The Argument Nobody Questions Ask anyone why they want AI in their training and you'll hear some version of the same answer: it saves time. And it's true. AI can summarize a 20-page report in seconds, turn messy notes into a clean response, generate examples, compare options, build quiz questions, and explain a hard concept in plain language. For instructional designers, trainers, and learners, that's real value. Here's the catch. Sometimes the work AI removes is the exact work that was supposed to produce the learning. If a learner is supposed to practice analyzing information and AI does the analysis instead, the task gets easier, and it may also stop teaching anything. If the goal is to build judgment and AI hands over the recommended option, the learner lands on the right answer without ever building the skill the activity was designed to develop. That's cognitive offloading, and instructional design hasn't caught up to it yet. The question isn't whether people … [Read more...] about AI Can Save Your Learners Time. It Can Also Quietly Take Their Learning With It.
Instructional Design and ELearning
Stop Asking “What Can AI Do?” Start With the Learning Goal
AI has made it remarkably easy to start an instructional design project in the wrong place. If you open almost any AI tool, you can immediately generate learning objectives, outlines, scenarios, quiz questions, scripts, graphics, summaries, feedback, and even complete courses. If you give the tool a topic and a target audience, within seconds it will give you have something that looks surprisingly close to instructional content. While that speed is useful. It can easily distract us from a much more important question. Before asking “What can AI do here?”, instructional designers should be asking: “What do people need to learn or be able to do, and what thinking do they need to practice to get there?” That one simple question is important because it changes how you use AI. Instead of looking for tasks you can automate, you start deciding which parts of the work AI can reasonably support and which parts people need to do themselves. Sometimes AI should generate the first … [Read more...] about Stop Asking “What Can AI Do?” Start With the Learning Goal
What Student Complaints About Online Courses Are Actually Telling You
The Data You Already Have Everyone knows that universities collect end-of-course surveys. Students fill them out at the end of every term, rating their experience, commenting on the course, and sharing what worked and what didn’t. Institutions gather this data consistently, analyze it regularly, and use it primarily to evaluate instructor performance. As an instructional designer and learning strategist, I see that as a missed opportunity. Student feedback contains some of the most honest and specific information available about the quality of your online programs. The problem is that most institutions are reading it through the wrong lens. When a student says the course was disorganized, the instinct is to look at the instructor. When students say they didn’t know what was expected, the conversation turns to communication skills. When complaints pile up about responsiveness, the focus lands on faculty workload or availability. In many cases, those aren’t instructor … [Read more...] about What Student Complaints About Online Courses Are Actually Telling You
The Mistake Most Redesign Projects Make
When a course feels broken, we want to fix everything including rewriting the content, rebuilding the activities, redesigning the slides, and re-recording the videos. In my experience, however, recreating everything is almost always more expensive and less effective than a targeted approach. Here's why. In most underperforming courses, a small number of issues are responsible for the majority of problems learners experience. Weak learning objectives create misalignment that ripples outward. An unclear module structure makes otherwise manageable content feel overwhelming and missing navigational guidance leaves learners moving through material without really understanding what they're supposed to take from it. When you fix those specific things, the course transforms. If, however, you leave them unaddressed while rewriting everything else, you'll invest significant time and resources in a course that still doesn't work. The right question isn't how do we redesign this entire … [Read more...] about The Mistake Most Redesign Projects Make
The Minimum Viable Course: A Practical Framework for Sustainable Online Course Design in Higher Education
For more than a decade, online course development in higher education has been shaped by a front-loaded design model. That means that courses are expected to be fully built before launch, often with polished multimedia, comprehensive assessments, and detailed LMS structures finalized in advance. While this model emerged from a desire to protect academic quality, it has become increasingly difficult to sustain. Instructional design teams are supporting more courses with fewer resources. Faculty are balancing teaching with research, service, and administrative responsibilities. Program timelines are accelerating, while expectations for flexibility and responsiveness continue to rise. In this environment, the assumption that a course must be “finished” before it can be taught is no longer realistic. In response, many institutions are quietly adopting a more pragmatic approach, one that preserves instructional integrity while allowing for phased development. This approach can be … [Read more...] about The Minimum Viable Course: A Practical Framework for Sustainable Online Course Design in Higher Education
The Future of Online Learning: What Faculty Must Do to Stay Relevant
Online learning is no longer a temporary solution or a supplementary format. It’s a permanent fixture in higher education. From Ivy League institutions to community colleges, universities are reimagining how, when, and where learning happens. This shift presents both challenges and opportunities, especially for faculty who want to remain relevant and effective in the years ahead. The future of online learning is fast, flexible, learner-centered, and increasingly shaped by technology. To thrive in this landscape, faculty must rethink not only how they teach but also what they contribute to the learning experience. Here’s what faculty need to understand and do to stay ahead 1. Embrace a Pedagogy-First, Tech-Second Mindset Technology is rapidly evolving, but it’s not a substitute for sound pedagogy. Faculty who focus only on tools, without adapting their instructional approach, risk becoming outdated. The future belongs to educators who prioritize how students learn and use … [Read more...] about The Future of Online Learning: What Faculty Must Do to Stay Relevant