Anthropic — the company behind the Claude AI model — publishes one of the strongest free learning libraries available for people learning to work with generative AI. The materials are model-agnostic in spirit (the techniques transfer cleanly to ChatGPT, Copilot, and Gemini), even though the examples use Claude.
This page covers the two resource families worth knowing: the AI Fluency course series for building a durable conceptual foundation and the Prompt Engineering Interactive Tutorial for getting hands-on craft.
AI Fluency course series
Anthropic Academy hosts a sequence of free, self-paced courses that move from “what is generative AI and how do I think about it” to “how do I teach with it.” Each course takes a few hours, includes short videos and reflection exercises, and issues a certificate of completion.
Recommended starting points:
- AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations — the foundation course. Introduces Anthropic’s “Four Ds” framework (Delegation, Description, Discernment, Diligence) for working with AI thoughtfully. A solid first course for any role.
- Teaching AI Fluency — a course for faculty and staff who lead training, advise students, or shape AI use in their unit. Builds on the foundations course with classroom and program-design guidance.
- AI Fluency for Educators — a pedagogy-focused course: how to integrate AI into assignments, assessment, and student-facing communication.
Why this resource
- Free and self-paced. No Anthropic account or subscription required to take the courses.
- Conceptual and practical — moves between “how to think about AI” and “what to actually do.”
- Used by other higher-ed institutions as a starting baseline for faculty and staff onboarding.
- Pairs naturally with the prompt tutorial below: concepts first, craft second.
Prompt Engineering Interactive Tutorial
A free, hands-on tutorial that walks you from basic prompt structure to building complex, reusable prompts. Structured into nine chapters across three levels — Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced — with an editable example playground at the bottom of each lesson so you can experiment in real time.
What you’ll learn
Beginner (Chapters 1–3)
- Basic prompt structure — the anatomy of a prompt and how to format it clearly.
- Being clear and direct — why clarity beats cleverness.
- Assigning roles — how “act as a tutor” or “act as a senior strategy partner” sets tone and depth.
Intermediate (Chapters 4–7)
- Separating data from instructions — keeping inputs and directives distinct.
- Formatting output — instructing the model to respond in tables, lists, or specific tones.
- Thinking step by step — improving accuracy on multi-step or analytical tasks.
- Using examples — few-shot prompting for better generalization.
Advanced (Chapters 8–9)
- Avoiding hallucinations — structuring prompts that discourage fabrication.
- Building complex prompts — modular, reusable prompts for chatbots, legal/finance work, code, and custom assistants.
Why this resource
- Free, with editable examples and an answer key.
- Also available as a Google Sheets version for a lighter-weight experience.
- Reflects best practices directly from the team that builds Claude.
- A natural follow-on to the AI Fluency course for the “concepts + craft” pairing.
Access the resources
- Anthropic Academy (course catalog)
- GitHub: Prompt Engineering Interactive Tutorial
- Anthropic prompt engineering overview (docs)
Suggested for
Anyone ready to move past one-off chats and build a durable working relationship with AI tools — including faculty designing assignments, staff building reusable workflow prompts, students learning to use AI responsibly in coursework, and supervisors planning structured AI exploration time for their teams.