Applied AI for Educators
- Level High School
- Contact Hours 40
This course builds AI literacy for educators by combining foundational understanding of how AI works with practical, responsible classroom applications. Teachers learn how to evaluate, use, and design AI-supported tools—including custom assistants and AI-created workflows—while maintaining professional judgment, safety, and academic integrity.
No programming experience required
Flexible self-paced timeframe
In-course support with an instructor
To view the entire syllabus, click here or click to explore the full course.
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Course Overview & Resources
This module provides a course overview as well as instructions on how to get support as teachers work through the content. The module also contains a pre-assessment for teachers to set a baseline prior to beginning the course. |
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Foundations of AI
This module establishes core AI literacy and shared vocabulary. Teachers learn what AI is, distinguish between types of AI (generative vs. predictive), and explore foundational machine learning concepts. The module introduces supervised learning, explains how AI models are trained, and builds a clear understanding of large language models. Teachers also begin developing foundational prompting skills to understand how the way humans communicate with AI systems shapes output quality, usefulness, and reliability. |
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AI in Teaching and Learning
This module focuses on practical classroom uses of AI chatbots, with a strong emphasis on teacher workflows. Educators learn how to use AI tools to support instructional planning and decision-making across a range of common teaching tasks. Activities guide teachers through using AI for brainstorming and idea generation, creating instructional materials, differentiating supports, tutoring-style interactions, reviewing student work, analyzing classroom data, and reducing administrative burden—while reinforcing the importance of teacher oversight and review. |
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AI Tools Beyond Chatbots
This module expands teacher AI literacy beyond chatbots by introducing additional categories of AI tools educators are increasingly encountering in schools. Teachers explore how AI image tools work, how text-to-speech tools can support accessibility and instruction, and how AI-powered search differs from chatbot-style responses. The goal is to help educators understand the broader AI tool landscape and make more informed decisions about which tools fit which instructional or professional needs. |
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AI Challenges
This module addresses the risks, ethical concerns, and real-world challenges of AI use in educational settings. Teachers examine how bias can appear in AI systems, why hallucinations occur, and how security vulnerabilities can impact reliability. The module also explores deepfakes and misinformation and supports teachers in understanding academic integrity concerns, policy implications, and classroom practices that reduce harm while supporting responsible AI use. |
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Designing AI Assistants & Classroom Tools
This module shifts from using AI tools to designing with AI. Teachers learn how to create custom AI assistants by configuring roles, constraints, and behavior, and then explore tools that allow educators to describe apps and workflows in natural language so that AI can generate them, without requiring traditional coding skills. The focus is on thoughtful design, practical creation, and building tools that address real educator needs—while maintaining safety, transparency, and professional judgment. |
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Final Project
This final project serves as a capstone experience in which teachers apply what they have learned across the course to a real or realistic teaching or professional scenario. Educators identify an authentic challenge, select appropriate AI tools, and develop a thoughtful plan for how AI could support their work while maintaining professional judgment and responsibility. The project emphasizes intentional decision-making, evaluation of risks and limitations, and the design of safeguards that ensure ethical, safe, and effective AI use in educational contexts. |
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Course Wrap Up
This module contains a post assessment and course survey. |
CodeHS online PD courses are made up of a series of learning modules covering the pedagogy and instructional strategy for teaching CS in a blended classroom.
Teachers work through these on their own time while receiving personalized support and feedback every step of the way.
Short, digestible video tutorials covering programming topics and concepts in the upcoming lesson
Program examples to give teachers the opportunity to explore how the code works in the fully loaded IDE
Engaging exercises that allow teachers to design and build programs based on new concepts
Engaging exercises that allow teachers to design and build programs based on new concepts
