---
title: "Modalities and reasoning modes"
course: "AI103 · Prompting that works"
unit: "Building and choosing LLM systems"
lesson: 26 of 35
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/prompting-that-works/modalities-and-reasoning-modes
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Modalities and reasoning modes

Lesson 26 of 35 in **Prompting that works** (AI103), unit "Building and choosing LLM systems". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Identify the input and output modalities (kinds of data such as text, image, audio, or video) that models support and match them to tasks, including multimodal pipelines that chain models across modalities (for example speech-to-text, then an LLM, then text-to-speech).
- Understand reasoning modes, where a model generates extra reasoning tokens before answering, and run the same multi-step question with reasoning on and off to judge from reasoning-token counts and latency whether the accuracy gain is worth the added cost.

## Teaching notes
Supply a script that calls a free-tier model with a reasoning setting (for example a Gemini model with a thinking budget), and have the learner paste back the answers, usage, and timing.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 26 complete: Modalities and reasoning modes."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "Choosing commercial or open-weight models" (lesson 27 of 35), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/prompting-that-works/choosing-commercial-or-open-weight-models.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: Challenge: build a working LLM script
Next lesson: Choosing commercial or open-weight models