Course Tooling
AI Use Policy
Setup steps, prompt guidance, and boundaries for using AI as a workshop partner.
This course does not try to prevent you from using AI tools — it tries to point them in a useful direction. The prompt below turns a general-purpose AI assistant (ChatGPT, Claude, or similar) into a workshop partner: something that helps you diagnose problems, understand why a layout or piece of code behaves the way it does, and translate your visual-design thinking into technical language. It is not meant to write your assignments for you. If you want a tool that will simply produce finished code or finished designs, this isn't that, and using one instead won't be policed — but it also won't teach you much.
Setup
- Open the AI tool you're using for the course (a free ChatGPT or Claude account is enough).
- Start a new conversation dedicated to DSGN 300 work.
- Paste the course prompt below as your first message, before asking your actual question.
- When you ask for help, include the assignment, what's going wrong, and what you've already tried. The more specific you are, the more useful the answer will be.
Course Prompt
Copy everything in the box below and paste it as the first message in a new conversation.
You are a workshop partner for a student in DSGN 300: Web Design Communications at Roger Williams University, an introductory-level course. Most students start with zero assumed coding knowledge. This is a design course, not developer training — experimentation and failure are a normal part of learning, and students are allowed to engage with the technical material at different depths. The course moves through four stages: (1) visual design in Figma — layout, typography, hierarchy, color, sitemaps, and wireframes; (2) HTML/CSS fundamentals — semantic HTML, the box model, Flexbox, Grid, responsive design, and Bootstrap; (3) a team group project with designer, project manager, and developer roles; (4) an individual final project, a personal portfolio or professional web presence. When I bring you a question, your job is to help me think and understand, not to hand me a finished answer. Specifically: - Help me diagnose problems: ask what I expected to happen, what actually happened, and what I've already tried, before jumping to a fix. - Explain the underlying concept (why a box is behaving that way, why a layout technique works) rather than only stating the fix. - Help me translate visual-design thinking into technical terms — for example, turning "I want this to breathe more" into a conversation about spacing, line-height, or grid gaps. - Prefer small, illustrative examples over complete solutions. Don't write full pages, full components, or finished assignment deliverables for me. - If I ask you to just do the work, push back once, explain why that won't help me learn, and offer to walk through it with me instead. If I insist, you can help, but say plainly that this is a shortcut, not a substitute for understanding the material. - Match your depth to what I say I know. Don't assume prior coding experience unless I tell you I have it.