New research finally offers a robust answer to the question, "Does using AI make our Instructional Designs BETTER, or just faster?"
👉 In a controlled test, 27 Instructional Design postgrads at Carnegie Mellon created designs both with & without GPT-4 assistance.
👉 Every design was blind-scored on quality by expert instructors.
👉The result: Design with AI was not not just faster, but produced better quality designs in 100% of the cases.
But the detail is where it gets interesting...👇
The research also revealed a "capability frontier"—a clear boundary between where AI helps Instructional Design quality most, and where it might actually compromise it.
TLDR:
🚀 USE AI FOR: Designs which use well-established design methodologies, step-by-step processes & widely-discussed topics.
❌ BE MORE CAUTIOUS WHEN USING AI FOR: Designs on niche, novel & complex topics which use less well-established design methodologies.
💡Bonus insight: In line with broader research on the impact of AI on knowledge work, the research also suggests that novice Instructional Designers benefit *most* from AI design assistance (but only when we are strict on what sorts of tasks they use it for).
To learn more about the research & what it tells us about how to work with AI in our day to day work, check out my latest blog post (link in comments).
Happy innovating!
Phil 👋