I’m blown away by the speed at which AI is advancing and by what AI can do. There seems to be a new AI tool out every minute! While I think it’s all very exciting, and I am eager to explore, learn, and try new AI tools, I recently realized one massively important thing: I don’t really understand AI. Do you find yourself to be in the same boat? I mean, I enjoy using AI tools daily. But how does AI work? What are its limitations? Am I using it in the best ways possible? If you’re asking yourself similar questions, here are a few free AI courses that might interest you. Let’s take a look.
1. DeepLearning AI’s Generative AI for Everyone
This free AI course, led by Andrew Ng, an internationally recognized AI leader, is a three-hour introductory course on generative AI. According to the website, you will:
- Learn what generative AI is
- Discover what it can and cannot do
- Explore how to use it in your own world/business
- Debunk misinformation about generative AI and think through how to use this technology best
- Learn best practices for learning and explore whether or not generative AI would be useful
The course is broken into three weeks. Each week covers one hour of material through two lessons composed of several videos. Each lesson ends with a quiz and additional reading is provided each week. The course slides are downloadable, even if you don’t enroll in the course, but you must submit your email to download them.
2. Google’s Introduction to Generative AI
Access Google’s free AI course in English, Spanish, French, Indonesian, Italian, or Portuguese! You can take the course at your own pace, or you can join a public classroom if you prefer a live instructor. In this introductory AI course, Google lists four main objectives:
- Define Generative AI
- Explain How Generative AI Works
- Describe Generative AI Model Types
- Describe Generative AI Applications
Considered to be a microlearning course, it consists of a 22-minute video, required reading, and ends with a quiz. Plus, you earn a badge upon completion! By the end, you’ll be able to explain what Generative AI is and how to use it.
3. DeepLearning AI’s ChatGPT Prompt Engineering for Developers
Want to dive deeper into the world of prompting? Then this is the free AI course for you! This is a short, one-hour class designed for beginner to advanced users. Led by Isa Fulford and Andrew Ng, DeepLearning.AI states that in this course you will:
- Learn prompt engineering best practices for application development
- Discover new ways to use LLMs, including how to build your own custom chatbot
- Gain hands-on practice writing and iterating on prompts yourself using the OpenAI API
If you’re interested in these objectives, you’ll want to hurry and sign up to get the course for free! It’s only free for a limited time. Here is a video with Isa and Andrew explaining this AI course:
4. The Rundown.AI’s Advanced ChatGPT Guide
Ok, so this isn’t like the other free AI courses. It’s more like fifty little courses in one. This comprehensive guide by Rundown.AI offers a plethora of tutorials on everything from ChatGPT job interview prep to analyzing data with ChatGPT and so much more. It is truly a wealth of knowledge. It also offers the following four databases. I highly recommend checking this one out!
- Five Printable ChatGPT Cheat Sheets
- The Top 100+ AI Tools
- 1000+ Best ChatGPT Prompts
- 1000+ ChatGPT Plugins
5. Harvard’s CS50’s Introduction to AI with Python
This free AI course is self-paced and offered online through December 31, 2024. But you will need to click Learn More to see when there is a session available. This introductory seven-week course is a bit longer than the others, requiring around 10-30 hours per week, depending on how quickly you work through it. It is recommended that you have prior experience with Python if you sign up. According to the site, students finish the course with “experience in libraries for machine learning as well as knowledge of artificial intelligence principles that enable them to design intelligent systems of their own.” Topics covered include:
- graph search algorithms
- adversarial search
- knowledge representation
- logical inference
- probability theory
- Bayesian networks
- Markov models
- constraint satisfaction
- machine learning
- reinforcement learning
- neural networks
- natural language processing
In a world where AI is the fastest-growing field in computer science, it’s important that we as educators understand it and stay up-to-date. By boosting our own knowledge and skills related to AI, we can better prepare the future generation to be creators, guardians, and responsible users of AI. Do any of these free AI courses pique your interest? Which one will you be trying out?
Want to explore AI alongside other educators in similar roles? Check out the sessions being offered at TCEA’s 2024 Convention & Exposition! Sign up before January 13 to get $50 off a full conference badge.
