Best practices for creating a custom chatbot for your classroom

In other articles in our blog, we have already mentioned the different ways you can create a custom chatbot with Schoolhub. You can find the step by step to build your custom chatbot, and how to create your own chatbot with the AI assistant.

In this article, we want to go a step further and help you create a custom chatbot the best way.

Best practices for creating a chatbot

Creating a chatbot for your classroom might sound complex, but it’s actually one of the easiest and most powerful ways to use AI in your classroom, to help you save time, engage students, and make your lessons more interactive and tailored to your needs.

With just a few clear instructions, you can create a custom chatbot that supports your teaching style, helps your students practice, or assists you in preparing lessons.

Here are some best practices to get you started.

1. Start with a clear goal

Before building your chatbot, think about what problem that chatbot will solve or what task it will support.

Ask yourself:

• Do I want the chatbot to help me prepare lessons or help students practice?
• Should it explain concepts, quiz students, or generate ideas?
• Who will use it, me or my students?

Giving your chatbot a specific goal helps it stay relevant and gives you better results.

Example: “A chatbot that helps me create reading comprehension questions for 10-year-olds.”

2. Define the chatbot’s role and personality

Giving your chatbot a clear role makes a huge difference in how it responds.

Instead of a generic assistant, make it specific:

• “You are a teaching assistant who supports teachers in planning lessons and creating engaging classroom activities.”
• “You are an English teacher specialized in creative writing.”
• “You are a supportive science tutor helping students understand biology in simple terms.”
• “You are an exam coach helping students review for their final tests.”

You can even adjust the tone (friendly, formal, motivational…) depending on your audience.

This makes the conversation more natural and aligned with your classroom tone.

3. Add useful context

The more context you give, the better your chatbot performs.

Include details like:

• Student age or level: “Students are 13 years old with mixed abilities.”
• Learning goals: “They need to improve their ability to summarize texts.”
• Teaching style or constraints: “Use short explanations and simple examples.”

These details help the chatbot generate accurate and relevant results that truly fit your class.

4. Upload supporting documents

A powerful features of Schoolhub is that you can upload your own documents to your chatbot.

This lets you personalize it with your actual materials.

You can upload:

• Textbooks or excerpts from books used in class.
• Worksheets or exercises.
• Lesson plans or curriculum guidelines.
• Reading texts or exam materials.

💡 Tip: Use PDF, DOCX files for best results.

Once uploaded, your chatbot can refer directly to these documents saving you time searching or rewriting content.

5. Test and refine

Try a few questions before sharing the chatbot with your students.

Notice how it answers and adjust the prompt or uploaded material if needed.

If it gives too broad answers, add more detail to your instructions.

If it feels too formal, tell it to use a more conversational tone.

Small changes can make a big difference!

Remember you can create and edit your chatbot both manually, creating your own prompt, or, if you prefer, by chatting with the AI assistant, just telling it what you need, and it will guide you through the process with questions.

6. Ideas for chatbots teachers can create

Here are some examples you can easily build:

• Lesson Plan Creator: Generates full lesson plans from your objectives and class level.
• Worksheet Assistant: Creates reading or grammar exercises based on uploaded texts.
• Feedback Helper: Suggests personalized feedback for student assignments.
• Study Buddy: Helps students practice concepts or review for exams.
• Creative Writing Coach: Gives writing prompts and helps students improve their stories.
• Debate Coach: Trains students to argue from different perspectives.

Each chatbot can be reused, refined, and shared with other teachers—making collaboration easier across the school.

7. Keep it ethical and safe

Always remind students that the chatbot is a learning support, not a replacement for their own thinking.

Encourage them to question, reflect, and use it responsibly.

And remember: on Schoolhub, your data and chat history stay secure—everything runs locally and follows strict EU-GDPR standards.

Start with a clear goal, describe what you need, upload your materials, and let the chatbot support your work.

Once you’ve tried it, you’ll wonder how you ever planned lessons without it.