Introduction to Gemini for Beginners

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Coursera
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Paid Course
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English
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Certificate Available
Effort

10 weeks, 1 hour a week
Sessions

Self-Paced
Level

Beginner
Subtitles

English

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Overview

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Start using Google Gemini and turn everyday work requests into usable outputs. This beginner course shows you how to prompt, refine, check, and reuse Gemini across Google apps. Throughout the course, you’ll explore: Gemini Basics and Prompting: Send a prompt, attach a file, and structure requests with Role, Task, Context, and Format. Gmail and Communication: Draft, summarize, and re-tone email replies, then use a pre-send checklist for names, dates, attachments, commitments, and confidential details. Meetings and Documents: Convert raw notes into owner-task-deadline tables and create one-page project updates in Google Docs with an outline-first workflow. Content and Images: Repurpose one article into LinkedIn, Instagram, and X posts, and refine images from a written brief while checking usage rights. Sheets and Research: Clean a sales dataset, verify a total with a formula, and build a research brief with five checked sources. Custom Gems: Create a reusable Gem with instructions and a knowledge file, test it, and improve it. By the end, you’ll be able to use Gemini productively while verifying facts, protecting sensitive information, and keeping human judgment in the loop.

Syllabus

How to Set Up Gemini and Get Your First Useful Answer
- How do I start using Google Gemini if I have never opened an AI assistant before? In this module you send your first prompt, improve the answer with a follow-up, attach a file, and save the conversation under a name you choose. You work in the Gemini web app and see where the same assistant appears inside Gmail, Docs and Sheets. You learn the difference between personal and Workspace accounts, what a model is in plain language, and how to fix the most common setup problems such as a missing side panel. The module uses three short screen recordings of the real interface, one explainer video and a text guide on account types and activation. It is designed for complete beginners: no technical background, no previous AI experience and no paid plan are required; a free Google account is enough. By the end you have a saved Gemini conversation that contains a refined answer and a question about an attached file, and you can open Gemini from any Google app with confidence.
How to Structure a Prompt That Gets the Output You Want
- Why does Gemini give a great answer to one person and a useless one to another when both ask about the same thing? In this module you rewrite a one-line prompt into a structured prompt with four parts, role, task, context and format, and receive the output in exactly the shape you asked for, such as a table or a numbered list. Three existing screen recordings show each part of the formula on a real task: a detailed buyer persona built from role and context, a pitch-deck outline returned in the exact format requested, and marketing headings tightened by adding constraints. One explainer video introduces the four-part formula, and two text resources give you a before-and-after table of common prompt mistakes and a library of thirty ready-to-use prompts. The module suits anyone who can type a message into Gemini; no previous prompting experience is needed. You leave with three rewritten prompts and their formatted outputs saved in a Gemini chat, plus a prompt library you can copy into your daily work.
How to Draft and Polish Emails with Gemini in Gmail
- How can I answer a long email thread in five minutes without sounding like a robot? In this module you produce a ready-to-send email reply: drafted from bullet points, based on a summary of a long thread, and rewritten for a specific audience and tone. You see the three email actions Gemini performs, drafting, summarizing and rewriting, and where each one lives in Gmail. Three existing screen recordings show an instant professional email, a thread summary and the same message adapted for an executive, a teammate and a client. One explainer video sets the scene and a text checklist lists what to verify before you press send: names, dates, commitments, missing attachments and confidential details. The module is for anyone who writes work emails; no Gmail add-ons or paid plan are required, and the lab provides the thread as text so no mailbox access is needed. You finish with a summary, a drafted reply and two tone variants of it, checked against the pre-send checklist.
How to Turn Meeting Notes into an Action-Item List
- What do I do with a page of messy notes after a meeting so that nothing gets lost? In this module you convert raw, unstructured meeting notes into a table of action items with an owner, a task and a deadline for each, plus a three-sentence summary. You learn the difference between summarizing, which compresses, and extracting, which pulls out specific fields, and how to phrase tasks so they can actually be tracked. Two existing screen recordings show an agenda generated in Google Docs before a meeting and raw notes turned into a structured action list afterwards. One explainer video introduces the owner-task-deadline triple and a text resource gives formatting standards, a copy-paste table template and a prompt that forces Gemini to use it. The module is for anyone who attends meetings and takes notes; no project-management tools or previous Gemini experience are required. You leave with a completed action-item table, a short summary and a list of tasks Gemini flagged as having no owner.
How to Write a Complete Document with Gemini in Google Docs
