Create Custom ChatGPT Curriculums

[lament island]

Hello! I've been trying out a system for learning programming with ChatGPT, and I think the general structure could be used to create a customized learning experience for any topic that ChatGPT might be well-suited to teach. It's been an effective and engaging experience for me thus far, so I want to share it with anyone else who might be interested.

It involves three main phases:

2. Curriculum Expansion
3. Lessons```
I use three different sets of custom instructions for each of these three phases.

Additionally, I use an external notes app in order to save the three sets of custom instructions separately, and to keep track of my own progress through the curriculum. All of the work takes place in ChatGPT, but the external notes app is currently a necessary and helpful component for tying it all together.

The messages below outline the three different phases, and how I work from one to another.

All criticism, feedback, and questions are welcome!

1. General Curriculum Planning

This step is designed to initiate the process, and you'll only do this step once, unlike steps 2 and 3. Here you tell ChatGPT what subject you want to learn, a little bit about what you already know about the subject (if anything), and what your ultimate goals are.

Template - User Custom Instruction
Replace [bracketed] text
Edit according to your preferences:
My name is [name]. I’m working with you to develop a general curriculum plan to work with you, ChatGPT, to master [skills]. [I already know…] [My goal is to…]
Example User CI:
My name is Solbus. I’m working with you to develop a general curriculum plan to work with you, ChatGPT, to master coding skills. I know a tiny bit of JavaScript and Python. My goal is to be so good at coding that I become a programming god. In other words, I don’t want the curriculum to teach me only JavaScript & Python–I want it to be more like “zero to hero” for coding, programming, machine learning, AI, etc. skills in general.
Template - System Custom Instruction
Edit according to your preferences:

1. Start by identifying my current knowledge. Please provide me with knowledge assessments to complete such that you test my knowledge of basic concepts. Keep track of what I know, and what I do not know, and consider these as you formulate our overall curriculum.
2. Considering my educational goals, use the knowledge you gain from assessing my knowledge to develop a long-term curriculum plan tailored to me.
3. The curriculum needs a comprehensive set of major sections, and each major section needs a comprehensive set of subsections so that I know exactly what I need to learn in each section to master any given topic.```

Once you have your custom instructions set and enabled, start a new chat and just say something like:
Hello! Can we please start working on my curriculum plan?
Now, go back and forth until you've effectively shown ChatGPT your current level of knowledge, and you've got your long-term curriculum formatted how you'd like (I do 1, 1.1, 1.1.1, 1.1.2, 1.2, 1.2.1, etc.).

Save this curriculum in your notes app! You'll use it in step 2. Also, save your custom instructions from this step, just in case you need to return to this step in the future.

2. Curriculum Expansion

This step is designed to expand on the basic curriculum created in step 1, section-by-section. You'll only expand one section of your curriculum at a time right before you start it, so you'll learn each expanded section before you expand the next section. This will allow you to fine-tune your curriculum as you continue to learn, instead of locking you into something too rigid before you've gotten your feet wet.

Template - User Custom Instruction
Replace [bracketed] text
Edit according to your preferences:
My name is [name]. I’m working with you to expand on a curriculum plan with you, ChatGPT. The curriculum is [general description of the topic & scope of your curriculum], and you, ChatGPT, are my expert instructor. I have a general curriculum outline already, and I want to work with you to flesh it out, section-by-section. Please keep in mind as we work on this that [my goal is…].
Example User CI:
My name is Solbus. I’m working with you to expand on a curriculum plan with you, ChatGPT. The curriculum is a “zero to hero” education plan for me, Solbus, to learn everything about programming, coding, machine learning, AI, etc., and you, ChatGPT, are my expert instructor. I have a general curriculum outline already, and I want to work with you to flesh it out, section-by-section. Please keep in mind as we work on this that my goal is to be so good at programming, etc. by the end of this that I become a programming god.
Template - System Custom Instruction
Edit according to your preferences:

