Getting Started with Claude and Cowork

Intended Audience: Faculty with no prior experience or limited experience with Claude, the Claude desktop app or Claude Cowork. Faculty who already use Claude Cowork or Claude Code regularly may wish to skip this session. 

Day 1 will be an orientation to Claude's three interfaces: 1) the chat window most faculty already know, 2) Cowork (an interface that allows you to give Claude read and write access to files on your computer), and 3) Claude Code (a terminal-based tool that takes the abilities of Cowork even further).The majority of the session will be devoted to Cowork. We'll install the desktop app, tour the interface, work through the basics of prompting, and connect Cowork to a folder of course materials or research data so you leave with a working setup on your own machine. We’ll close with a brief explanation of how Cowork and Claude Code differ and a demonstration of what Claude Code and more advanced techniques can enable.