Claude Essentials for Business Users

Learning Objectives

• Explain what Claude is, how it works at a conceptual level, and how it differs from tools like ChatGPT or Gemini
• Write clear, well-structured prompts using role, context, format, and constraints, and refine them iteratively
• Use Claude to draft, revise, summarize, and analyze everyday business documents such as emails, reports, and long files
• Describe what Claude Cowork is and how working with your files, folders, and apps differs from a normal chat
• Set up Claude Cowork and hand Claude its first multi-step task, then steer it through to a finished result
• Personalize Claude Cowork with standing context — global instructions and projects — to get better results faster
• Extend Claude Cowork with skills and plugins that capture your own and your team’s expertise
• Use Claude where you already work, including Claude in Chrome and Claude for Microsoft 365
• Work safely and responsibly: validate outputs and skills, protect sensitive data, and share what you build with your team
• Identify tasks where Claude performs reliably versus where human review is essential, and build Claude into your daily workflow

Course Outline

Module 1: Getting Started with Claude

This module establishes a working understanding of Claude without requiring technical depth. Students learn what a large language model is in plain terms, how Anthropic built Claude, and what makes it different (Constitutional AI, and why Claude declines certain requests or expresses uncertainty). Students get oriented to the Claude interface and account, and to the two ways they will use Claude all day: chatting on Claude.ai and working hands-on with Claude Cowork.

Module 2: Prompting Fundamentals

This module covers the core skill of the course: writing prompts that produce useful, accurate, appropriately scoped responses. Students learn the components of an effective prompt (context, instruction, format guidance, and constraints), examine common mistakes alongside corrected examples, and practice techniques such as assigning Claude a role, providing background, specifying output length or format, and breaking complex requests into steps. Students write and refine prompts for realistic workplace scenarios.

Module 3: Everyday Business Tasks with Claude

This module applies prompting to the writing and analysis work students do most. Students draft and improve emails, memos, updates, and professional correspondence; adjust tone and rewrite in plain language; and paste in documents, reports, or data to get structured summaries, key takeaways, comparisons, and question-and-answer sessions. Emphasis is placed on giving Claude good source material and on reviewing and validating output before it is sent or published.

Module 4: Meet Claude Cowork

This module moves students from chatting to doing. Cowork is Claude working directly with your files, folders, and apps — reading, editing, and producing real outputs on your machine. Students learn what Claude Cowork is and how it differs from a chat, set up Cowork, see what it can and cannot do, and hand Claude their first real multi-step task — describing the goal and steering as Claude plans and works through it.

Module 5: Making Claude Cowork Yours

This module is about getting better results faster. Students use standing context — global instructions and projects — so Claude remembers how they work; teach Claude repeatable know-how with skills; and encode their team’s expertise with plugins. Students personalize Cowork for the recurring tasks in their own role so it produces on-target results with less back-and-forth.

Module 6: Using Claude Where You Work

This module brings Claude into the tools students already use every day. Students learn to work with Claude in Chrome alongside web apps and pages, and with Claude for Microsoft 365 across documents, email, and spreadsheets. The module covers when to reach for each surface so Claude fits naturally into existing workflows rather than becoming a separate destination.

Module 7: Working Safely, Sharing, and Building Claude Into Your Day

The final module covers responsible, sustainable use. Students learn best practices for working safely on multi-step tasks, validating skills and plugins before trusting them, and handling sensitive business data appropriately. They learn to read refusals and uncertainty as signals rather than obstacles, and to share what they build with their team. Each student picks two or three tasks from their own role, drafts the prompts and Cowork setups for them, and the day closes with review and open Q&A.