1. Consider my previous curriculum as well as my upcoming curriculum when formulating the expanded curriculum. You are only to expand on the upcoming curriculum, not on the previous curriculum, nor on anything beyond the upcoming curriculum.
2. When expanding on the curriculum, please keep in mind that the expanded curriculum will be what I use to track my own progress, and also what I give to you, ChatGPT, in various new chats so that you can pick back up on teaching me the curriculum at any time, and know roughly what I’ve learned already and what I should learn next.
3. To increase our mutual ability to track my progress, please be very specific with your curriculum expansion, and include qualitative language (“Not Started,” “In Progress,” “Completed”) to indicate where on the spectrum of mastery I am for each section of the curriculum. All will begin in “Not Started” status.
4. Ensure that each major section is expanded to include an Objective, and that each subsection is expanded to include both an Objective and Resources. For Objective sections, include a descriptive learning objective. For Resources sections, include specific educational resources to be employed in a lesson, and default to ChatGPT-led explanations, examples, exercises, walkthroughs, etc. Suggest educational resources other than ChatGPT only if particularly relevant or helpful.```
Once you have your custom instructions set and enabled, start a new chat by pasting your previous expanded curriculum section (if you’ve already completed one) and your upcoming unexpanded curriculum section.

**Example - First Expansion:**

[None]

Upcoming:
[1. Fundamentals of Programming
1.1. Introduction to Programming Concepts
1.1.1. Variables and Data Types
1.1.2. Control Structures (Loops, Conditionals)
1.1.3. Functions and Scope
1.2. Data Structures
1.2.1. Arrays and Lists
1.2.2. Dictionaries and Objects
1.2.3. Stacks and Queues]```
**Example - All Subsequent Expansions:**

[1. Fundamentals of Programming (Status: Complete)
Objective: To understand the basic building blocks of programming.
1.1. Introduction to Programming Concepts (Status: Complete)
Objective: To learn the fundamental concepts that are common to almost all programming languages.
1.1.1. Variables and Data Types (Status: Complete)
Objective: To understand how to store and manipulate data in a program.
Resources:
- ChatGPT-led explanation and examples
- ChatGPT-provided exercises to demonstrate understanding
1.1.2. Control Structures (Loops, Conditionals) (Status: Complete)
Objective: To learn how to control the flow of a program.
Resources:
- ChatGPT-guided walkthroughs on loops and conditionals
- ChatGPT-designed coding challenges
1.1.3. Functions and Scope (Status: Complete)
Objective: To understand how to modularize code and understand the scope of variables.
Resources:
- ChatGPT discussion and tutorials on functions and scope
- ChatGPT-issued practice problems
1.2. Data Structures (Status: Complete)
Objective: To learn about the data structures commonly used in programming.
1.2.1. Arrays and Lists (Status: Complete)
Objective: To understand how to store and manipulate a list of items.
Resources:
- ChatGPT explanation and examples on arrays and lists
- ChatGPT-issued quizzes and exercises
1.2.2. Dictionaries and Objects (Status: Complete)
Objective: To learn how to use key-value pairs for more complex data storage.
Resources:
- ChatGPT-led tutorials on dictionaries and objects
- ChatGPT-designed coding challenges
1.2.3. Stacks and Queues (Status: Complete)
Objective: To understand the basics of "Last-In-First-Out" and "First-In-First-Out" data structures.
Resources:
- ChatGPT-led interactive sessions on stacks and queues
- ChatGPT-provided coding exercises]

[continued below - don't include this part]```

Upcoming:
[2. Web Development
2.1. Front-end Development
2.1.1. HTML, CSS, and JavaScript basics
2.1.2. Frameworks like React or Angular
2.2. Back-end Development
2.2.1. Server-side scripting (Node.js, Python Flask)
2.2.2. Databases (SQL, NoSQL)]```
**Save this expanded curriculum section in your notes app as well!** You'll use it in step 3. Also, be sure to save your custom instructions from this step as well, as you'll re-use them every time you need to expand another section.

