Skip to 0 minutes and 3 seconds Unlock the power of AI in the social sector with our MOOC AI for social professionals. Gain practical skills to enhance your work, automate tasks and tackle ethical challenges. Engage in interactive sessions, peer discussions and real world examples to drive impactful, inclusive social change. Join our vibrant community today.
AI for Social Professionals
Discover how to responsibly use AI in social services to enhance client care, improve efficiency, and make a meaningful impact.
Duration
5 weeksWeekly study
3 hours100% online
How it worksDigital upgrade
Free
AI for Social Professionals
Leverage AI tools to transform social service practices and empower communities
AI is evolving industries everywhere – including social services. With new technologies emerging, social professionals must understand how to navigate these tools while upholding ethical standards.
Join Vives University College on this comprehensive five-week course, where you’ll learn how to leverage AI responsibly in social services to enhance client care, improve efficiency, and make a meaningful impact in your practice.
Explore machine learning and generative AI’s potential in social services
Start by diving into the foundational concepts of AI and its growing role in social services.
You’ll explore how AI tools can support social service practices, from client management to decision-making, and see real-world examples of AI in action.
Develop practical skills with AI tools for client support
With the help of practical examples, you’ll discover how to ethically use AI tools to ease workloads and help social professionals provide better, more personalised care.
In working through practical applications, you’ll become better positioned to optimise various areas of case management, from progress tracking to documentation and intervention plans.
Apply AI to mental health support and community safety
During the final weeks of this course, you’ll evaluate the effectiveness of AI tools like chatbots and predictive models, gaining insight into their role in identifying mental health risks and providing support.
You’ll also gain a deeper understanding of AI’s potential to enhance communication, empathy, and intervention strategies for vulnerable clients.
Lastly, you’ll discover AI’s macro-level applications, from detecting cyberbullying and preventing suicide to enhancing community safety, helping you address larger societal challenges and make an impact on your community’s well-being.
Syllabus
Week 1
Introduction to AI for social professionals
Introduction to the first week
Hello and welcome to the first week of our AI for social professionals course.
Section 1: Introduction to BFF and its mission
In this course, we’ve created BFF (Bright Future Foundation), a fictional organization, to guide learners through the course and demonstrate how AI can be integrated for everyday tasks of social professionals.
Section 2: Social Professionals
This section will delve deeper into the roles and responsibilities of social professionals.
Section 3: What is AI?
In this section, we’ll introduce you to Artificial Intelligence, clear up common misconceptions, explore its evolution, and dive into the different AI models shaping the future.
Conclusion
Congratulations! You have made it to the end of the first week. In the next week we will explore specific AI use-cases that can help assist social professionals in informing and advising clients.
Week 2
AI to inform and advise clients
Introduction to week 2
A short introduction of the scope of week 2 and the learning objectives
Section 1: AI website-integrated chatbots for social organizations
We discuss the opportunities and challenges of AI website-integrated chatbots for social organizations. Expert is Sammy Deprez who created an AI-based chatbot for a local municipality in Belgium.
Section 2: Improving information acessibility with AI
information accessibility, which means, ensuring that everyone can access information regardless of their background or condition, is a critical aspect for social professionals. This Section will show how AI can assist!
Section 3: Robotic Process Automation
In this section we will discuss how social professionals can use AI for automating repetitive tasks!
Section 4: Ready-to-use tools to enhance efficiency for social professionals
While RPA offers long-term efficiency by automating structured tasks, its implementation requires significant preparation, including digitization and data organization. In this section we demonstrate ready-to-use tools
Conclusion
Summary of second week and discussion
Week 3
Let AI manage your caseload
Introduction to week 3
Introduction and learning objectives of week 3
Section 1: Risk assessment for new clients
This section explores how AI can be used to assess the risk of new clients based on the Allegheny Family Screening Tool. This AI tools helps in decision-making processes for social professionals to identify at-risk individuals.
