A topic of my online community course is related to newcomers: is there such a thing as a stupid question? (We discuss RTFM, FAQ slaps, and let me Google that for you.)

When I respond to questions, I try to be gentle, sharing tips on how to answer such questions, and I just added a third tool to my kit.

1. In response to queries answered in the syllabus, I use the excellent screenshot and annotation utility Shottr to capture and highlight a question’s answer, while encouraging the student to use ⌘+f.

2. I’m also a fan Espanso, for which I have many response macros (e.g., a course’s Zoom link).

3. I added a macro encouraging the use of perplexity.ai. I like perplexity.ai because (1) it provides sources and (2) allows you to bookmark and share a thread.

     - triggers: [",ai"]
       label: "AI: ask AI"
       replace: |-
         This is a question well suited for AI: low-stakes, based
         on lots of public information, and easily verified. You
         should, of course, not pass off AI results as your own,
         but AI results can inform how you do your work.

In response to a question of how to format citations to websites without an author, I can respond, “ask AI.’