3. Lessons

This step is where you actually get lessons and knowledge assessments from ChatGPT, and hopefully this is where you spend most of your time once you’re done with the first two steps. You basically just need to update your custom instructions one more time, start a new chat, paste your expanded curriculum section, and start learning from there.

I’ve found that I can get more than one lesson in before it starts to seem like ChatGPT is losing the context of the initial message. When this happens, I go to my notes app, update sections from “Not Started” to “In Progress” or “Completed” as needed, then copy/paste this updated expanded curriculum section into a new chat to more or less pick back up where I left off, with a fresh context window.

Template - User Custom Instruction
Replace [bracketed] text
Edit according to your preferences:
My name is [name]. My goal is to work with you to learn [specific skills] from you, ChatGPT. [My goal is…]
Example User CI:
My name is Solbus. My goal is to work with you to learn programming, technology, data, machine learning, AI, etc. skills from you, ChatGPT. My goal is to become so adept at these skills that I become a programming god.

Template - System Custom Instruction
Edit according to your preferences:

1. Consider the whole curriculum to see what I've already learned and what I'm set to work on next.
2. Begin a detailed lesson tailored to me based on the topics in the curriculum and my progress on them.
3. After you teach me the major concepts of the lesson, offer me some kind of knowledge assessment to ensure that I've mastered all of the lesson concepts. If I make mistakes during the course of the lesson, please ensure that the topic(s) about which I made the mistake(s) are included on the assessment in some capacity.
4. Please be rigorous in your instruction and please have extremely high expectations for me while you teach me.```
Again, once you're all done with this, just:

1. Go to a new chat
2. Copy/paste your current expanded curriculum section - don't need to say anything else before or after, just send it
3. Learn
4. When it seems like your chat might be losing context of your first message, go to your notes app, update your statuses as needed, return to step 1

[lament island]

Create Custom ChatGPT Curriculums

[autumn moat]

[sleek willow]

Ok @lament island It’s been two months now. Is this still working for you and have you made any changes to your system? Great job!

[valid jetty]

Thank you 👍

[lament island]

Hi there, I'm so sorry I forgot to get back to you on your question here!

I made a good chunk of beginner progress using this system. After covering the basics, though, I decided to pivot and start working on a specific project instead of general lessons, but I used some principles from this structure.

I started the project by building a basic Spotify web playback program, and I used Spotify's own "getting started" guide to do this. What I did was, I copy/pasted their entire guide and made some edits in a TXT doc to turn it into a knowledge file for a custom GPT.

I removed references for humans that I thought might confuse the GPT, and the biggest part I added was the "Not Started," "In Progress," and "Complete" progress indicators that I took from this system--I added these to the headers of each major section of the guide. This allowed the GPT to reference the doc easily and see where I was in the process, even in completely new instances. After we hit a major checkpoint, I'd edit my offline copy of the knowledge doc, update my progress, and then and replace the GPT's knowledge doc with this newer version of the doc.

By the end, we got through the whole guide, and the GPT successfully helped me make a Spotify web app to which I could transfer playback, pause/play, skip tracks, etc. And now I can start adding other features--I plan to copy/paste other Spotify dev docs to make sure I'm integrating new features correctly.

Overall, custom GPTs have pretty much replaced my custom instruction usage, so I plan either to adapt this post, or make a new one eventually, once I narrow in on a more consistent workflow!

Thanks for your question, fun to look back on this, even though it wasn't that long ago 😄 Things are progressing so quickly!!

[exotic crow]

Can you link me to your new gpt for curriculum? I’d like to give it a try please

[gritty torrent]

@exotic crow I'm not OP but here is one I use https://chat.openai.com/g/g-44viXW2rI-curriculum-crafter-walter-brightman

[umbral gale]

could this be done with gpt-3.5?