⭐ EFIKO Original · Free micro-certificate
AI for Research
Using Artificial Intelligence Tools Responsibly to Power Your Academic Work
Start this free courseThis practical course helps university students and early-career researchers use AI tools to strengthen every stage of the research process, from finding literature to analysing data and writing. You will learn to prompt AI effectively, verify outputs, avoid plagiarism, and follow ethical and integrity standards. Designed to be mobile and offline friendly, the course focuses on real research tasks so you can apply what you learn immediately and responsibly.
What you'll learn
- Explain how common AI tools work and where they fit in the research workflow.
- Apply effective prompting techniques to support literature searches, summaries, and drafting.
- Evaluate AI-generated outputs for accuracy, bias, and hallucination.
- Apply research integrity and citation standards when using AI.
- Use AI tools to assist with data organisation and analysis tasks.
- Design a responsible personal AI-use plan for your own research project.
Course sessions
- Understanding AI in the Research Landscape. Generative AI and LLMs are powerful fluency machines that assist with brainstorming, summarising, and drafting, but they cannot verify fact…
- Prompting for Better Research Outputs. Well-structured prompts using Role, Task, Context, and Format, plus iterative refinement and source verification, dramatically improve the…
- Finding and Reviewing Literature with AI. AI speeds literature discovery, but you must verify every source in trusted databases and synthesise findings by theme to build a credible…
- Verifying Accuracy and Avoiding Bias. AI can produce convincing but false claims and fake citations, so use a trace-source, cross-check, and check-bias workflow to verify everyt…
- AI for Data, Drafting, and Analysis. AI can accelerate data cleaning, drafting, and editing, but you must apply, verify, and interpret its outputs so your voice and analytical…
- Ethics, Integrity, and Your AI-Use Plan. Ethical AI use means disclosing assistance, verifying every claim, protecting confidential data, and following your institution's policies…
Sample lesson: Understanding AI in the Research Landscape
Generative AI refers to systems that create new content, such as text, images or code, rather than just sorting existing data. Large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini are a type of generative AI trained on huge collections of text to predict the next likely word. This makes them fluent, but they do…
Competencies you'll gain
- Effective and ethical prompting of AI tools for research tasks
- Critical verification of AI outputs for accuracy and bias
- Responsible use of AI in literature review, data, and writing
- Application of academic integrity and citation standards to AI use
Frequently asked questions
Is the AI for Research course free?
Yes. AI for Research is a free EFIKO Original micro-certificate course — you can learn it at no cost and earn a verifiable certificate on completion.
Do I get a certificate for AI for Research?
Yes. Pass the final assessment and you earn a verifiable EFIKO certificate with a QR code and public verification link, listing the competencies you achieved.
How long does AI for Research take?
About 5 hours across 6 short sessions, each with a lesson, quiz and flashcards. You can learn at your own pace, even offline.
Who is AI for Research for?
It is designed for university students and early researchers, at a intermediate level. No prior experience is assumed.