A Complete Practical Guide
Understand it. Use it. Build with it.
A free, open-access course by Dr. Anjana Yatawara

14 Modules 13 Hands-On Labs BRIEFS + SMARTS Frameworks 200+ Prompts Research-Backed Free & Open

Start the Self-Assessment Jump to Module 1

The Modules
Part I: Foundations — What AI Is and How It Works
Module 1
What Is Artificial Intelligence?
The real story — not the hype. What AI can do, what it can’t, and why it confidently generates fake legal citations.
DefinitionsHistoryCapabilitiesLimitations
Module 2
How Machine Learning Works
No math required. How machines learn from data — and why that’s both powerful and dangerous.
ML BasicsNeural NetworksTrainingBias
Module 3
LLMs and Generative AI
How ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini actually work. Tokens, attention, and why they write poetry but can’t count.
LLMsTransformersHallucinationsModels

Part II: Communication — How to Talk to AI
Module 4
The Art and Science of Prompting
Two original frameworks you won’t find anywhere else. BRIEFS designs your first message. SMARTS guides the conversation.
BRIEFSSMARTSPrompt Engineering10-Exercise Ladder

Part III: Application — Hands-On with Real Tools
Module 5
AI for Research and Analysis
Search, synthesize, verify. How to use AI for research without falling into the citation trap.
ResearchPerplexityNotebookLMVerification
Module 6
AI for Everyday Productivity
Same person, same job, 90 minutes saved. The “Two Tuesdays” framework backed by BCG/Harvard data.
WritingPlanningBrand SprintVibe Coding
Module 7
Multimodal AI
Images, video, audio, and more. Create beyond text — and learn to recognize AI-generated content.
ImagesVideoAudioDeepfakes
Module 8
AI Agents and Automation
Build Custom GPTs, automate workflows, deploy agents. From the professor who deleted his slides.
Custom GPTsAgentsAutomationELEVATE

Part IV: Depth — Infrastructure, Ethics, Your Field
Module 9
AI Infrastructure
Cloud, local, RAG, fine-tuning, open source. How a $0.002 model matched GPT-4 at 92% lower cost.
Cloud vs LocalRAGOpen SourceSLM-RAG
Module 10
Ethics, Bias, and Responsible Use
COMPAS, Chouldechova’s impossibility theorem, NIST AI RMF, and the EU AI Act deadline.
BiasFairnessNIST RMFEU AI Act
Module 11
AI Across Disciplines
7 fields, real applications. Education, healthcare, business, agriculture, government, creative, and law.
EducationHealthcareBusinessAgriculture

Part V: Future — Career, Trends, Capstone
Module 12
AI and Your Career
The 28% salary premium is real — and it compounds to 43% with two skills. Portfolio, certs, interview scripts.
PortfolioCertificationsInterview Prep28% Premium
Module 13
The Future of AI
Five trends, one framework. Every prediction about AI is wrong — here’s how to tell hype from substance.
AgentsRegulationSmall ModelsEU AI Act
Module 14
Capstone Project
Four options, one AAC&U-aligned rubric. Build something that travels with you to your next interview.
Integration PlanCustom GPTWorkshopResearch

Ready to start?

Take the Self-Assessment to discover your AI literacy baseline, then dive into Module 1.

Take the Self-Assessment Browse the Prompt Library