Introducing this Spark
Because this online MBA course covers a wide range of topics, the AI Spark learning activity will be used to dig deeper into specific areas that are not covered as deeply in class.
Learning Outcome
After completing this AI Spark activity, students will be able to understand a wider range of relevant topics more deeply.
Featured AI Tools
Featured Skills
Implementation Guide for Instructors
The information below is provided to help instructors implement this AI Spark learning activity in other courses. It includes technical instructions for setting up the activity, a strategy for assessing student learning, and additional resources to help with AI tool configuration.
The instructions used to create this Gem are written to be usable for any document or corpus. Just gather the necessary information and insert that information and the instructions into a Google Gem. The professor attaches their specific subject literature—such as clinical case studies, historical archives, legal frameworks, or engineering papers—in place of the service dominant logic text used in the current Gem. This framework provides an automated, standardized tutor that guides students through initial learning, tests critical thinking, and outputs a final comprehension score across any academic subject.
Corpus & Gem Configuration: Use Google Scholar to identify a wide range of relevant literature and Google Notebook to consolidate that literature into a unified knowledge document. In Gemini, create a new Gem, attach the consolidated knowledge document, and insert the multi-phase prompt rules. The system prompt is located in the Resources tab.
Canvas Setup: Create an assignment (offered as an extra-credit learning opportunity) in Canvas containing the shared Gem link, instructions for navigating the three phases, and a file-upload requirement for the final chat transcript PDF.
The assignment will be used as extra credit for the first go-around. Student completion and depth of understanding are evaluated via the submitted PDF transcript output from the Gem, which records their direct questions, responses to the five Socratic probing questions, and final quantitative mastery score.
Link to the Shared Gem: Literature Exploration Tool
Key Behavioral Constraints: Strict Grounding: Use only information found within the linked references. Do not include external facts, general knowledge, or information not present in the uploaded texts. Assume that the user does not have access to the exact same information and so only ask about theories, not specific examples, that would only be found in any one particular text. You are asking about understanding concepts, not asking whether students can remember specific examples.
Act as the “Literature Exploration Tool.” Your primary function is to facilitate a structured learning experience based on literature provided in the reference.
Purpose and Goals:
- To assist students in understanding uploaded literature through a phased interaction model.
- To verify student comprehension through the Socratic method.
- To provide a final quantitative assessment of the student's mastery of the subject matter.
Behaviors and Rules:
Strict Grounding: Use only information found within the linked references. Do not include external facts, general knowledge, or information not present in the uploaded texts. Assume that the user does not have access to the exact same information and so only ask about theories not specific examples that would only be found in any one particular text. You are supposed to be asking about the understanding of concepts not asking whether I can remember specific examples.
Output Directive: No References or Links
• Do not include web links, URLs, hyperlinked text, or citation bracket references (e.g., [1], [Source]) in any response.
• Never include a "References," "Sources," or "Further Reading" section at the end of your answers.
• State facts and details directly in prose or structured lists without linking back to external websites.
Copy-Paste & Echo Prevention Rule:
• Detect Echoed Answers: Before evaluating a student's answer in Phase 2, compare their input against the text you provided in Phase 1 or prior turns.
• Reject Copy-Pasted Text: If a student pastes verbatim or near-verbatim text from previous outputs, do NOT count it as a valid answer or advance the sequence.
• Enforce Paraphrasing & Synthesis: Respond with a polite prompt requiring them to explain the concept in their own words (e.g., "You've quoted the text directly. To demonstrate your understanding, please explain this concept in your own words without using the exact phrasing from above.").
• Count as Low-Effort Response: Repeatedly copying and pasting after being prompted to paraphrase should count toward the 2-consecutive low-effort responses that trigger a restart.
Interaction Phases:
Phase 1 (Direct Assistance): For the first three questions asked by the student, provide clear, direct, and informative responses based on the source material.
Phase 2 (Socratic Probing & Struggling Student Check): Starting with the student's fourth prompt, you must no longer provide direct answers. Instead, use the Socratic method to assess the student's depth of knowledge on the information you presented.
• Ask sequential questions (one at a time with no two-part questions) designed to probe their understanding without revealing the answers. Target a sequence of 3 successful probing questions.
o Framing Questions: Frame questions so that a simple copy-paste of a definition is insufficient. Ask students to apply, compare, contrast, or extrapolate concepts (e.g., "Why would X happen if Y were changed?" or "How would you explain the difference between X and Y to a non-expert?").
o Require Reasoning: Ensure questions ask why or how rather than what. Answers must contain the student's own analytical reasoning to be marked correct.
• Track Student Responses: If the student gives incorrect, confused, off-topic, or low-effort answers to 2 consecutive Socratic questions:
• Pause the probing sequence immediately.
• Offer a warm restart prompt: "It looks like these concepts might be a bit tricky right now. Would you like to restart Phase 1 to ask a few more direct questions, or try restarting the quiz?"
• If the student agrees to restart, reset Phase 1's question and reset the Socratic question count to 0.
Phase 3 (Final Scoring): After the student successfully completes all 3 Socratic questions without needing a restart, calculate a final grade. This grade MUST be presented exclusively as a percentage-based score between 0 (worst) and 100 (best). Present this score clearly to the user as a representation of their grasp of the subject matter.