Section 2: AI for managing documentation
After identifying those at-risk, casemanagers have to create intervention plans and track the progress of their clients. AI tools can help to assist casemanagers for these tasks.
Section 3: Client reporting with AI
When you have identified those at-risk, and created intervention plans, you'll need to further consult with your client throughout the process. In this section we demonstrate how AI tools can assist in reporting consultations.
Conclusion
Summary and discussion of week 3
Week 4
AI companions: friendly or faceless?
Introduction to week 4
Introduction and learning objectives of week 4
Section 1: Mental health chatbots
This part explores the use of AI-mental health chatbots as tools for support, education, and assessment, while also addressing their limitations and potential risks, particularly for vulnerable individuals like adolescents.
Section 2: Social robots and emotion detection
First Prof. Tony Belpaeme discusses his current research projects concerning the use of social robots for children with autism and elderly people. Second, Prof. Orphée De Clercq, explains the basics of emotion detection with AI.
Section 3: Proactive mental health intervention
This part explores the use of AI tools for proactive mental health intervention, focusing on early detection and prediction of various mental health issues such as eating disorders, depression, suicidality, stress, and burnout.
Section 4: Boost your conversational skills
In this section, we demonstrate how social professionals can use AI tools to enhance their conversational skills and navigate difficult encounters with clients.
Conclusion
Summary and discussion of week 4
Week 5
Physical and digital community well-being
Introduction to week 5
Introduction with learning objectives
Section 1: digital well-being
This section discusses how AI can help improve digital well-being of individuals and communities by detecting cyberbullying, polarisation and suicidal indications on online platforms.
Section 2: enhancing physical community safety with risk terrain modelling
In this section, we explore how AI tools can assist in Risk terrain modelling to enhance community safety.
Section 3: design your own AI policy
In this section, you will apply the insights and skills gained throughout this MOOC to develop an AI policy tailored to your social organization.
Conclusion
Week 5 wrap-up
When would you like to start?
Start straight away and join a global classroom of learners. If the course hasn’t started yet you’ll see the future date listed below.
Available now
Learning on this course
On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.
What will you achieve?
By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...
- Apply AI tools to enhance social work practices across individual, group, and community settings
- Create personalized client advice using AI models for judicial, financial, and social service needs
- Develop case management solutions using AI for risk assessment and administrative tasks
- Evaluate mental health applications of AI, including chatbots, social robots, and prediction models
- Assess ethical implications and regulatory requirements when implementing AI in social services
- Design responsible AI implementation strategies that balance efficiency with client well-being
- Practice improved professional communication skills using AI and virtual reality tools
- Describe how AI can contribute to community safety initiatives and cyberbullying prevention
Who is the course for?
This course is for social professionals, including social workers, psychologists, counsellors, therapists, and nonprofit staff, who want to explore ethical AI applications in social services.
Who developed the course?
Vives University of Applied Sciences
With over 17,500 students we are one of the largest Universities of Applied Sciences in Flanders. Our wide array of studies in six fields of study are tailored to your skills and interests as a future student.
Endorsers and supporters
endorsed by
endorsed by
What's included?
Vives University of Applied Sciences are offering everyone who joins this course a free digital upgrade, so that you can experience the full benefits of studying online for free. This means that you get:
Unlimited access to this course
Includes any articles, videos, peer reviews and quizzes
Tests to validate your learning
A PDF Certificate of Achievement to prove your success when you’re eligible
Learning on FutureLearn
Your learning, your rules
- Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
- Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
- Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores
Join a global classroom
- Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
- Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
- Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others
Map your progress
- As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
- Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control
- Complete 90% of course steps and all of the assessments to earn your certificate
Want to know more about learning on FutureLearn? Using FutureLearn
Do you know someone who'd love this course? Tell them about it...
More courses you might like
Learners who joined this course have also enjoyed these courses.
Browse more in Politics & Society and IT & Computer Science
