International Journal of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering (IJECBE)
Vol. 4 No. 1 (2026)

Development of Prompting Techniques to Trigger Proactive Dialogues in Large Language Models

Muhammad Firdaus Syawaludin Lubis (Universitas Indonesia)
Cecilia Inez Reva Manurung Manurung (Universitas Indonesia)



Article Info

Publish Date
30 Mar 2026

Abstract

The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) challenges the integrity of traditional educational assessments, positioning the oral examination as a robust method for verifying authentic understanding. However, its large-scale implementation is hindered by significant logistical challenges, including time, resources, and evaluation consistency. This research addresses a foundational limitation for using Large Language Models (LLMs) in automated oral exams: their inherent passivity and failure to handle ambiguity, which are critical for effective assessment. To address this critical gap, we established an experimental framework and created two specialized datasets to systematically evaluate prompting techniques designed to elicit proactivity. Using the GPT-4o model, our comparative analysis reveals that the optimal strategy is highly task-dependent: for ambiguity detection (CNP), a Proactive Chain-of-Thought (PCoT) zero-shot approach achieved a near-perfect 0.99 F1-Score; for generating clarification questions (CQG), the PCoT few-shot variant was most effective; and in target-guided scenarios, a simpler proactive prompt proved superior. These findings provide foundational insights for developing automated oral examiners capable of nuanced, human-like dialogue, thereby addressing the scalability issues of traditional assessment methods.

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Journal Info

Abbrev

go

Publisher

Subject

Computer Science & IT Electrical & Electronics Engineering Materials Science & Nanotechnology Medicine & Pharmacology

Description

The International Journal of Electrical, Computer, and Biomedical Engineering (IJECBE) is an international journal that is the bridge for publishing research results in electrical, computer, and biomedical engineering. The journal is published bi-annually by the Electrical Engineering Department, ...