AI Essentials Course — Phase 1: Foundations
Session 01: Welcome to AI — Your First Conversation
Discover what AI chatbots are, write your very first prompt, and take your first steps into a technology that will change how you learn.
Video Lesson
Watch: Welcome to AI
Dr. Walter shares his personal AI journey and welcomes you to the course.
Learning Objectives
What You'll Learn
By the end of this session, you will be able to:
- Explain in your own words what an AI chatbot is and how it works
- Navigate to ChatGPT and create a free account
- Type and send your very first prompt
- Compare AI responses to different types of questions
Platform Access
Getting Started with ChatGPT
Follow these steps to access ChatGPT and get ready for today's lesson.
- Open your web browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge — any will work).
- In the address bar at the top of the browser, type chat.openai.com and press Enter. You can also click here: https://chat.openai.com
- Click the blue "Sign Up" button. You can create a free account using your email address, or sign in with a Google or Microsoft account you already have.
- Follow the on-screen steps to verify your email address. This usually takes less than two minutes.
- Once you see the main chat screen — a large text box at the bottom — you're ready to begin. You may see a message that says "How can I help you today?" That's ChatGPT waiting for your first prompt.
- If you already have a ChatGPT account, simply sign in and you're all set.
Free Account Required
All platforms used in this course offer free accounts with no credit card required. If you already have an account, simply sign in. The free tier gives you everything you need to complete this session.
Core Lesson
Today's Lesson
Read through this lesson carefully before starting the practice exercises below.
Welcome to your first session of AI Essentials! You are about to take a step that millions of people around the world have taken in the last few years — starting a real conversation with artificial intelligence. It may sound intimidating, but think of it this way: you already know how to have a conversation. That's exactly what you'll be doing today.
So what exactly is an AI chatbot? At its most basic, it's a computer program that has been trained on an enormous amount of text — books, articles, websites, and more — so that it can understand questions and respond in natural, conversational language. ChatGPT is made by a company called OpenAI, and it is one of the most widely used AI tools in the world. When you type something to ChatGPT, it reads your words and generates a thoughtful response based on everything it has learned.
The message you send to an AI is called a prompt. Think of a prompt as your side of the conversation. A prompt can be a question, a request, or even just a topic you want to talk about. There are no wrong prompts — especially when you're just getting started. The AI won't judge you, won't get impatient, and will happily answer the same question twenty different ways if you ask it to.
One of the most important things to understand from the very beginning is that ChatGPT is a tool — like a very knowledgeable assistant who is always available. It doesn't have opinions about you, it doesn't get tired, and it has no memory of previous conversations once you close the window. Each new conversation starts fresh. This means you can experiment freely without any pressure.
Today, you'll try three different types of prompts: a factual question (something with a clear, verifiable answer), a personal advice question (something where the answer depends on your situation), and a creative question (something open-ended and imaginative). As you read the three very different responses, you'll start to understand how versatile and useful this technology can be for your graduate studies and beyond.
Don't worry if some of ChatGPT's answers surprise you, or if they're not exactly what you expected. Part of learning to work with AI is learning to ask better and better questions. That skill — crafting excellent prompts — is what this entire 20-session course is about. You're going to build that skill one session at a time, starting right now.
Hands-On Practice
Practice Exercise
Follow these steps in ChatGPT. Take your time — there's no rush. Learning happens through doing.
- Open ChatGPT at chat.openai.com and sign in to your account.
- In the text box at the bottom, type this factual question: "What are the main differences between a master's degree and a doctoral degree?" Press Enter or click the send button. Read the response carefully.
- Start a new chat (click the pencil/new chat icon). Type this personal advice question: "I am 65 years old and thinking about going back to school for a graduate degree. What should I consider before applying?" Read the response.
- Start another new chat. Type this creative question: "Write a short, encouraging poem for someone who is returning to school later in life." Enjoy the response!
- Compare all three responses. Notice how ChatGPT adapts its tone and style — more factual for the first question, more personal for the second, more creative for the third. Write down one thing that surprised you.
- Optional bonus: Try asking ChatGPT something you've always been curious about related to your area of academic interest. There are no limits!
Try These
Example Prompts to Try
Copy any of these prompts directly into ChatGPT and see what happens. Feel free to modify them to match your own academic interests.
Summary
Key Takeaways
- An AI chatbot is a computer program trained on vast amounts of text that can respond to questions in natural, conversational language.
- Your message to the AI is called a prompt — it can be a question, a request, or a topic to explore.
- ChatGPT adapts its responses depending on the type of question you ask: factual, personal, or creative.
- Each new conversation with ChatGPT starts fresh — experiment freely and without pressure.
Simple, One-Sentence Questions
You've learned to write a clear, direct prompt as a single sentence or question. This is the foundation of all AI communication. As you progress through this course, you'll build on this foundation to write richer, more effective prompts — but every great conversation starts with one good question.