The SHIFT Blog

10 Instructions That Get Better Courses From Your AI Assistant

September 15, 2026 ·Diana Cohen
Three example instructions you can give your AI course assistant

Practical guide

Your AI assistant can create very good courses. But there's a secret: the quality of what you get depends on what you ask for.

A vague request produces a generic course. A clear request produces a course that feels custom-made — because it is.

Here are 10 instructions that work. Copy them, adapt them to your topic, and use them today.

“Make me a sales course” generic course “Course for new salespeople: answering the price objection” custom course Same assistant. Different ask. Different result.

The golden rule: ask clearly, receive clearly.

The 10 instructions

1. "This course is for [new salespeople]. They work in [stores] and have little time."

Why it works: the assistant writes differently for a manager than for a technician. Tell it who will take the course and what their day looks like. Everything else improves.

2. "By the end, the person should be able to [answer the price objection with confidence]."

Why it works: a goal is an action, not a topic. "Learn about sales" says nothing. "Be able to do X" gives the assistant a clear target — and gives you a way to know if the course worked.

3. "Keep it simple. Short sentences. Common words. No technical language."

Why it works: easy-to-read courses get finished more often. Ask for it upfront and the assistant keeps that style through the whole course.

4. "Split the course into short lessons, a few minutes each."

Why it works: people learn between meetings and tasks. Short lessons fit real life. Long ones get abandoned halfway.

5. "Add practice to every lesson: a case or a decision, not just theory."

Why it works: people learn by doing. The assistant is very good at inventing realistic situations — but only if you ask.

6. "Use examples from [my industry: banking, pharma, retail...]."

Why it works: one example from the learner's world is worth three generic ones. The person sees themselves in the scene, and the content becomes theirs.

7. "Quiz questions should be real situations, not definitions."

Why it works: "What would you do if the customer says X?" measures skill. "What does X mean?" measures memory. You want skill.

8. "Also make me a short review version, for people who already took the course."

Why it works: what we learn fades without review. A five-minute recap, a few weeks later, protects your investment. Asking costs one sentence.

9. "Here is my material [manual, slides, guide]. Use it as the base."

Why it works: your company already has knowledge written down. Give it to the assistant, and the course comes out with your reality inside — not internet generalities.

10. "What's missing from this course? Give me three concrete improvements."

Why it works: the assistant can also critique. Asking for improvements at the end is the cheapest review in the world — and it almost always finds something good.

How to use this list

You don't need all ten at once. Start like this:

Today: take a course you want to create and use instructions 1, 2 and 3. Those three alone completely change the result.

This week: add practice (5) and industry examples (6). The course goes from "correct" to "good."

Always: close with number 10. Asking for improvements takes ten seconds and raises the quality every time.

One final tip: save your best asks. When an instruction gives you a great result, copy it into a team document. In a month you'll have your own recipe book — and anyone on the team will create courses at the same level.

Try them with a real assistant

Meteora is SHIFT's AI assistant for course creation: describe what you need and it builds with you. Creating eLearning since 1996, with 6+ million people trained across 43+ countries.

Meet Meteora
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