AI Foundations 1: Concepts and Tools

  • Online
  • $475

This micro-course can be applied toward the UBC Certificate in AI Skills Accelerator for IT, Digital and Enterprise Systems Professionals and is the introductory level 1 micro-course in the AI Foundations track. 

This comprehensive introductory micro-course is designed for IT and digital professionals to build foundational AI knowledge through hands-on experience with AI toolkits, generative AI applications and responsible AI practices. Gain industry-relevant skills to participate confidently in organizational AI initiatives and strategic identification of AI opportunities in professional contexts.

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

  • Understand capabilities of generative AI and how it can impact employees in daily work.
  • Differentiate core concepts and principles of generative AI and machine learning, including related tool selection.
  • Identify common AI approaches (discriminative and generative), tools, frameworks, and platforms used in IT, finance, and operations.
  • Understand basics of data management for AI, including the importance of data and related privacy implications.
  • Evaluate opportunities to integrate AI in workflows to solve real‑world problems.
  • Analyze the ethical, environmental, and societal implications of generative AI.
  • Confidently discuss AI with stakeholders and technical teams.
  • Explore generative modeling approaches, including GANs, VAEs, and transformers.
  • Implement and evaluate generative AI models, and apply techniques across text, image, video, and music generation.

Platform and tool selection varies and is regularly updated to reflect current industry trends, and has included OpenAI’s Custom GPTS, Hugging Face AutoTrain, Google AI Studio, Poe, ML Studio and ChatRTX, among others.

Course outline

  • Module 1: AI and machine learning fundamentals for organizations
  • Module 2: AI Toolkits: Platforms, APIs
  • Module 3: Data foundations for AI and privacy
  • Module 4: AI in action: Applications across industries
  • Module 5: Responsible AI: Bias, fairness and impact
  • Module 6: Four prevalent principles of AI ethics
  • Module 7: Getting started with generative AI
  • Module 8: Generative AI models and applications
  • Module 9: Creating with AI: text, image and beyond
  • Module 10: Generative AI ethics: Risks and responsibilities
  • Module 11: AI at work: Impact on daily tasks

How am I assessed?

You will be assessed on successfully completing weekly activities, including exercises, quizzes, applied case study projects (based on real-life scenarios) and your contributions to discussion posts. These activities are marked using a proficiency scale, and your instructor provides you informal feedback during live online sessions.

While you are not assessed on your attendance of the live online sessions, we encourage you to attend so you can learn and interact with your instructor and other participants. All sessions are recorded in case you miss one.

This micro-course operates on a pass/fail basis. You must achieve an overall grade of 70% or greater to pass and be eligible to earn the UBC Certificate in AI Skills Accelerator for IT, Digital and Enterprise Systems Professionals.

Expected effort

Expect to spend approximately 14 hours per week per course completing all learning activities, including attending live sessions online.

Course format

This 100% online part-time program consists of instructor-supported real-time classes combined with independent study. 

Each micro-course will consist of a weekly virtual class taught by subject matter experts and a high degree of personal engagement and interactivity. Outside of class, you can access online materials on your own time.

One business day before the micro-course start date, we’ll email you step-by-step instructions for accessing your micro-course.

Available sessions

Available course sessions
Dates Days Time Format Tuition Description
Wed 4:30 pm Online $475
Thurs 4:30 pm Online $475

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How can we help?

We’re here to answer your questions, discuss learning options and provide insights, recommendations and referrals.  

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