Project-based learning scope management
When students are working on a longer, they can be struggling to scope their research or development questions appropriately. Some choose topics too broad, others too narrow, and the teacher or facilitator cannot meet with each team multiple times to help them refine their focus while also managing other course responsibilities. Here are two examples of strategies that can be used by the facilitator to support the students and ensure that they all start on the same page.
The scope refinement pathway
Flow: START → Tutor Mode (Conversation Starters) → Tutor Mode (Deep Dive) → Coach Mode (Study Planner) → Assessor Mode (Critical Reasoning)
What it achieves: This strategy helps students systematically test whether their research or design question is appropriately scoped by first exploring the breadth of their topic, then examining depth, creating a realistic timeline, and finally critically evaluating feasibility. Students emerge with a well-calibrated research question that matches semester constraints.
Example of prompts:
Step 1: Tutor mode - Conversation starters
Prompt: "I want to research factors affecting patient medication adherence"
Action: Hit the "Conversation Starters" button
What happens: The AI generates exploratory questions like "Which patient populations interest you?", "What types of medications would you focus on?", "Are you interested in psychological, social, or systemic factors?", "What healthcare settings are you considering?"
Step 2: Tutor mode - Deep Dive
Prompt: "I'm interested in medication adherence among elderly patients with chronic conditions"
Action: Hit the "Deep Dive" button
What happens: The AI provides detailed information on polypharmacy challenges, cognitive factors affecting adherence, caregiver roles, socioeconomic barriers, existing intervention strategies, and current research gaps in geriatric medication management
Step 3: Coach mode - Study Planner
Prompt: "Help me create a 12-week research timeline for investigating the relationship between polypharmacy complexity and medication adherence rates in elderly diabetes patients living independently"
Action: Use "Study Planner" function
What happens: The AI creates a week-by-week plan showing ethics approval needs, literature review, participant recruitment challenges, data collection methods, analysis phases—revealing if the scope is too ambitious or manageable
Step 4: Assessor mode - Critical Reasoning
Action: Hit "Critical Reasoning" button
What happens: The AI asks: "Given typical semester constraints, ethics approval timelines, and student researcher access to patient populations, evaluate whether recruiting and following elderly patients with diabetes is feasible. What would be a more focused alternative that could use existing data or different methodology?"
Student responds with rationale: The AI provides feedback on their scope assessment and practical feasibility
The goldilocks test (Not too broad or too narrow but just right)
Flow: START → Tutor Mode (Magic Question x3) → Simulator Mode (Study Group) → Coach Mode (Study Notes) → Tutor Mode (Summarise)
What it achieves: This strategy uses peer perspectives and iterative questioning to help students "feel" whether their scope is appropriate. The study group simulation exposes them to how others might approach the same topic with different scopes, while the magic question pushes them to consider angles they hadn't thought of. This builds intuition about appropriate project boundaries.
Example of prompts:
Step 1: Tutor mode - Magic Question (3 iterations)
Initial prompt: "My research question is: How can teacher feedback improve student learning outcomes?"
Action: Hit "Magic Question" button
AI suggests: "What specific type of feedback would you focus on (written, oral, formative, summative, peer feedback)?"
Student refines: "I'll focus on formative written feedback"
Action: Hit "Magic Question" again
AI suggests: "Which subject area, grade level, or student population interests you most?"
Student refines: "I'll look at secondary mathematics students"
Action: Hit "Magic Question" third time
AI suggests: "What specific learning outcomes would make your research measurable and manageable in one semester (problem-solving skills, procedural fluency, mathematical reasoning)?"
Step 2: Simulator mode - Study Group
Prompt: "Create a study group to discuss research questions about formative written feedback in secondary mathematics"
Action: Use "Study Group" function
What happens: Five virtual personas engage:
One suggests an extremely narrow focus (one specific type of algebra problem, single classroom)
One proposes a broad comparative study (multiple schools, all mathematics topics, various feedback types)
One recommends focusing on what's feasible to measure with classroom access
One discusses the challenges of isolating feedback effects from other teaching variables
One shares a "just right" example: examining how feedback on mathematical reasoning in geometry affects student revision practices over 8 weeks
Student benefit: Exposure to multiple scoping perspectives helps calibrate their own judgment
Step 3: Coach mode - Study Notes
Prompt: [Student enters their refined research question and preliminary approach]
"Research Question: How does feedback focused on mathematical reasoning (versus procedural accuracy) affect Year 10 students' revision strategies and performance on geometry problem-solving tasks?
Approach: Literature review on feedback types in mathematics education, design two feedback protocols, implement over 8 weeks with two classes, compare revision patterns and assessment scores, analyze student perception surveys"
Action: Use "Study Notes" function
What happens: The AI evaluates logical flow, identifies gaps (ethics approval for student data, teacher cooperation requirements, sample size considerations), and checks if scope elements connect appropriately for a student-led project
Step 4: Tutor mode - Summarise
Action: Hit "Summarise" button
What happens: The AI provides a summary of the scoping journey, confirms the current research question scope, highlights key considerations (teacher as researcher role, maintaining teaching quality while collecting data, managing workload), and suggests 2-3 key resources on feedback research or action research methodology to investigate next.
Implementation tips for instructors
Week 2-3 of semester: Introduce these pathways to students as they begin project planning
Require submission: Ask students to copy-paste their AI conversation summaries showing they completed one pathway
Brief check-in: Use the AI-generated summaries to quickly identify teams still struggling with scope
Efficiency gain: Most students self-correct through these pathways, freeing you to focus intensive support on the few who still need help