Objective 7:
Explore emerging ideas in learning design and technology and their potential implications.
My AI chatbot demonstrates an exploration of how generative artificial intelligence can offer relevant benefits to learners while staying mindful of constraints that could restrict their growth and development.
This work fully supports Objective 7, as generative AI is a relatively new and objectively controversial technology in learning design. I argue these qualities should not automatically exclude either its usage or its output from being explored, disclosed, and included in appropriate educational contexts.
Like other tools that have come before to the field of instructional design, generative AI has demonstrated its potential to fundamentally change how designers produce content and training. Above all, tools should be adapted to benefit the learner without requiring the learner to change their behaviors to better suit the tool.
For this project, I created a chatbot using Microsoft Copilot, grounded in constructivist and situativist learning theories, with the goal of supporting self-directed learners with reflecting on their progress towards their learning goals. The intended use is for learners to input their goals (and relevant work product, depending on their personal comfort and company security policies), and the chatbot will help learners overcome cognitive biases like anchoring bias or perception bias.
Unsurprisingly, the chatbot instructions need to be refined and it needs more training to be truly effective, but this is evidence of the necessity for learning designers to actively engage with defining roles and setting boundaries when using generative AI in educational contexts.