Artificial intelligence is reshaping education — from saving time on administrative tasks to personalizing instruction at scale. This collection of free courses covers AI fundamentals and practical applications for educators, instructional designers, and learning experience designers.
AI for Educators
Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing the education sector, offering tools and techniques that can transform teaching and learning experiences. From saving time on administrative tasks to personalizing instruction, AI’s potential in education is vast and growing.
Generative AI for Educators
by AI experts at Google in collaboration with MIT RAISE
Discover how to use generative AI tools to save time on everyday tasks, personalize instruction, and enhance lessons and activities in creative ways.
- Modality: Online, Self-Paced
- Duration: 2 hours
- What You’ll Learn:
- Save time on everyday tasks like drafting emails and other correspondence
- Personalize instruction for different learning styles and abilities
- Enhance lessons and activities in creative ways
- Gain a foundational understanding of AI, including its opportunities and limitations
- Learn how to use AI responsibly in educational settings
AI For Teachers and Educators
by Udemy
A general introduction to AI for teachers and education professionals, covering applications and implications of AI in education.
- Modality: Online, On-Demand Video
- What You’ll Learn:
- Introduction to AI in Education: Overview of AI, its workings, and its importance
- AI Technologies in the Classroom: Introduction to AI-powered tools and resources
- AI Ethics and Implications in Education: Addressing ethical and social issues
- AI Integration and Innovation in Education: Practical tips and strategies
- AI Future Trends and Developments in Education
An Essential Guide to AI for Educators
by AI for Education
A free 2-hour, hands-on course designed to help educators get started using ChatGPT to save time, engage students, and implement AI responsibly.
- Modality: Online, Self-Paced
- Duration: 2 hours
- What You’ll Learn:
- Familiarize yourself with artificial intelligence in education and get started using ChatGPT
- Learn how to save time on lesson planning and administrative tasks
- Create engaging, personalized learning experiences for your students
- Develop strategies and activities for introducing AI to your students
AI for Instructional Design and Learning Experience Design
AI is rapidly transforming instructional design and learning experience design, offering innovative ways to create engaging and effective educational experiences.
Learning with AI: Exploring the Potential of Generative Tech
by Eduflow Academy
Explore current trends, best practices, and challenges associated with using generative AI in educational settings.
- Modality: Online, Self-Paced
- Duration: 1–2 hours
- Price: Free
- What You’ll Learn:
- Explore the potential of generative AI in education
- Examine the challenges and risks associated with generative AI
- Understand how generative AI can provide personalized and adaptive learning experiences
Generative AI as a Learning Design Partner Specialization
by the University of Michigan on Coursera
A comprehensive understanding of AI’s role in the learning design process with practical strategies for implementing AI tools like ChatGPT.
- Modality: Online, Self-Paced
- Duration: 1 month at 10 hours a week
- What You’ll Learn:
- Articulate the role of generative AI as a partner in the learning design process
- Develop processes using AI tools for creating educational content and assessments
- Recognize the strengths and limitations of generative AI
AI for Course Design
by Coursera
Practical skills in working with generative AI for course development, designed for instructional designers and educators.
- Modality: Online, Self-Paced
- Duration: 4 weeks
- What You’ll Learn:
- Differentiate between Large Language Models (LLMs), AI, and Generative AI
- Employ AI to design courses and create content
- Understand the benefits, challenges, and ethical implications of AI in education
AI in the Classroom
Shorter, practical courses for integrating AI tools directly into teaching and facilitation.
AI-Powered Teaching and Learning
by Eric Arseneau, Ph.D. (Udemy)
Demonstrates the cutting-edge intersection of AI and low-code development, showing how ChatGPT can be incorporated into GlideApps.
- Modality: Online, On-Demand Video
- Duration: 39 minutes
- Price: Free
Make Teaching Easier with Artificial Intelligence (Chat GPT)
by Anthony Bochrinis (Udemy)
Learn how to use Chat GPT to enhance student outcomes.
- Duration: 1 hour 8 minutes
- Price: Free
- What You’ll Learn:
- Save time each week on administrative tasks
- Use AI-powered solutions for lesson planning, creating test questions, and providing student feedback
- Differentiate lessons by providing scaffolded activities
- Provide personalized feedback to students
AI in the Classroom
by Canva Design School
Introduces educators to the potential of AI in teaching, focusing on practical applications for lesson planning, content creation, and accessibility.
- Price: Free
- What You’ll Learn:
- Use Magic Write to generate lesson plans efficiently
- Enhance teaching materials with Magic Design and Magic Media
- Make learning content more accessible for all students
AI Courses for Beginners
New to AI? These foundational courses from Microsoft, Google, and the University of Helsinki are ideal starting points.