- How do I get Gemini to write a whole document that does not read like generic filler? In this module you produce a one-page, formatted project update with headings, a bullet list and a short status table, written and edited inside Google Docs with the Gemini side panel. You use the outline-first workflow: generate an outline, write section by section from real facts, then polish and shorten. Two existing screen recordings show a full document built from a brain dump and different people's updates reformatted into one consistent template. One explainer video explains why a single giant prompt produces weak text and a text resource provides three skeleton outlines, status update, proposal and procedure, each with a matching prompt. The module is for anyone who writes reports or updates at work; a free Google account with Docs is enough and no previous Gemini experience is needed. You leave with a finished one-page project update in Google Docs and three reusable document outlines.
How to Create Social Media Posts and Captions with Gemini
- How can one article become a week of social media content without writing everything from scratch? In this module you produce three ready-to-publish posts, for LinkedIn, Instagram and X or Threads, from a single source link, each with a caption, hashtags and a call to action. You learn the source-angle-platform method, how platforms differ in length and tone, and how to keep every post in the same brand voice by pasting a one-page voice sheet at the start of a chat. Three existing screen recordings show a post created from a website link, caption variants with hashtags, and one piece of content transformed into another format. One explainer video introduces repurposing and a text resource gives a fill-in brand-voice template. The module is for small-business owners, freelancers and anyone who posts for work; no marketing background or paid tools are needed. You leave with three platform-ready posts that Gemini has checked against your voice sheet.
How to Generate and Refine Images with Gemini
- How do I get Gemini to draw the picture I have in my head instead of something random? In this module you generate an image that matches a written brief, subject, style and composition, and then produce one refined variant with a follow-up prompt. You learn why image prompts work best as descriptions rather than commands, the subject-style-composition-lighting formula, why negative wording such as "no text" often fails, and what the invisible SynthID watermark means. Two existing screen recordings show an image prompt written and generated in the Gemini app and an image iterated with follow-up changes to style, colour and elements. One explainer video introduces the formula and a text resource covers image rights and usage: ownership, commercial use, people and brand likeness, platform policies and a short is-it-safe-to-publish checklist. The module is for anyone who needs visuals for posts, slides or documents; no design skills are required. You leave with two downloaded images, the original and the refined variant, and a usage checklist.
How to Analyze a Spreadsheet with Gemini in Google Sheets
- Can Gemini tell me what is going on in a spreadsheet without me building formulas? In this module you turn a raw sales dataset into a cleaned table, a five-line summary of the key findings and a short written report, all inside Google Sheets with the Gemini side panel. You learn why tables need clear headers and one fact per cell before Gemini can read them, what Gemini does well in Sheets, cleaning, categorizing and summarizing, and where you must verify its numbers with a formula. Three existing screen recordings show messy data cleaned and formatted, key figures extracted from a large sheet, and a written report produced from performance data. One explainer video introduces how Gemini reads tables and a text resource gives a decision table of which spreadsheet tasks to hand to Gemini and which to keep in formulas. The module is for anyone who receives data in spreadsheets; no formula knowledge beyond SUM is assumed. You leave with a cleaned sheet, a verified total, three findings and a 150-word report.
How to Research a Topic with Gemini and Verify the Answers
- How do I know whether what Gemini tells me is actually true? In this module you produce a one-page research brief that contains five facts, each with a working source link that you have opened and checked yourself. You learn what a hallucination is, how Google Search grounding and the double-check feature work, and a three-step verification routine: ask for sources, open them, confirm the claim appears. Two existing screen recordings show a research prompt returning current information with sources and several companies compared with the findings organized into a table. One explainer video explains why fluent text is not the same as true text and a text resource sets out data privacy rules: what never to paste into Gemini, how Gemini Apps Activity works, how to delete chats and how to anonymize sensitive details. The module is for students, analysts and anyone who uses AI to look things up; no research training is required. You leave with a verified research brief and a personal list of privacy rules.
How to Build a Custom Gem That Does One Job for You
- How do I stop pasting the same long instructions into Gemini every single day? In this module you create a custom Gem, a saved version of Gemini with its own name, written instructions and an uploaded knowledge file, and test it until it answers the way you want. You learn what a Gem is made of, when a Gem is better than a saved prompt, what it cannot do, and how to write instructions that cover purpose, audience, tone, rules and output format. Two existing screen recordings show a Gem built for team onboarding from uploaded documents and a market-research assistant Gem that returns findings in a fixed structure. One explainer video introduces the idea and a text resource gives a fill-in instruction template with examples of good and bad instruction lines. The module is for anyone who repeats the same kind of request in Gemini more than once a week; no technical skills are needed and Gems are available on the free plan. You leave with a working Gem that you have tested with three questions and corrected once, ready to reuse tomorrow.