The past decade of online teaching has showed each of us how quickly we must evolve to meet the needs of new technologies and rise rapidly to new challenges. One of the most recent evolutions challenging faculty who teach online is the introduction of generative artificial intelligence (AI) into educational platforms, teaching practices, and easy-to-use and student-friendly platforms. This shift has been both thrilling and overwhelming for faculty and instructional designers alike as we iterate our practices and learn how AI tools can be effectively used in course development and delivery.
Instructional designers have long played an essential role in online education[1]. Research has long shown that partnerships between instructional designers[2] and faculty unlock new possibilities for course design, save faculty time, and improve student outcomes. IDs wear many hats in their support of faculty and students. From managing engaging course design logistics and recommendations to ensuring compliance with accessibility and copyright standards, IDs take on many responsibilities[3] that allow faculty to focus on their content expertise. Now, with the advent of generative AI in educational practices and content development, the role of the instructional designer in course development is more enhanced and meaningful to faculty than ever before. So how might instructional designers help faculty leverage AI?
Accurately Critique AI Results
While AI can streamline many aspects of course creation, it often requires a human touch to ensure the results align with research and pedagogical goals. For almost all generative AI results, all users should adopt a “trust, but verify” mindset when it comes to content generated from LLMs. For example, AI may create assessments based on vague or poorly constructed learning objectives. In these cases, an ID can point out, “The AI generated an assessment based on chunking, not scaffolding,” or “The objective isn’t well crafted, so the AI’s assessment isn’t fully aligned with your teaching goals.” IDs offer the insight necessary to evaluate and improve the content AI produces.
Assist Faculty with Prompt Engineering
Instructional designers that work in online education are dedicated technology practitioners. In order to use AI most effectively, IDs regularly hone their prompt engineering skills within generative AI tools. These prompts can support faculty as they craft strong assignments, ideate on rubrics or feedback practices, and imagine new lecture materials. While AI can be a useful tool for idea generation, the quality of the output depends heavily on the clarity of the prompt that is placed in the generative AI tool. Instructional designers can guide faculty on best practices for writing prompts, using research-backed teaching and learning frameworks like COI (Community of Inquiry), UDL (Universal Design for Learning, TILT (Transparency in Learning and Teaching), and more to ensure that AI-generated content and recommendations are pedagogically sound.
Save Faculty Time
One of the traditional roles IDs adopt in course design and development is by identifying areas of improvement in course materials and course organization. Now, IDs can use AI to help address these areas of improvement and quickly spin up examples and solutions that faculty can iterate on. For example, AI can be used to create initial drafts of resource summaries or even generate suggestions for improving existing content. Faculty can then revise these drafts rather than starting from scratch, saving valuable time while still ensuring academic rigor. Paired with an Instructional Designers review of initial AI outputs, more specific adjustments that align with institutional standards and learning outcomes can be made.
Instructional designers and AI tools can also assist faculty in quick deadlines. By partnering with an instructional designer, faculty can benefit from individualized project management, ensuring that their courses are polished and ready on time. AI can assist in automating various parts of the course design and development process, such as formatting documents or generating technical course inspections, while IDs support the overall quality and alignment with institutional standards.
Personalize Student Learning
AI also holds the potential to significantly enhance personalized learning[4], which has long been a goal in higher education. For instance, say you and an Instructional Designer are modifying a course from the undergraduate to graduate level. Using carefully engineered prompts, Instructional Designers can write or rewrite course announcements or content to meet the needs of the new audience. This enables instructors to offer a more personalized learning experience without increasing their workload.
AI can also assist in designing workforce-relevant examples for students exploring different fields who may be enrolled in the same course. Instructional designers can help faculty select appropriate AI tools to create these workforce examples, ensuring that these examples align with both course goals and student needs.
Support Compliance Efforts
One area where faculty may feel unsure about using AI is compliance, particularly around accessibility and copyright standards. Instructional designers already play a critical role in ensuring that courses meet these standards, and AI can enhance their efforts[5]. For instance, AI tools can assist in automatically generating accessible versions of course materials, such as captioning for videos or creating first drafts of alternative text for images. IDs can guide faculty on how to implement these AI tools effectively, ensuring that course materials are both compliant and accessible to all populations.
On the copyright front, AI can help faculty quickly identify public domain materials or licensed content that can be used without risk of copyright infringement. However, it’s important to note that AI tools aren’t perfect in this regard, and instructional designers can help faculty double-check AI-generated suggestions to avoid potential legal issues.
Final Thoughts
AI holds the promise to revolutionize education, but it can’t do it alone. The real power comes when faculty, supported by instructional designers, work together to harness AI’s potential. By critiquing AI results, guiding assignment development, and leveraging AI for accessibility and copyright compliance, instructional designers ensure that faculty can focus on what they do best: teaching.
AI may save time and offer new ways to personalize learning, but it’s the human connection, supported by expertise from instructional designers, that will ultimately elevate the quality of online education. Whether you’re an experienced online educator or new to virtual classrooms, don’t be afraid to lean on both your human and AI resources—together, they can help you create a course that meets the highest standards of excellence.
[1] Aaron Bond, Barb Lockee, and Samantha Blevins, “Instructional Designers as Institutional Change Agents,” Educause Review (2023).
[2] Tami Saj, “Using Collaborative Course Development to Achieve Online Course Quality Standards.” International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning. 11.3 (2010).
[3] Rhiannon Pollard and Swapna Kumar, “Instructional Designers in Higher Education: Roles, Challenges, and Supports,” The Journal of Applied Instructional Design 11, no. 1 (2022).
[4] MIT Sloan Management. Enhancing Higher Education with Generative AI: A Responsible Approach (June 2024).
[5] University of Cincinnati. How Instructional Designers Use AI to Optimize Workflow and the Learning Experience (2024)
