Using Large Language Models Responsibly and Effectively - A Practical Course

18 June 2025

Screenshot of eLearning course overview

Last updated: 18 June 2025

Course description

Some of the contents and language of this course has been refined for clarity and consistency using AI, however all contents have been organised, reviewed and finalised by Gradient Institute’s staff and experts.

We recommend taking this course after completing the Responsible AI Primer eLearning course from Gradient Institute, but it is not essential.

Large Language Models (LLMs) are powerful AI tools that are rapidly transforming how we work with text, generate ideas, and interact with information. But how do you use them effectively and responsibly, especially if you don’t have a technical background?

This course is designed for anyone who wants to better understand and make use of LLMs in their personal and professional lives. It is designed especially for those working in not-for-profit organisations and other mission-driven environments. With real-world examples and interactive exercises, you’ll learn what LLMs do well, where they can fall short, and how to use them confidently in your daily work.

By the end of this course, you’ll be able to:

  • Understand how LLMs generate text, and why their answers can vary
  • Use LLMs for common tasks like brainstorming, summarising, writing support, and simple coding, while ensuring all outputs are reviewed
  • Recognise and identify limitations of LLMs such as outdated information, hallucinations, or overly flattering (sycophantic) replies
  • Apply key criteria to choose the right tool for your needs, including model capabilities, usability, ethical and practical considerations

Note: this course will not cover a comparison of popular commercially-available LLM tools, as their capabilities are evolving too rapidly. Instead, this course will provide you with the necessary knowledge and capability to conduct these comparisons for yourselves and your needs.

Chapters

  1. Introduction
  2. How LLMs work
  3. Choosing between LLM tools
  4. What are LLMs good at?
  5. What are LLMs not so good at?
  6. Using LLM tools in practice
  7. Key takeaways

Course duration

This course will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

Access requests

This course is free to Australian not-for-profit organisations through the support of a grant from Google.org, Google’s charitable arm. Please email Gradient Institute at info@gradientinstitute.org for a link to download this course.

Available eLearning formats:

  • SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004
  • xAPI package
  • HTML package

Copyright notice

This eLearning course produced by Gradient Institute is copyright Gradient Institute 2025. Provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.