Overall Tone:
• Maintain an academic, professional, and encouraging tone.
• Be clear and concise in both explanations and probing questions.
Instructions for Students
In addition to helping students understand the purpose of this AI-based learning activity, the information below provides step-by-step instructions for completing the assignment and includes a micro training on how to use the featured AI tool(s).
Welcome! As the Literature Exploration Tool, I will guide you through a structured, multi-phase review of Service-Dominant (S-D) logic and marketing theory.
What is the Literature Exploration Tool? This tool is an interactive pedagogical assistant designed to help you master academic concepts through guided dialogue, conceptual probing, and qualitative assessment.
How it Works:
- Phased Structure: We move through initial direct assistance before transitioning to active mastery checks.
- Strict Grounding: All concepts and questions are derived directly from foundational literature on S-D logic and economic theory.
- Conceptual Focus: The tool tests your comprehension of theoretical principles, frameworks, and mechanisms rather than requiring recall of specific case studies or isolated text examples.
Phase 1. Direct Assistance (Up to three questions): You may ask up to three direct questions about S-D logic, foundational premises, resources, ecosystems, or related conceptual frameworks. You will receive detailed explanatory responses to help build your base understanding. Use this phase to clear up foundational theoretical questions before entering the probing sequence.
Phase 2. Socratic Probing (Five sequential questions): After your third direct prompt, direct explanations pause and the Socratic probing sequence begins. You will answer five consecutive conceptual questions one at a time to test your understanding and grasp of core mechanisms rather than textbook memorization.
Phase 3. Final Quantitative Assessment: Once you successfully navigate the five probing questions, the tool provides a final percentage score (0-100%) representing your mastery of the subject matter.
To begin Phase 1, ask your first question about Service-Dominant logic.
What to Submit
- Chat Transcript: Upon completion of your discussion, submit the PDF output saved from the Gem. Remember to save and upload your full conversation transcript as a PDF to Canvas for extra credit.
What is a Gem? A Gem is a version of Google's Gemini AI chat that your instructor has preloaded with instructions. There’s nothing to set up — open the link and reply to its questions like a text conversation. Read more about Google Gems.
- Sign in. Open the Gem link and sign in with your Google account. If you see "You don't have access," you're likely signed in with the wrong account — sign out and try again.
- Send a message. Click the box at the bottom ("Ask Gemini"), type Begin Session, and press Enter. Replies appear above the box; wait for the reply to finish before responding.
- Reply in the same chat. The Gem remembers the whole conversation. Don't click "New chat", which will start the session over.
- Lost the page? Go to gemini.google.com → open the sidebar (☰) → Recent → click the conversation to continue where you left off.
- Copy the output. Hover over the top-right corner of the gray text box and click the Copy icon, then paste with Ctrl + V (Win) / Cmd + V (Mac).
- Good to know. Type text, rather than use voice (Gems don't work with Gemini Live). Don't enter passwords or sensitive personal information. Keep in mind that the Gem may ask you to expand a short answer.
- Access via FSU. Always access the tool via your FSU institutional account; personal accounts will default to an unconfigured model that produces generic, overly harsh, or ungrounded responses.
What is Gemini Notebook? Gemini Notebook (formerly NotebookLM) is an AI study tool from Google that works only from the files you give it. Upload your course materials, then ask questions or generate study aids; every answer is drawn from your sources, with citations. Read more about Gemini Notebook.
- Sign in. Go to notebook.google.com and sign in with your FSU Google account.
- Create a notebook. Click “Create new notebook”, then upload your first source. Click the notebook title at the top to rename it.
- Add sources. In the left Sources panel, click + Add. You can upload PDFs, Google Docs/Slides, paste a website link, or add a YouTube video. Uploaded sources appear in the list with a checkbox – leave them checked so Notebook uses them.
- Know the three panels. Left = Sources (your files). Middle = Chat (ask questions; answers include numbered citations you can click to see the original passage). Right = Studio (one-click study aids).
- Generate a study aid. In Studio, click a tile such as Flashcards, Quiz, Mind Map, Infographic, Report, Slide Deck, or Audio Overview. Generation takes a few seconds to a few minutes; the finished item appears in the Studio list.
- How to play an Audio Overview:
- Locate the Notebook guide: Look at the top-right corner of your screen for the Notebook guide panel. If it isn't visible, click the Notebook guide button in the upper right to open it.
- Find the Audio Overview tile: Inside the Notebook guide panel, locate the section labeled Audio Overview. If one has already been generated, you will see an audio player card displaying a title and playback duration.
- Press Play: Click the circular Play button on the audio card.
- Use playback controls: Once playing, a player bar appears where you can pause, skip backward or forward 15 seconds, adjust volume, or change the playback speed (e.g., 1.25x or 1.5x). You can also click the three-dot menu on the card to download the audio file to your device.
- Customize or revise. Before generating, click the pencil icon on a tile to describe what you want (e.g., "focus on chapters 3-4, harder questions"). To revise something already made, type the change in Chat or regenerate with a new prompt.
- Good to know. Upload only course materials and reliable sources – Notebook is only as accurate as what you give it. Your notebooks save automatically and stay in your account. Take screenshots with Win + Shift + S (Windows) or Cmd + Shift + 4 (Mac).