Prompt Engineering for ChatGPT
by Vanderbilt University
This Vanderbilt University course goes deeper than most prompt engineering guides. It teaches repeatable frameworks for prompting AI that work across different tools and tasks — from writing and research to decision-making and automation. It is particularly strong on prompt patterns for knowledge workers: writers, analysts, managers, and researchers. If you want to do more than just type questions into ChatGPT, this course teaches you to think systematically about how to use AI.
What you will learn
- Repeatable prompt patterns that work for writing, analysis, and research tasks
- How to use AI as a thinking partner, not just a text generator
- Advanced techniques: chain-of-thought prompting, role-based prompts, and more
- How to adapt the same prompt framework to different AI tools
- How to build reusable prompt templates for tasks you repeat every day
Who is this for
- Knowledge workers who want to use AI tools much more effectively and consistently
- Writers, analysts, and researchers who spend hours on repetitive text tasks
- People who have tried ChatGPT but found the results inconsistent or disappointing
- Managers who want to save their team hours by integrating AI into workflows
Why we recommend it
- 1Taught by a Vanderbilt University professor — academic rigour with practical application
- 2Covers prompt patterns that generalise across different AI tools, not just ChatGPT
- 3Strong focus on knowledge work: writing, analysis, and decision-making
- 4Free to audit — university-level content at no cost
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