Fundamental AI Concepts
by Microsoft
- Duration: 36 minutes
- Level: Beginner
- What You’ll Learn:
- Introduction to AI and machine learning
- Computer vision and natural language processing
- Generative AI and Responsible AI
Google Prompting Essentials
by Google Career Certificates on Coursera
A 5-step framework for prompt design applicable across tools and models.
- What You’ll Learn:
- Practice using a 5-step process for effective prompting
- Enhance data analysis and presentation skills with AI
- Explore advanced techniques including prompt chaining and multimodal prompting
Elements of AI
by MinnaLearn and the University of Helsinki
Join over 1 million people learning about the basics of AI. Aims to demystify AI and encourage people to understand what AI is, what it can and cannot do.
- Modality: Online, Self-Paced
- Courses Offered: Introduction to AI, Building AI
Key Questions Answered
The most commonly asked questions about this topic, concisely answered.
- Yes. Several high-quality free AI courses are available, including Generative AI for Educators by Google and MIT RAISE, An Essential Guide to AI for Educators by AI for Education, Elements of AI by the University of Helsinki, and AI for Course Design on Coursera. Many are self-paced and take 1–4 hours to complete.
- AI is transforming instructional design in several ways:
- Content generation — drafting course outlines, learning objectives, and assessment questions faster
- Personalization — adapting content and pacing to individual learner needs
- Automation — handling administrative tasks like feedback and progress tracking
- Quality support — validating ideas, suggesting improvements, and checking alignment
- Generative AI refers to AI systems that can produce original content — text, images, audio, video — based on a prompt. For educators, this means being able to quickly generate lesson plans, quiz questions, explanations, differentiated activities, and learning materials. It does not replace pedagogical judgment, but it significantly reduces production time and lowers the barrier to creating varied, personalized content.
- Two excellent starting points are Generative AI for Educators (Google + MIT RAISE, 2 hours, free) and An Essential Guide to AI for Educators (AI for Education, 2 hours, free). Both are beginner-friendly, practical, and focus on real classroom applications — from saving time on lesson planning to engaging students and using AI responsibly.
- AI tools can accelerate several time-intensive tasks:
- Drafting course content, outlines, and scripts
- Writing and varying quiz questions and assessment rubrics
- Generating learner personas and scenario characters
- Summarizing research or source materials
- Responding to common learner questions via chatbots
- Translating or adapting content for different audiences
- Key ethical concerns include bias in AI outputs (reflecting biases in training data), data privacy (what learner data AI tools collect and store), academic integrity (AI-generated student work), transparency (disclosing when AI is used), and over-reliance (replacing human judgment with automated decisions). Most AI education courses include a module on responsible and ethical AI use.
- Prompt engineering is the skill of crafting clear, specific inputs to get high-quality outputs from AI tools like ChatGPT. For instructional designers, effective prompts lead to better first drafts, more relevant content suggestions, and more useful feedback. The Google Prompting Essentials course on Coursera teaches a 5-step framework for designing effective prompts applicable across different AI tools.
- The Generative AI as a Learning Design Partner Specialization by the University of Michigan (Coursera) teaches instructional designers how to use AI throughout the design process — from needs analysis and content creation to assessment design. It covers the strengths and limitations of generative AI and provides practical frameworks for human-AI collaboration in learning design. It can be audited for free.
- Elements of AI is a free, beginner-level course created by MinnaLearn and the University of Helsinki. It has been completed by over 1 million people worldwide. It demystifies AI concepts — what AI is, how it works, and what it can and cannot do — without requiring a technical background. It is an ideal starting point for educators and learning professionals who want a solid conceptual foundation before exploring AI tools.
- Yes. AI enables personalization by adapting content difficulty based on learner performance, recommending resources based on knowledge gaps, generating differentiated explanations for different learning styles, and providing immediate, tailored feedback. At the platform level, LMS and LXP tools increasingly use AI to build dynamic learning paths. Courses like Learning with AI by Eduflow Academy explore these possibilities in depth.
- AI courses for teachers focus on classroom applications — lesson planning, student engagement, differentiation, and administrative time-saving. Courses for instructional designers go deeper into the design process — using AI to create course structures, write learning objectives, build scenarios, design assessments, and streamline production workflows. The distinction is context: teachers work in real-time with learners; IDs work upstream on the design itself.
- AI in education is evolving rapidly — new tools and capabilities emerge monthly. To stay current: follow AI in education newsletters (like ISTE's AI resources and The Rundown AI), join online communities where educators share AI experiments, allocate regular time (even 30 minutes per week) to explore one new AI tool, and revisit foundational courses like Elements of AI annually to refresh your understanding of core concepts.
- No. The courses listed here are designed for educators without a technical background. They focus on practical applications — how to use AI tools effectively and responsibly — rather than programming or machine learning theory. Courses like Generative AI for Educators by Google and Elements of AI by the University of Helsinki assume no prior technical knowledge.
