AI Free course · Certificate included
Prompt Engineering Foundations
A friendly, practical start: clear prompts, thinking modes, files and images, and a personal library of 50+ prompt patterns
- Beginner
- 5 h 33 min
- 16 lessons in 6 modules
- 2 h 1 min of video lectures
- Updated Sep 2026
About this course
New to AI assistants, or frustrated by generic answers? This free, beginner-friendly course teaches the skill behind every great AI result: explaining a task clearly. You will learn how today's assistants such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Copilot respond to your words, the five building blocks of a good prompt (Task, Context, Audience, Format, Examples), and how to be specific without writing essays. You will practise iterating, controlling formats, and using the features that matter in 2026: thinking modes for harder problems, projects and custom instructions that remember your context, web search and deep research with sources you can check, and prompting with files, photos, screenshots, voice and image generators. A library of more than fifty ready-to-adapt patterns covers writing, analysis, brainstorming, learning and planning. Finally, you will learn a simple routine for checking AI work and protecting private information. No technical background needed.
Tools you’ll use
- ChatGPT
- Claude
- Gemini
- Microsoft Copilot
- Perplexity
Skills
- Prompt writing
- AI assistants
- Clear communication
- Prompt patterns
- Multimodal prompting
- AI output checking
What you’ll be able to do
- Explain in plain words how AI assistants respond to prompts and where they go wrong
- Build prompts using Task, Context, Audience, Format and Examples
- Improve answers through targeted follow-ups and know when to start fresh
- Choose between quick answers, thinking modes and deep research for a task
- Set up projects or custom instructions so the assistant keeps your context
- Prompt well with files, photos, screenshots, voice and image generators
- Apply 50+ prompt patterns for writing, analysis, brainstorming, learning and planning
- Check AI work for accuracy, fairness and privacy before using it
Curriculum
Syllabus
- Modules
- 6
- Lessons
- 16
- Reading time
- 3 h
- Assessment questions
- 25
Understand, in plain language, how AI chat assistants respond to you and what every good prompt contains.
- How AI assistants respond to your wordsVideo lecture, 9′Video · 10 min
- The anatomy of a good promptVideo lecture, 8′11 min
Learn to be specific without writing essays, give the background that matters, and use examples to show exactly what you want.
- Clarity and specificityVideo lecture, 7′10 min
- Giving context and examplesVideo lecture, 8′11 min
Improve answers through conversation and get results in the exact shape you need: lists, tables, emails, slides or plain text.
- Iterating: the art of the follow-upVideo lecture, 7′10 min
- Formatting outputs: getting the shape you needVideo lecture, 8′10 min
Use thinking modes, projects and memory, web search and deep research, files, photos, voice and image generation well, and know when each one helps.
- Quick answers, thinking modes and deep researchVideo lecture, 7′12 min
- Set context once: custom instructions, projects and memoryVideo lecture, 8′12 min
- Prompting with files, photos, screenshots and voiceVideo lecture, 8′12 min
- Your first image and video promptsVideo lecture, 8′11 min
- Research with web search, deep research and sourcesVideo lecture, 7′12 min
More than fifty ready-to-adapt prompt patterns for writing, analysis, brainstorming, learning and planning.
- Patterns for writing and editing (1-18)Video lecture, 7′12 min
- Patterns for analysis and brainstorming (19-37)Video lecture, 7′12 min
- Patterns for learning and planning (38-56)Video lecture, 7′12 min
Avoid the mistakes that hold most people back, and build simple habits for checking AI work and using it safely.
- Ten everyday prompting mistakes (and fixes)Video lecture, 8′10 min
- Checking AI work and building your prompt toolkitVideo lecture, 7′10 min
- Final assessment
Your certificate
Finish with a credential anyone can check
Earn the Certified Prompt Engineering Practitioner badge: The holder can write clear, specific prompts using the Task, Context, Audience, Format and Examples structure, improve results through iteration, control output formats, apply a library of prompt patterns across everyday tasks, and check AI outputs for accuracy, fairness and privacy.
Completed all lessons and scored at least 80% on the final assessment.
- A public verification page
- A PDF certificate to download
- An Open Badge you can share
- One click to your LinkedIn profile
Final assessment
- 25questions drawn from a larger pool
- 35 mintime limit
- 80%pass mark
- 3attempts per 24 hours
Start learning today. It’s free.
Every lesson is free to read. A free account saves your progress, unlocks the final assessment and issues your certificate.