Practical AI for Beginners | Students: A 2.5-Hour Course for Work
Welcome to “The AI Co-Pilot,” a 2.5-hour introductory curriculum from Rezyo.in. This practical AI course is designed for students and beginners who want to move from hearing about Large Language Models (LLMs) to using them effectively. We skip the complex theory to focus on real-world AI applications, prompts, and templates that will immediately improve your career planning, productivity, and personal life. If you’re ready to master practical AI skills, this course is your starting point.
The AI Co-Pilot: A 2.5-Hour Curriculum
Mastering Practical AI in Work and Life for Students.
Updated: October 2025
Course Time Allocation (150 Minutes)
This curriculum is structured to build skills progressively, starting with foundations and moving to practical personal and professional applications.
Course Modules
Module 1: Foundations (30 Minutes)
This module establishes a baseline for using AI, introduces “prompt engineering,” and provides a safety briefing on the three primary risks.
1.1 Core Concepts
This course is practical and does not cover complex computer science. Learners only need to understand three ideas:
- Large Language Model (LLM): An LLM is a system trained on large amounts of text. It functions by analyzing input (a prompt) and predicting the most probable next word, and the word after that. This process allows it to generate human-like text.
- Generative AI: This is a category of AI that creates new content (text, images, code) rather than only analyzing existing data.
- Prompt Engineering: This is the skill of writing clear instructions to get high-quality results from an AI. The quality of the output is directly linked to the quality of the input.
1.2 The Three Primary Risks
Users are responsible for what the AI produces. You must understand its three main failure modes.
1. Factual Inaccuracies
LLMs can generate plausible-sounding but factually incorrect statements. They are trained to guess, not to say “I don’t know.”
Rule: Always verify facts from a trusted source.
2. Bias
Models are trained on internet data, which contains human biases. An AI may reinforce harmful stereotypes.
Rule: Critically review outputs for fairness and biased assumptions.
3. Data Privacy
Public LLMs are not private. Prompts can be reviewed by humans and used for training. Data can leak.
Rule: Never paste sensitive or confidential information. Anonymize all data.
1.3 The RCT (Role, Context, Task) Framework
A simple, repeatable method for high-quality prompts.
ROLE
Tell the AI who it should be.
(e.g., “You are a professional project manager.”)
CONTEXT
Give background and define success.
(e.g., “I just had a kickoff meeting. My goal is a follow-up email.”)
TASK
State the specific, actionable thing to do.
(e.g., “Draft a concise email that summarizes goals A, B, and C.”)
A bad prompt (“Write an email about our meeting”) gives a generic result. A good prompt using RCT gives a specific, usable result.
Module 2: AI as Personal Chief of Staff (40 Minutes)
Apply the RCT framework to personal domains like Time Management and Self-Reflection in a low-stakes environment.
2.1 Mastering Time Management
Use AI to deconstruct complexity and create actionable plans from vague goals. This helps overcome procrastination.
- Demo: Creating a Daily Schedule. Prompt the AI to act as a productivity coach. Give it your priorities, fixed meetings, and productive times. Ask it to create a ‘time block’ schedule.
- Demo: Breaking Down a Large Project. Prompt the AI to act as a project manager. Give it a large goal (e.g., “build a new website”). Ask it to deconstruct the project into key phases and list the first 3-5 actionable tasks for each.
2.2 AI for Self-Reflection & Habit Building
Use the AI as a private journaling companion to provide guided prompts. AI is effective at supporting users with established goals.
- Demo: Guided Daily Journal. In the morning, ask for one question to set an intention. In the evening, ask for three questions to reflect on what you learned, a moment of gratitude, and one action that aligned with your values.
- Demo: Building a New Habit. Ask the AI to act as a habit coach. State your goal (e.g., “read 30 minutes daily”). Ask it to create a 30-day roadmap using a known framework (like the ‘Habit Loop’) to install the habit.
Module 5: AI as Research Accelerator (Bonus: 10 Minutes)
Learn advanced methods to move beyond simple summarization and use AI to synthesize information and guide your learning process.
5.1 The Cross-Source Synthesizer
Use AI to compare multiple sources. This helps you identify common themes, discrepancies, and unique perspectives. Remember to verify the AI’s synthesis.
- Demo: Synthesizing Viewpoints. Provide the AI with 2-3 short articles on the same topic (e.g., from different news outlets or academic reviews). Ask it to act as a research analyst and: 1) Identify the 3 main themes all sources agree on, 2) Highlight any points of contradiction, and 3) List one unique idea from each source.
5.2 “Chain-of-Thought” Research
Use AI to deconstruct a topic you know nothing about. This “chain” builds a research plan for you.
- Demo: Building a Research Tree.
- Start Broad: “I want to learn about [e.g., ‘The basics of Stoic philosophy’]. Act as a university professor.”
- Deconstruct: “What are the 5 essential sub-topics I must understand?” (e.g., Key figures, core virtues, external vs. internal, etc.)
- Generate Questions: “For each of those 5 sub-topics, generate 3 expert-level questions I should be able to answer.”
- Find Sources: “What are the 3 most-cited foundational texts or authors for this subject?”
Final Reminder: The AI is your research *assistant*, not your research *author*. It is a powerful tool for discovery, but a poor tool for truth. Always verify.
