1
Plugins
2
Thoughts on teaching
3
Building teaching assistants
Slide narration · Grading assistants · Other tools
A shipping protocol for skills plus scripts, MCP connectors, and other files
Visit the Anthropic plugin directory: Enter /plugin as a Claude prompt or visit https://github.com/anthropics/claude-plugins-official
Thousands of people (including me) have created their own plugin marketplaces. Everything is free.
The most useful ones will be the ones you create (with Claude’s assistance) — for example, a code script that you know works and a SKILL.md that tells Claude when to use it
Out-of-class assessments
In-class assessments
Everyone can now compute whatever
Checking work becomes more important than doing work, and we can assess that
Interpretation and correct application have become more important than ever
More cases, more emphasis on communication seem in order
Might change a little
Using and writing cases
1
Involve multiple AI graders for diversity of opinions
2
Maybe a second round — share opinions from the first round
3
In Claude, main agent (one you talk to) is orchestrator, other graders are subagents
Obviously, you are responsible for grades. What the AI provides is advice.
With an enterprise agreement
“do not train” is contractual and satisfies FERPA. It is OK to upload student assignments with names attached.
Without an enterprise agreement
student assignments must be de-identified before uploading.
If you de-identify, then you can bring in other models (ChatGPT, Gemini) for greater diversity of opinion (more later).
Rice Policy (tss.rice.edu/ai-usage-guidelines)
Information considered sensitive or confidential by University Policy 808 (https://policy.rice.edu/808), including private information about individuals and protected research data, should not be used with consumer-focused or publicly available AI services.
Canvas submissions
Handwritten
1
Create a recipe
How to anonymize, how many subagents (or other models), how many rounds, what to do if there is disagreement, how to record the grades, how to provide info about the grounds for grades
2
Invoke it
You provide the grading rubric (maybe a filename) at runtime and the name of the folder containing assignments
The process of creating things is more important than any particular products
Give a person a fish and they eat for a day, teach them how to fish and …
Push instruction to pre-class
You can record yourself, or you can write narration text (with Claude’s assistance) and use AI text-to-speech
I’m on the Creator plan ($220 per year).
1
Narration text
Claude drafts. You edit.
2
Export to PDF
Need PDF for images
3
Text to Speech
Feed narration per slide to TTS and get MP3
4
PDF to png
Convert PDF to png per slide
5
Stitch
Stitch MP3’s together with pause between slide and add to pngs for video
A Python script can
GUI
Ask Claude to add the plugin marketplace github.com/kerryback/skills (only need to do that once) and then to install voiceover@kerryback.
1
Start a new conversation
2
Export a PowerPoint deck to pdf
3
Tell Claude to generate a voiceover
Everything is in text files (.py, .md) that you now own. Any behavior you want to change — tell Claude.
Less emphasis on out-of-class assignments -> more emphasis on class participation?
Personally, I need help in recording participation
Luckily, I have a friend named Claude!
A screen with names and faces, maybe 0 to 3 scoring on quality and quantity, maybe a notes field
I want it to be easy to pop up, record, save, and close
Photos are a must for me
1
Get the roster
Esther/Class Roster/View with Photo and then right-click to print to PDF
2
Hand it to Claude
Give to Claude at beginning of term to create a participation recorder that lives in your class folder
1
Open class folder
Tell Claude to record participation
2
Screen opens in browser
(inside Academic Studio)
3
Check scores, add notes, close
4
Claude adds a row
to its ongoing record of all participation in the term for that course
Tell Claude to install participation@kerryback
Create a test folder. Download Esther photos from an old class. Tell Claude to set up and launch the participation recorder.
Everything is in text files that Claude can edit. Just ask for changes.
Poll Everywhere, Mentimeter, … are great, but maybe they could be easier to use, and I don’t think I can quickly spin up a poll on the spot with them
If I have Claude open on the classroom computer, could I give Claude a question to ask and have it instantly show up on the screen?
Ask Claude!
Reverse tunnel
We need to run a web app. It may be possible to do this from the classroom computer, using a reverse tunnel. But Rice IT might block it or block connections (not sure yet)
Use a cloud host
An alternative is to run a small app on a cloud host (easy to do, even on a free plan). Claude could control it via an API
1
Install
Ask Claude to install poll@kerryback.
2
Need a volunteer
Install, then open a new conversation. Enter /poll. Share the window that pops up. Everyone else uses their phone (don’t need Claude).
3
Ask a question
After we’ve signed on with our phones, instructor enters in Claude: /poll:word-cloud what is your favorite flavor of ice cream (for example)
You can also tell Claude to prepare questions beforehand. Claude will save them in a file.
Then enter /poll <filename> to run the poll
If we flip the classroom, there will be more work in class, so it is very useful to have students share screens
It can be done with Canvas, but that seems very clunky to me
Reverse tunnel is again the easy way, though might be blocked. Run a small app if it is.
Similar to polling: QR Code, instructor’s panel allows selection of student to share, then that student’s screen appears on the panel and is projected. Reverse tunnel is in screenshare@kerryback
Teaching tools you might wish to have are a conversation away. Install mine as a starting point, then tell Claude to make them yours. Tell Claude to build anything else you want. And share!