Understanding & Using Generative AI: A Course for Health Science Librarians

In this course, you will get hands-on experience with generative AI models for education, with specific applications to health sciences. You will come away with a deeper understanding of the underlying technology, prompting techniques, multimodal features, and ethical issues such as bias, copyright, and privacy protection. You’ll develop methods for staying current and avoiding hype about AI. And finally, you’ll become familiar with the most hopeful possibilities for applications of generative AI for health and medicine. Please note: This webinar is restricted to individuals in Region 4 (AZ, ID, CO, MT, NM, ND, SD, UT, WY).

This is a six-week asynchronous course. Each week will include:

• Several short video lectures (total viewing time: about 60 minutes per week)
• Related readings
• Hands-on activities with several options for each topic.

Expect to spend about 3 to 4 hours per week to participate fully in the course.

Prerequisites: No technical understanding of generative AI is needed. You will need to create free accounts on several AI systems such as ChatGPT, Claude, and NotebookLM, Elicit, and Perplexity. Links to the necessary accounts will be provided.

Resource URL: https://www.nnlm.gov/training/class/understanding-using-generative-ai-course-health-science-librarians

Learning Objectives

After completing this course, you will be able to: 

• Understand generative AI technologies.
• Address ethical concerns like bias and privacy.
• Utilize AI for data analysis and multimedia creation.
• Become familiar with generative AI as it’s used in healthcare and medicine.

Agenda

• Week 1: Understanding generative AI technology (February 7 – 13, 2025)
• Week 2: Prompting for language models (February 14 – 20, 2025)
• Week 3: Using multimodal features (February 21 – 27, 2025)
• Week 4: Creating multimedia with generative AI (February 28 – March 6, 2025)
• Week 5: Staying current and avoiding the hype (March 7 – 13, 2025)
• Week 6: Applications of generative AI in healthcare and medicine (March 14 – 21, 2025)

MLA CE Credits: 24