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AI Fluency: Framework & Foundations

Learn to collaborate with AI effectively, efficiently, ethically, and safely using the 4D framework: Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence.

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What you’ll learnBy the end of this course, you’ll be able to
  • Explain what AI Fluency means and why it matters for collaborating with AI effectively, efficiently, ethically, and safely
  • Apply the 4D framework of Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence to your AI interactions
  • Distinguish Automation, Augmentation, and Agency as three ways of engaging with AI
  • Describe how generative AI and large language models work, including their key capabilities and limitations
  • Make strategic Delegation decisions using Problem Awareness, Platform Awareness, and Task Delegation
  • Communicate clearly with AI through Product, Process, and Performance Description and foundational prompting techniques
  • Evaluate AI outputs, processes, and behavior critically and refine results through the Description-Discernment loop
  • Practice Creation, Transparency, and Deployment Diligence to take responsibility for AI-assisted work

At Anthropic, we believe that empowering people with AI, and ensuring that AI makes safe contributions to society, requires engaging with a wide range of human perspectives and experiences. Responsible AI development and engagement isn't something any single discipline or viewpoint can fully address. It demands collaborative approaches that span a wide range of technical, creative, business, scientific, and educational domains. That's why we partnered with educators who bring complementary expertise to create this foundational course on AI collaboration.

This course is the result of a long partnership between Anthropic and professors Rick Dakan from Ringling College of Art and Design and Joseph Feller from University College Cork. Rick and Joe developed the AI Fluency Framework in 2023-2024, based on their research exploring how AI tools like Claude were transforming creative and business processes. When we saw the framework, we immediately recognized a shared vision: helping people interact with AI effectively and responsibly, beyond just “cool prompts.” Their framework offered exactly the kind of multidisciplinary perspective we believe is essential for navigating AI’s impact on society.

The AI Fluency Framework they created — four interconnected competencies (Delegation, Description, Discernment, and Diligence) — enables more effective, efficient, ethical, and safe human-AI collaboration, regardless of which new AI models or tools emerge. We collaborated to develop this course based on their framework, bringing together our collective expertise in AI systems, education, creativity, and business innovation. The work was supported in part by the Higher Education Authority (Ireland) through the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.

This framework has already informed undergraduate and postgraduate courses at both Ringling College and University College Cork, as well as staff training initiatives and community outreach events. Now, we’re excited to share these insights more broadly through this open online course.

Our goal is to make AI Fluency accessible and useful to everyone, no matter what stage of AI expertise you find yourself at. We hope you find it valuable in navigating the evolving landscape of AI collaboration.

About this course

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After finishing the course, you will have the opportunity to take a final assessment and earn a completion badge.

AI diligence statement

In the development of the AI Fluency: Framework and Foundations course, we engaged in extensive collaboration with Claude 3.7 from Anthropic.

The base content for this course came from:

  • The AI Fluency Framework Practical Summary Document by Rick Dakan (at Ringling College of Art and Design) and Joseph Feller (at University College Cork) and related working documents and research notes
  • Slide decks and lecture transcripts from multiple university courses, guest lectures, and research talks delivered by Feller and/or Dakan
  • Technical/practical content provided by Maggie Vo and Drew Bent (Anthropic)

Throughout this process, Claude assisted one or more of the human authors with structural development, resource and exercise design, and content drafting, critiquing, editing and rewriting. The human authors wrote, designed, edited and provided continual vision, expertise, critical judgment, and domain knowledge and made all final decisions about both content and approach.

All AI-generated and co-created content underwent thorough validation, editing, and curation by the human authors. The final materials accurately reflect the human authors' understanding, expertise, and intended pedagogical approach. While AI assistance was instrumental in producing these materials, the human authors maintain responsibility for the content.

This disclosure is made in the spirit of transparency advocated by the AI Fluency Framework and to acknowledge the evolving role of AI in educational content development and other creative and intellectual work.