Me, Myself and AI
AI Fundamentals and Capabilities Upleveling
Why this course matters
For some people AI feels like a shortcut. Others feel it is simply wrong. And plenty already feel like it is a tool everyone else understands. The real challenge is not memorizing a list of commands.
It is learning how to think, question, and adapt alongside a system that can sound confident, helpful, and human even when it is wrong.
This course starts with the psychology of that relationship, then moves into practical skills: asking better questions, researching unfamiliar subjects, applying existing knowledge in new ways, identifying repetitive work, and creating a personal AI assistant and workflow that support real career or business goals.
AI works best as a learning and working partner, not a replacement for judgment. Students learn to recognize trust, bias, dependency, privacy, and verification risks while using AI to extend what they already know and build confidence with what they do not.
What you will be able to do
- Explain how prior knowledge, cognitive habits, uncertainty, and resistance to change affect learning and professional adaptation.
- Apply a structured learning approach to connect existing professional experience with new knowledge, evaluate credible information, and produce a useful result.
- Write effective questions and instructions for conversational AI systems.
- Evaluate AI-generated information for accuracy, relevance, bias, missing context, and unsupported claims.
- Map an existing business or career process and identify repetitive tasks appropriate for AI assistance.
- Redesign a workflow that combines AI assistance with human judgment, accountability, and professional expertise.
- Configure a personalized AI assistant with a defined purpose, working instructions, boundaries, and reference information.
- Develop an individual 30-day AI adaptation plan for a career, business, or professional practice.
Seven weeks, session by session
Each weekly topic is taught across two connected one-hour meetings — 14 live online sessions and 14 instructional hours in total. Every meeting combines a short demonstration, guided practice, and one concrete result you keep.
The Psychology of AI: Learn, Trust, and Stay in Control
Anthropomorphism, trust, confidence, dependency, cognitive offloading, automation and confirmation bias, cognitive load, uncertainty, resistance to change, privacy, AI as a learning partner, and responsible-use foundations.
Result Personal AI boundaries and learning profileRelearn What You Already Know
Transferable knowledge, tacit expertise, and skill translation. Use AI to surface the patterns, examples, and professional value already sitting in your experience.
Result Knowledge and transferable-skills mapAsk Better Questions
Problem framing, context, constraints, and iterative questioning — connecting existing expertise with unfamiliar knowledge.
Result Reusable questioning frameworkResearch What You Do Not Know
Research planning, source quality, triangulation, hallucinations, bias, and verification. Separate evidence from confident language.
Result Verified AI-assisted research briefTasks, Roles, and Human Judgment
Task inventory, repetitive work, workflow bottlenecks, delegation, automation, privacy, accountability, and the decisions that stay human.
Result Task retain / assist / automate assessmentDesign AI-Supported Workflows
Process mapping, inputs and outputs, decision points, checkpoints, exception handling, and documenting a repeatable business or career process.
Result Redesigned process flowBuild Your Personal AI Assistant
Purpose, role, instructions, boundaries, reference information, testing, correction, maintenance, and final implementation planning.
Result Working assistant and 30-day planCritical thinking skills
- Analyze how existing knowledge and experience can be transferred to an unfamiliar professional situation.
- Distinguish between repetitive tasks suitable for AI assistance and decisions requiring human responsibility.
- Compare AI-generated responses with credible external sources and direct evidence.
- Identify assumptions, bias, missing context, uncertainty, and unsupported claims in AI output.
- Evaluate the benefits, limitations, and risks of introducing AI into a professional workflow.
- Revise questions, instructions, and processes based on observed results.
How progress is evaluated
This is a not-for-credit course. Learning is evaluated through completion and instructor review of practical exercises rather than tests or grades. Evidence of learning includes:
- A transferable-skills and prior-knowledge map.
- A research brief that includes source verification.
- A task inventory and workflow assessment.
- One redesigned AI-supported professional process.
- A functioning personal AI assistant with documented purpose and boundaries.
- A final 30-day implementation plan and short presentation.
What you need
No textbook is required. Instructor-created worksheets, templates, and example prompts are provided digitally.
Each student needs an account with ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Copilot, or another comparable conversational AI system. A free plan is sufficient for the core exercises, though platform limits vary. A paid plan is optional.
An internet-enabled laptop is required for the live online sessions. Recommended readings and current platform documentation are selected near the start date so examples stay current.
The applied-learning approach
Connect before you add
The approach helps participants up-level professional skills by connecting existing experience with new capabilities, rather than starting from zero.
Guided practice, not lectures
Guided practice helps students work through unfamiliar professional situations without requiring prior technical expertise.
Question, research, evaluate
Activities focus on asking stronger questions, researching unfamiliar subjects, and evaluating information before using it.
Name the uncertainty
Participants learn to recognize uncertainty, missing context, unsupported claims, and risks in AI-generated material.
Every exercise ships something
Each exercise produces a practical result that can be adapted to a real career, business, community, or creative situation.
Human judgment stays central
Human judgment, confidentiality, accessibility, ethics, and responsibility remain central to every activity.