in seconds. A good library compounds — ten prompts become thirty uses; thirty prompts become your personal AI toolkit.

The week's critical rule: when an AI simulates a historical figure, the words it generates are generated text, not verified history. A simulated Lincoln quote is not a Lincoln quote. This is not a minor caveat — it is the central skill of the week, and it will appear on the quiz.

The week's big question

"How do you use AI to rehearse reality — and how do you keep a simulation from becoming misinformation?"

By Sunday you will have designed and run a simulation, caught at least one thing the AI fabricated or overstated, built a reusable prompt template, and formed a view on whether AI simulations are educational or a misinformation risk.

By the end of this week, you can…

• [ ] Identify the four simulation types (difficult-customer, pre-mortem, decision role-play, adaptive tutor) and match each to the right use case.
• [ ] Write a complete simulation prompt with role, goal, and exit condition — specific enough to be useful.
• [ ] Explain why AI-generated historical-figure quotes are not verified history and must never be cited as real.
• [ ] Build a reusable prompt template with placeholder variables for a recurring task in your own life.
• [ ] Catch a fabrication or error in a simulation's output and describe how to fix or guard against it.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Quick reminder: you are required to use AI on the tutorial, discussion, assignment, practice, and Studio — that is the point. AI is not allowed on the quiz, which checks that you understand. And every week you catch the AI's mistakes — this week in the Studio.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. Reach out before the deadline if something comes up.

How to succeed this week

• Specify the role, not just the job title. "Act as a job interviewer" is too vague. "Act as a hiring manager at a mid-size healthcare nonprofit conducting a first-round behavioral interview for a community outreach coordinator" is a simulation prompt.
• Always set an exit condition. Before you start a simulation, decide how it ends: "after five questions," "when I've listed three risks," "when I ask for feedback." Without one, simulations ramble.
• Treat generated historical dialogue as fiction. AI can place historically informed dialogue in a historical figure's mouth — but none of those words are verified. Read them as a thinking aid, never as a quotable source.
• Save every prompt that works. The five minutes you spend turning a one-off prompt into a reusable template pays dividends every future use.
• The Studio is about judgment, not raw output. The rubric rewards you for catching the simulation's mistakes, not for getting a polished AI response.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 6

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Oct 14, 2026. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Oct 14."

Subject: Week 6 — let's run a simulation (and catch it lying)

Hi everyone,

Quick scenario before we start: you have a tough conversation coming up — a performance review you're dreading, a negotiation with a difficult client, a confrontation with a roommate who keeps doing the thing. You could just walk in and hope for the best. Or you could rehearse it first. What if you could rehearse it with an AI playing the other person — as many times as you want, from as many angles as you want, at midnight if necessary?

That is Skill 7. This week we learn to do it well — and more importantly, we learn where simulations break down.

This week — Simulations & Reusable Prompts — two things to know going in:

1. AI simulations are powerful rehearsal tools, but they are not predictions. A simulated job interview going well does not mean the real one will. The simulation is a practice environment, not a crystal ball.
2. AI-generated dialogue from historical figures is not history. If you ask the AI to simulate Abraham Lincoln's response to climate change, the words it generates are fictional — generated from patterns, not pulled from a transcript. This is one of the places AI does real harm when misused, so we address it head-on this week.

The course's AI policy (backwards from most classes): AI is required on the tutorials, discussions, assignments, practice, and the weekly Studio. AI is not allowed on the quiz, which checks that you understand. Every week you deliberately catch the AI's mistakes — this week, you catch what the simulation fabricates or overstates.

Three things not to miss this week:
1. Studio 6 — "Run a Simulation" is the most hands-on Studio yet. You design a simulation, run it, and then critically evaluate it — catching at least one fabrication or overreach. Start early; due Sun Oct 18.
2. Quiz 6 covers the four simulation types, the reusable-prompt template structure, and the critical generated-vs-verified rule. Use the practice exercises first.
3. Discussion 6 asks a genuinely arguable question: are AI simulations of historical figures educational or a misinformation risk? Your answer — and your classmates' answers — will probably surprise you.

One practical tip: when you run your Studio simulation, ask the AI to break character at the end and give you feedback on your performance. That exit condition turns a role-play into a coaching session.

See you Tuesday.

Prof. Quinn