I first heard about Connecticut’s free AI Academy through an email from State Senator James Maroney’s office. I signed up partly out of curiosity and partly to evaluate whether it was something I could recommend to readers who are just getting started with AI. I’ve taken a fair number of AI and cloud computing courses over the years and use AI tools daily in my work — so my perspective is one data point, not the only one.
That said, I’d recommend it.
What It Is
The Connecticut Online AI Academy is a free, five-week, fully online course offered through Charter Oak State College in partnership with Google. It’s open to all Connecticut residents aged 18 and older. No prerequisites. No cost. You earn the Google AI Essentials certificate upon completion.
The core curriculum is Google’s AI Essentials on Coursera — five modules covering AI fundamentals, productivity tools, prompt engineering, responsible AI use, and staying current. Charter Oak layers on supplemental materials, weekly discussion posts, and practical assignments that connect the concepts to your own work. The whole thing is asynchronous. No live sessions, no scheduled meetings. You work on your own schedule within each week’s window.
Why It’s Free
State Senator James Maroney (D-Milford) championed AI education legislation in 2024. The Connecticut Legislature funded the program, Google donates the Coursera licenses through its Grow with Google initiative, and Charter Oak State College administers it.
The demand has been remarkable. The initial goal was 1,000 participants in the first year. Sign-ups exceeded that in three days. The legislature has since allocated an additional $1 million over two years for expansion, including industry-specific certificates and a Teen AI Academy.
What It’s Actually Like
Plan for about 4 hours per week, not the advertised 2–3. The Coursera modules are well-produced and genuinely approachable for beginners. Someone new to AI should expect to spend the full estimated time on the Coursera content; if you have some background, you’ll move through it faster. Either way, the weekly assignments — discussion posts, peer replies, practical exercises, and a capstone AI Action Plan — require substantive writing regardless of where you’re starting from.
The course runs across three platforms: Coursera for the core content, Blackboard for assignments and supplemental materials, and Packback for weekly discussions. It works, though Blackboard’s link to Packback fails about half the time on the first click. Minor but consistent.
I’ll be honest about the discussions. In a course that teaches you to use AI tools, most posts are visibly AI-generated. The irony is not lost on anyone. But the real learning happens in the assignments, where you apply the concepts to your own workplace. The instructors — Kristi Newgarden and Holly Howery — grade with detailed, personalized feedback. This isn’t an auto-graded course.
What Surprised Me
A few things stuck with me that I wasn’t expecting.
Week 4 covers the NIST AI Risk Management Framework — transparency, safety, ethics, efficacy. I was already familiar with NIST’s broader risk management work, but seeing it applied specifically to AI evaluation was useful. It’s a clean framework for anyone assessing AI tools in their organization.
A supplemental interview with Scott Lowry, who founded the AI Healthcare Collaborative in Connecticut, introduced a five-path framework for AI in healthcare.
The course also introduced an AI Usage Types framework — categorizing how AI can assist different tasks, from spell-checking and editing to ideation and content creation — that I used directly to draft an AI usage assessment for our IT department.
And the capstone assignment forced me to put concrete goals and timelines on 2026 plans I’d been carrying around informally. Structured reflection has a way of turning intentions into commitments.
Who Should Sign Up
If you’re a Connecticut resident and you’ve never had formal AI training, this is a no-brainer. It’s structured, it’s credentialed, and it costs nothing. You’ll walk away understanding what AI actually is, how to use it effectively, and what to watch out for — with a Google-backed certificate to show for it. Coursera lets you link the certificate to your LinkedIn profile in one click, if that matters to you.
If you already work with AI daily, the core content will be review. Whether the supplemental materials and the structured reflection justify 20-plus hours is a judgment call. For me, it was worth it — but I also came in specifically to evaluate whether to recommend it to readers who are newer to AI. That answer is yes.
Register for the Next Section
I’ve completed all assignments and am averaging 100% across the board. My final course grade won’t be in until the end of next week.
The next section starts February 23, 2026. Register through Charter Oak Workforce Development.
Update, Feb. 20, 2026: My final grade for the course was 100%.