Perplexity AI is an AI search tool that helps students find quick answers to research topics or questions. It provides source-backed responses, making it a valuable resource for classroom projects, especially when students are exploring new topics or need help with brainstorming aspects of research questions. For instructors, the way Perplexity provides summaries and overviews stands out as an assistant to research rather than a wholesale generator of text.
Perplexity: For Getting Started with Topics
Perplexity allows users to:
- query about a broad research topic
- ask for material related to research questions
- gather summaries and quick overviews to gauge research possibilities
Features
- Provides concise answers to research questions, with citations that students can use for further exploration
- Lists general summaries and sources related to broad topic queries
- Every answer includes citations, prompting follow up with credible sources for research
How to use Perplexity
- Have students use Perplexity AI to gather information on broad topics, debates or conflicts in a discipline, current events, or aspects of culture.
- Encourage students to use the tool for brainstorming and narrowing down topics by askin questions and reviewing existing research.
- Ask students to revise research questions and develop keywords based on the returns from search queries.
Watch out for. . . .
When considering how to integrate Perplexity in the classroom, be mindful of the following concerns:
- Even though the tool relies on sources and provides citations, summaries and overviews only go so far in showing the dimensions of a project. Use Perplexity as an early stage assistant, directing students to research further after arriving at a solid topic.
- Perplexity might give the impression that is has identified the best or key sources for a topic. Students should follow up with deliberate investigations looking for additional sources in academic databases or reliable information sources.
- The summaries provide helpful guidance for a topic but do not prompt critical thinking about alternatives, biases in sources, or other research challenges. Teach students to evaluate sources as a stand-alone intellectual skill, and then ask them to do that work with the items that are provided.