Making AI Useful in Instructional Design
AI is here to stay. We can fight it, ignore it, or get on with figuring out how to make it useful. It is not going anywhere, and pretending it will disappear is pointless. The question is how we can make it work for us in our jobs and help us create better learning experiences. That is really what my research is about.
My project looks at how AI tools like Notebook LM and Gemini can support instructional designers at Motorola Solutions. The people I most want to reach are my colleagues in North America and Poland because they are the ones facing this every day. Some are curious about AI but do not know how to use it well. Others are resistant and think it takes away from real instructional design work. I want to create guides that show how to use AI tools effectively and also teach people how to build their own prompts instead of depending on a template.
Sharing what I learn will take different forms. I would like to have a shared repository for the guides so people can use them, tweak them, and comment on them. Maybe workshops or short videos could help, since not everyone learns the same way. What I really want is open conversation, questions, and feedback. If someone wants to comment on a document or talk to me in a meeting, great. It is about making people comfortable experimenting and realizing that no one gets it right the first time.
Success for me is not about attention or recognition. It is about seeing people actually try the guides, adjust them, and start to feel confident using AI in their own way. If that happens, if it becomes normal to use AI as part of our design work, then this whole thing will have been worth it.