Overview

Go from a Claude beginner to a fully configured, personal AI workflow: prompting that produces usable work, Projects that hold your context, Claude Cowork for the jobs you hand over whole, connected workplace tools, and the judgment to tell whether what comes back is any good.

Syllabus

Module 1: Getting Started with Claude AI

Describe what Claude is, who builds it, and why it is not a search engine
Understand the context window, how a conversation fills it, and when to start a new one
Choose between the models and set how much effort goes into an answer
Compare the plans, and identify where Claude can be reached: browser, desktop app, Chrome, Microsoft 365, and mobile
Set instructions and turn on Memory, the two cheapest things you can do on day one

Module 2: Prompting Fundamentals and Working with Files

Apply the five-part prompt: context, task, format, constraints, and examples
Compare a weak prompt against a strong one and explain why the strong one works
Work with images, PDFs, spreadsheets, and documents directly in a conversation
Bring in current information with web search, and know what it does and does not settle
Recognize the five prompting mistakes that account for most disappointing results

Module 3: Projects: Organizing Ongoing Work

Explain the problem Projects solve compared with a regular conversation
Set up a Project using its Instructions and Context panels
Write Project instructions using a repeatable framework
Build a knowledge base the Project draws on automatically

Module 4: Artifacts, Skills, and Memory

Create and edit Artifacts, and know which kinds of output become one
Build a Skill that carries your voice or a repeatable task, and know when a Skill beats an instruction
Configure Memory, and understand how it differs from Project context
Manage your usage so a plan goes further

Module 5: Intermediate Prompting and Advanced Features

Ask for reasoning you can check, and read it rather than collapsing it
Break a large task into steps Claude can follow in sequence
Talk to Claude instead of typing, and know when dictation is the better input
Let Claude interview you with the "You Ask Me" technique instead of writing the perfect prompt

Module 6: Claude vs. Other AI Tools

Compare Claude against other major AI tools on the capabilities that matter for professional work
Apply a practical framework for choosing the right tool for a given task
Follow the basic rules for protecting sensitive information in any AI tool

Module 7: Claude Cowork

Place Cowork as one of three ways to work in the app you already have, rather than a separate product to install
Describe the kind of work Cowork is for, and how it differs from Chat
Explain where a Cowork session actually runs, and what the desktop app is still needed for
Run a first Cowork task that reads and writes real files