What does AI mean to us as instructional designers?
Hi everyone, and welcome to the universe of instructional design. As you may know, last week Donald H Taylor shared the results of the L&D Global Sentiment Survey for 2023, which showed that AI is in second place. Therefore today, I want to discuss what AI means for us as instructional designers and introduce you to some incredible AI tools that we can use to create effective eLearning courses at the end of it. So, grab your favourite drink and let us dive in!
First of all, many people question whether AI will take over our jobs. We also discussed the same question with Elvin Fortuna quite recently. Our conclusion was: it depends on us. In today’s world, it is no longer enough to be skilled in just one area. Employers are increasingly looking for people with a range of skills, so being a specialist in one area may not be enough. For example during the pandemic, I attended an online Data Science Summit in Turkey where many CEOs were talking about hiring P-profiles instead of T-shaped profiles. This means that some of them want to hire people who are specialised in one area and can work in other areas if needed.
As instructional designers, we may also need other skills such as web development, UI /UX, management, and project management. You may think that you do not need to learn these skills because you have never needed them, but the truth is that you never know what you need until you need it. For example, I work mainly in project management, but one day I had to set up Moodle on a Google Cloud server, so I had to learn advanced Linux commands and the cloud servers. Basic knowledge of web development and WordPress also helps me create web-based courses or set up a WordPress-based LMS.
The second part of this article is that we should not be afraid of technology. Technology makes our lives easier and sometimes even saves lives. For example, when I feel sick, I use an online diagnostic tool from the Ministry of Health, which then recommends that I see a doctor to get a proper diagnosis and treatment. Technology does not replace doctors or pharmacies in this case. Neither will AI replace instructional designers. We will always need specialists, perhaps as project managers.
Evolution is about finding new ways and adapting to change. It does not benefit anyone to fight against useful technology. We can evolve our skills to stay relevant in the job market. So do not be afraid to embrace technology.
However, it is important to know that AI can create harmful content, but we can train it to produce better results. With this in mind, I would like to share with you some amazing AI tools:
Content/grammar checker: While it’s common knowledge that ChatGPT can be used for various tasks such as content creation, grammar checking, and plagiarism detection, Quillbot can help you rephrase sentences and avoid plagiarism. In addition, Grammarly and InstaText are great tools for correcting grammar.
💡ChatGPT, InstaText, Grammarly, Quiltbot.
Voiceover: Voiceover tools can assist you in creating narration for your eLearning courses, making the process fast and easy. There are several popular options listed below:
💡WellSaidLabs, Fliki, AWS, Microsoft Azure.
AI video creators: AI video tools can help you to create videos for your eLearning courses. You simply need to write your content, and the tools will create an AI video and narration for you.
💡Synthesia, Fliki, Elai.io.
Remember to always evaluate the content created with these tools before using them in your eLearning courses. Sure, AI is not only limited to content creation, grammar checks, and plagiarism detection. We can also explore the possibilities of creating personalized eLearning courses using virtual assistants. However, to make this a reality, we may need to acquire additional AI skills. Who knows, perhaps this will be a topic for our next discussion.
This is the end of the article. If you enjoyed it, please don’t forget to leave a like and comment below. Thank you for reading and see you next time!
Here you can find the results of the survey:
