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Rethinking the Checklist Tool: A Secret Weapon for Instructional Designers
When you hear Brightspace Checklist, do you immediately picture it as a student-facing tool? Most of us do. But what if I told you the Checklist tool could actually make your life as an instructional designer easier, too? Inspired by its use in the Course Blueprint product created and delivered by D2L’s Learning Services…
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Designing for Complexity
Designing effective courses is no simple task. Some may even say it’s quite…complex. And just like effective course design, learning is often complex too. Presenting your content in digestible chunks is a good first step, but complex learning also requires creating meaningful learning experiences where learners get to…
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Custom GPTs in Learning Services: A New Kind of Teammate
By Vicky Nesbitt (with considerable assistance from Mr. Smith) If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be co-writing an article with an AI assistant who corrects punctuation, quotes style guides without being asked, and gets sassy if his instructions are too vague—I might’ve smiled politely and changed the subject. And…
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Integrating AI in Course Development: Three Practical Tips for L&D Teams
Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a fixture of conversations about teaching and learning. Recent research shows that 74% of organizations struggle to scale AI practices, and 52% of workers worry about AI. Trust remains a barrier to adoption – a phenomenon often called ‘algorithm aversion’. Rather than resisting,…
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Using AI with Ethics in Mind
AI is everywhere. We are reaching a point where, whatever personal misgivings we might have, using AI remains an essential skill. There is no denying the power of generative AI. But it is also clear that AI has issues. There are real ethical concerns at play: environmental impacts, data privacy and security, inaccuracies…
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AI Image Generation for Instructional Designers: A Beginner’s Guide
Did you ever try to generate an image with AI, but didn’t know where to start? AI image generation tools offer creative freedom like never before. We see hyper-realistic AI-generated images on websites, in videos, or on social media and often wonder: How do people make something so detailed without being graphic designers?…
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The Value of Teacher Guides in K-12 Classrooms: Enhancing Learning with Brightspace
When it comes to setting up a smooth-running, engaging classroom—whether in person, online, or somewhere in between—one unsung hero deserves more credit: the teacher guide. These behind-the-scenes powerhouses help educators feel confident, prepared, and supported as they deliver meaningful learning experiences. Especially…
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Finding Structure After the Dog Days of Summer
For many of us in the world of education, summer brings about some much-needed rest and relaxation. When we consider our K-12 learners, however, summer break can be enriching in some respects but lacking in others. Inequal access to activities and learning opportunities means that the gap in skills and competencies can…
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“Please and Thank You, Computer”: What Star Trek Taught Me About AI and Intentional Design
When I was a child, I watched a brief exchange from an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation that has stuck with me. In “Q Who?”, a junior officer named Sonya Gomez approaches the replicator and says, “Hot chocolate, please.” Her superior, Geordi La Forge, teases her: “We don’t ordinarily say please to food dispensers…
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What We Don’t See: Designing for Learners in Real Life
There was a time when a traumatic event shook my family’s foundation. Unexpectedly, I had to work two jobs to support myself and my two young children. Homework time, in theory, should’ve been a chance for me to help them learn, but in reality, it just wasn’t possible. They were too young to work independently, and I was…
