This online course covers how technical communicators can use Generative Artificial Intelligence to help them:
- Be more efficient
- Create better deliverables for their users
Why attend this course?
Integrating AI and natural language processing technologies promise to make Technical Writers more efficient and more effective at what they do.
By attending this course, you’ll gain a better understanding of how generative AI can be used by technical communicators. You learn a framework you can use for using tools such as ChatGPT at the different stages of a technical writing project.
Our story with AI
We came to AI the same way most people did — slowly, then all at once.
We’d worked on decision-tree AI projects in the past, but like many, we didn’t pay much attention when ChatGPT first appeared. Then a group of developers contacted us, researching AI’s potential in technical writing. Those conversations changed everything. They revealed how much there was to learn, and how profoundly AI could reshape our field.
We made a deliberate choice: lean in. We committed to exploring everything AI could offer technical writers, approaching it with curiosity rather than caution.
One of the best ways to learn is to teach, so we built this course. It forced us to go deeper, think harder, and translate what we were discovering into something genuinely useful for others.
We went through all the key stages in a technical writing project. At each step, we investigated whether AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude could make a Technical Writer’s job easier and better. After a lot of research and testing, we ended up with the content for this course.
The curriculum covers AI basics, prompt engineering, content development, publishing with AI, and advanced techniques.
It provides a framework that attendees can use to identify opportunities and best practices for integrating ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and similar tools into their technical authoring processes – creating, managing, and delivering technical content.
It’s ideal for technical writers involved in creating user guides, help files, and knowledge bases with some prior experience in technical writing.
Since then, we’ve been invited to speak about AI at conferences across the industry, and have been recognised as pioneers in applying AI to technical communication. We’ve also been involved in AI-related writing and consultancy projects. That recognition means a lot, but what matters more is staying at the edge of what’s possible and bringing you with us.
Who is this course for?
This course is for people who have some experience of technical writing, and who want to improve their skills.
What will I learn?
You’ll learn and practice:
- What are AI technologies and their relevance to technical writing?
- Career opportunities and threats
- How you can use AI at different stages of the documentation process. We cover topics such as planning, writing, reviewing, and production.
- How to work more efficiently.
- How to work more effectively.
The course does not go into much detail about using generative AI to create images, audio or videos.
Learning materials
The course comprises online training modules (approximately 6 hours of video, plus handouts), which you can complete at your own pace. The course modules are delivered over the Web in small, manageable video presentations. You can pause the videos at any time and return to the course at times that suit you.
The course is roughly equivalent to a 3 day classroom course.
Examples
The modules describe practical examples and techniques you can use right away.
Demonstrations
The modules contain demonstrations of the techniques and tools when they’re applied to technical writing.
Exercises
You’ll be given exercises to work on throughout the course. This is a great way to put your learning to practice.
This course also includes 44 optional online practice exercises. They’re designed to help you apply what you’re learning as you go, not just absorb theory.
Your Instructor
Cherryleaf is a technical writing services company formed in 2002 by people with a passion for technical communication and learning development.
Cherryleaf is recognised as a leader within the technical communication profession. Our staff have written articles for the Institute of Scientific and Technical Communicator's Communicator journal and tekom's TCWorld magazine. They've also written books on technical communication. We've presented webinars for Adobe, Madcap Software and the ISTC, and we've spoken at various conferences around the world.
Today, organisations throughout the world use Cherryleaf’s services so they can provide clear information that enables users and staff to complete tasks productively.