• Build demographic and psychographic audience profiles
• Prompt an LLM to simulate perspective-diverse feedback on personal bios, as if it was a beta reader
• Apply AI feedback to refine writing and improve impact with target audiences
• Evaluate the ethical limits of GenAI in creative self-promotion

The Assignment

Students researched their target audience demographics for a personal portfolio website, then added relevant info into a structured prompt template that Bell provided. An LLM then generated five psychographic personas; students chose three to act as beta readers of their personal bio, each returning 4 to 6 bullets of persona-filtered feedback. The LLM prompts and revised drafts were submitted for grading.

What Worked

• Live in-class demo reduced friction — students applied the tool to real text immediately
• Prompt optimization forced students to articulate precise audience demographics
• Students received novel, multiperspective feedback that they stated they wouldn’t have been able to come up with on their own
• Even AI-skeptical students found the constrained beta reader use case genuinely useful
• Revised student bios in later weeks reflected insights drawn from LLM feedback

Faculty Reflections for the Future

• Provide students with a revised beta reader prompt to incorporate more nuance around audience profiling
• Add an assignment that asks students to use GenAI to compare their own writing to the writing style of an author they consider to be an effective communicator
• Set more explicit guidelines on when GenAI is not appropriate

Student Survey Results

7 of 9 enrolled students responded. Items rated on a 1–5 Likert scale.

Student Voices

“Learning AI to enhance your own work rather than replace it is crucial.”

“Building a profile before asking for feedback was really useful. I wish it was incorporated into more courses.”

“Understanding how to write a good prompt to get what you want is the most important skill.”