Syllabus

What the four weeks look like

A four-week elective for fourth-year medical students, graded pass/fail and delivered over Zoom, running October 12 to November 6, 2026. Nothing in the course needs an install, a paid account, or a real patient.

The one idea

It is your job to learn where AI helps your work. Nobody can tell you in advance, and the tools change every few months. You find out by trying, often, on things that matter to you, and you learn where AI fails the same way. This course gives you a framework, a routine, and people to try things with. Most of your learning will be your own, done with AI.

The safety rules are short. Use your university ChatGPT Edu or Copilot account. Never put real patient information into a course activity. Check what matters before you rely on it. You sign the note. What counts as patient information is on its own page.

What is expected each week

  • About 3 hours of sessions, live or recorded, chosen by your interest. Talks from the course director, guest talks, and workshops all count. Come to more if you like.
  • Your Friday small group, one hour, live, in a time slot you sign up for in Canvas. See Friday small groups.
  • Learn it with AI, 2 to 4 hours. Use AI to teach yourself something you care about. This is the main hands-on work of the course.
  • Your learning journal entry, due Thursday night. About 30 minutes.

The chapters are a guide, not assignments. Each week’s core chapter goes with Monday’s talk: read it after the talk, or instead of it. The menu chapters are there for the topics that interest you.

Plan on about 7.5 to 9.5 hours a week, including about an hour for the week’s chapter.

Slides and handout notes for each of the course director’s talks are posted at https://talks.seandavis.net.

Week 1: live, October 12 to 16

Week 1 is different from the rest. The course director teaches live every weekday morning, Monday to Thursday, at 10 a.m. Mountain time (Denver). These sessions are recorded. The small groups meet for the first time on Friday. Canvas has the current schedule if anything changes.

Table 1: Week 1. All times are Mountain time (Denver).
Day Session
Monday, October 12, 10 a.m. Welcome: how the course works, and how adults learn best
Tuesday, October 13, 10 a.m. A short history of AI
Wednesday, October 14, 10 a.m. What AI is: from AI to machine learning to deep learning to large language models, with time to try it together
Thursday, October 15, 10 a.m. Hands-on: set up your learning with ChatGPT. Bring your ChatGPT Edu account. We set it up together, then use it to research what the field expects and build your own plan for the four weeks. Work through Plan your four weeks with ChatGPT.
Thursday, October 15, 11 a.m. Office hours, drop in. Bring what you are stuck on
Friday, October 16 Small groups, in the time slot you signed up for: introductions, then open discussion

Weeks 2 to 4: your week

There are more sessions on the calendar than anyone needs to attend. Choose about 3 hours from the “Your choice” rows below.

Table 2: Your week, weeks 2 to 4. “Your choice” rows together: about 3 hours a week. All times are Mountain time (Denver). The guest schedule is posted in Canvas.
When What Expected? Time
Monday, 10 a.m., 60 minutes, live and recorded “How I used AI this week”: the course director’s own real tasks, shown on screen. Then a talk on the week’s core topic, with live demonstrations Your choice 1 hour
Wednesday, 10 a.m., 60 minutes, live and recorded A talk on a second topic: a menu chapter, or something beyond the book. Some weeks a guest gives it Your choice 1 hour
Through the week Guest talks and workshops from clinicians and researchers using AI in their work Your choice 1 to 2 hours
After Monday’s talk The week’s core chapter, read after the talk or instead of it Suggested About 1 hour; each chapter gives its own time
On your own Learn it with AI: use AI to teach yourself something you care about. This is the main hands-on work of the course Yes 2 to 4 hours
Wednesday, 2 to 3:30 p.m., live and recorded Watch and do: try it live, together. Hands-on, content announced in Canvas Optional Up to 90 minutes
Thursday, 11 to 11:45 a.m., live Office hours, drop in: bring what you are stuck on. Not recorded Optional 45 minutes
Thursday night Learning journal entry Yes 30 minutes
Friday, 60 minutes, live Small group, in one of four time slots you choose: open discussion, with topics you bring. Not recorded Yes, in your slot 1 hour
Any time Chapters from the menu, and the open labs Optional As you like

Weeks 2 to 4: the talks

This is a starting plan, and topics may change. Canvas has the current one.

Week 2, October 19 to 23: getting good at it

  • Monday: Getting good answers. How a chatbot reads your prompt, with a live demonstration. Goes with the core chapter, the prompting lab.
  • Wednesday: Professional work with AI: writing and beyond, with co-director Christina Olson.

Week 3, October 26 to 30: AI and your patients

  • Monday, 10 a.m. to noon: a workshop with co-director Christina Olson, in place of the Monday talk. The core chapter, Talking to patients about AI, stands on its own this week.
  • Tuesday, 11 a.m.: guest talk from CT Lin, “I’m Sorry Dave, I’m Afraid I Can’t Do That”, on AI, sepsis, and replies to patient messages.
  • Wednesday: to be announced, either bias and equity (goes with Bias and equity) or building a small tool live (goes with Agentic coding).
  • Friday, October 30: bring your clinical stories. In your small group, you bring situations where AI helped or hurt in patient care, and you lead the discussion. The co-directors join some of the groups. Leave out anything that could identify a patient.

Week 4, November 2 to 6: responsibility

Core and menu, week by week

Each chapter stands alone. The core chapter is the one framework idea for the week. The menu is there so you can follow what interests you.

Table 3: Core chapter and menu.
Week Core Menu (choose one or more)
1 · October 12 to 16 How these systems work (the live talks cover it) No menu. Thursday’s session works through Plan your four weeks with ChatGPT
2 · October 19 to 23 Prompting lab: getting good answers, and knowing their limits Critical appraisal, Bias and equity, Grounding AI in real sources
3 · October 26 to 30 Talking to patients about AI Agentic coding, the scribe open lab
4 · November 2 to 6 Ethics: what you owe when you sign the note Will AI take your job?, What AI costs the planet

Attendance

Aim for about 3 hours a week of sessions, live or recorded, chosen by your interest, plus your Friday small group. Sign up for one Friday time in the Canvas Calendar each week, so your group can change from week to week. If you will miss a session, follow your school’s process for registering absences.

This is a busy time of year, with interviews and travel. You are taking responsibility for your own learning, so choose what serves it. The recordings and the chapters let you catch up.

Due dates

Table 4: Due dates. Submit in Canvas, in that week’s module.
Due What
Thursday, October 15 Learning journal, week 1
Thursday, October 22 Learning journal, week 2
Thursday, October 29 Learning journal, week 3
Thursday, November 5 Week 4 piece, “what you will keep”. You also present a five-minute version at your Friday group on November 6. If you cannot come that day, submitting the piece is enough

Grading

The course is pass/fail. Each learning journal entry is marked complete or incomplete, with a one-line reply in weeks 1 and 2. If an entry is a few days late, that is fine. The course director reads the journals, and nobody else sees yours unless you choose to share it. What goes in each entry is on the learning journal page.