Create Your Custom Learning Path
Select the skills you want to build, and we’ll generate a custom learning plan for you, complete with time estimates.
What do you want to learn?
Click a module to see its topics. Select individual topics or “Select All”.
Module 1: Foundations (30 min)
Module 2: Personal Chief of Staff (40 min)
Module 3: Career & Communication Coach (40 min)
Module 4: Personal Analyst (30 min)
Module 5: Research Accelerator (10 min)
Course Deliverables
Table 1: The Beginner’s “Prompt-to-Task” Matrix
Use this “cheat sheet” to get started with high-quality prompts.
| Your Goal / Task | Your “Copy & Paste” Starter Prompt (using RCT) |
|---|---|
| (Time Mgmt) Break down a large project | `Act as an expert project manager. I have an overwhelming goal: [Your Goal]. Break this down into 4 simple phases, and list the first 3 actionable steps for me to start today.` |
| (Time Mgmt) Create a daily schedule | `Act as an expert productivity coach. My main priorities are [P1, P2]. I have meetings at [Time]. I am most productive [Morning/Afternoon]. Create a detailed ‘time block’ schedule for me from 9 AM to 5 PM.` |
| (Career) Tailor your resume | `Act as a career coach. Here is the job description I’m applying for: [Paste JD]. Here is my resume: [Paste Resume]. Analyze the JD and rewrite my professional summary and key bullet points to match the role.` |
| (Career) Practice for an interview | `Act as a hiring manager for [Role]. I am preparing for an interview. Ask me one tough, behavioral question. After I answer, critique it using the STAR method and give me a better version. Then, ask me the next question.` |
| (Communication) Draft a professional email | `Act as a professional communicator. I need to send an email to [Person] about [Topic]. The key points are [Point 1, 2, 3]. Draft a concise, polite, and actionable email. The tone should be [Tone].` |
| (Research) Understand a complex topic | `Act as a master teacher. I am a beginner. Explain the concept of [Topic] to me like I’m a 10-year-old, using a simple metaphor or analogy.` |
| (Research) Summarize a long text | `Act as a research assistant. Here is a text: [Paste Text]. Summarize this text into 5 key bullet points and provide a one-paragraph executive summary.` |
Checklist 2: The “Responsible AI” Checklist
Review this checklist before using an LLM for any serious task.
-
1.
Verification (Inaccuracies)
“Am I prepared to independently verify any facts, dates, advice, or claims this AI gives me?”
-
2.
Anonymization (Privacy)
“Does this prompt contain any private, personal, or company-confidential information? Have I anonymized it sufficiently?”
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3.
Fairness (Bias)
“Am I asking for an output that might be influenced by stereotypes? Am I critically reviewing the output for fairness?”
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4.
Clarity (Prompting)
“Have I used the RCT (Role, Context, Task) method to be as clear and specific as possible? Does the AI have everything it needs?”
Course Q&A
What is the “RCT” framework? Hint: A 3-part method for better prompts.
RCT stands for Role, Context, and Task.
- Role: Tell the AI what persona to adopt (e.g., “Act as a biology tutor”).
- Context: Provide the necessary background information (e.g., “I am a high school student studying for a test on cell division”).
- Task: Give a specific, actionable command (e.g., “Explain the 5 stages of mitosis and give me a quiz question for each”).
What’s the main risk of using AI for research? Hint: AI models can invent information.
The main risk is “factual inaccuracies,” sometimes called hallucinations. An AI can generate information that sounds correct and specific but is completely false. It may invent facts, dates, or citations.
Because of this, you must always verify any critical information from the AI using a trusted, independent source (like a textbook, academic journal, or reputable news site).
Can I use AI to help with my resume? Hint: Yes, by comparing it to a job description.
Yes. This is one of the most effective uses. Do not just ask, “make my resume better.”
A better method is to provide the AI with two documents: 1. Your current resume. 2. The specific job description you are applying for.
Then, prompt the AI to act as a career coach and rewrite your summary and experience bullet points to highlight the skills and keywords from that specific job description.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Is it “cheating” to use AI for school or work?
The answer depends on your institution’s or company’s “Academic Integrity” or “Usage” policy. You must always follow those rules.
Generally, using AI to generate a final product and submitting it as your own work is considered cheating or plagiarism. However, using AI as a tool—like a calculator, spell-checker, or search engine—is often acceptable. This course focuses on using AI as a tool for brainstorming, summarizing, practicing, and refining your own work.
Can I trust AI with my personal data?
No. You should assume that any text you put into a public AI tool is not private. It could be read by company employees, used to train future models, or be exposed in a data breach. Never paste sensitive personal information (bank details, passwords, private medical info) or confidential company data into a public AI.
What’s the difference between a search engine (like Google) and an LLM?
A search engine is an information retrieval tool. It finds existing web pages that match your keywords and gives you links to them. Its goal is to find existing, verifiable information.
An LLM is an information generation tool. It creates new text based on patterns it learned from its training data. It does not “search” the live internet (unless it’s connected to a search tool). Its goal is to provide a single, conversational answer, even if it has to generate that answer from scratch.
Why did the AI give me a different answer to the same question I asked yesterday?
LLMs have a built-in randomness factor (often called “temperature”). This is intentional. It allows the model to be more “creative” and not give the exact same, robotic answer every time. If you ask the same question five times, you will likely get five slightly different answers. This is normal behavior.
