In health professions education, real-life demonstrations are a common method for teaching psychomotor skills on campus. However, they present challenges such as limited visibility and time constraints. For Generation Z students, who prefer visual learning environments, demonstration videos offer a promising alternative, benefiting from the ease of production, sharing, and access to video-based content. Mayer’s Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning provides a foundational framework for designing instructional videos, emphasizing multimedia principles to enhance learning. However, the concrete application of these principles to demonstration videos for psychomotor skills in health professions education remains underexplored. This design case details the design and production process of demonstration videos for novice nursing and midwifery students to learn new psychomotor nursing skills, such as venipuncture. We developed a series of videos that integrate multimedia principles to minimize cognitive overload, optimize essential processing, and support generative processing. The challenges encountered during this process are discussed, emphasizing the importance of collaboration with audiovisual experts for technical support and content experts for refining scriptwriting and recordings of the skill demonstrations. Through this design process, we gained insight into how multimedia principles were operationalized within the development of psychomotor skill demonstration videos. We developed a series of videos informed by multimedia principles to reduce cognitive overload and support meaningful processing. The resulting checklist continues to guide our ongoing video production and informs our internal evaluation of design decisions.
This design case presents a series of exploratory faculty development workshops created in response to institutional uncertainty about how to meaningfully engage with generative AI. Developed at a teaching-focused university in the United States, the workshops were grounded in constructionist pedagogy and emphasized playful prompting, peer interaction, and the creation of contextually relevant artifacts. Rather than offering training or technical guidance, the design aimed to cultivate GenAI literacy through hands-on experimentation and reflection. Participants surfaced misconceptions, tested tool limitations, and adapted outputs to their pedagogical needs. Some found the open format empowering; others desired more conceptual grounding. This tension underscores broader challenges in applying constructionist methods to faculty learning. The case traces the pedagogical commitments and design logic behind the workshop series, while reflecting on key facilitation choices and unexpected outcomes.
This design case documents the development, implementation, and refinement of a structured 360-degree video observation activity for preservice teachers learning about formative assessment practices. The activity was designed and tested across two semesters in an undergraduate Classroom Assessment course with 53 total students. Through an iterative design process, we developed a scaffolded observation protocol that leveraged the unique affordances of 360-degree video technology. Student feedback revealed that the immersive format enhanced observation capabilities by providing comprehensive classroom views, multiple perspectives, student-centered observation opportunities, and greater autonomy in directing attention. Our design process highlighted important design decisions: the need for explicit technological modeling, structured guidance balanced with exploratory freedom, and the importance of high-quality recording.
This design case focused on creating and implementing a five-day summer camp to enhance students’ expressive language development through robotics-based storytelling. The camp used VEX GO robotics and storytelling elements to promote language skills. Participants, aged six to ten, engaged in structured lessons, game-based activities, and group projects to create stories and animate their characters. Student feedback indicated high levels of engagement and enthusiasm, particularly for the hands-on activities and collaborative projects. While the camp was successful, we identified areas for improvement, including clearer guidelines for the final project and better integration of expressive language skills into daily activities.
Historically, traditional preservice teacher preparation programs have been crafted in such a way that limits accessibility for certain subgroups of students. This article highlights a recent hybrid degree pathway created to support childcare workers in our state who would otherwise be unable to pursue a bachelor’s degree and subsequent teaching certification. With a specific focus on Early Childhood and Special Education (ECSE), we describe a new, innovative university program redesign undertaken to support childcare workers who are currently employed at accredited childcare centers. As part of a larger grant-funded project, an accessible degree pathway, coined ‘ECSE Access’, has been forged so that childcare workers can remain employed in their centers while simultaneously earning their degree in ECSE by offering courses at night in a part-time configuration. We present three artifacts to demonstrate our redesign: a side-by-side comparison that clearly evidences the difference between the newly designed hybrid pathway (ECSE Access) and the traditional ECSE program; a revised degree completion plan for ECSE Access students; and a flowchart highlighting steps undertaken with our Faculty Academic Center for Excellence in Teaching (FACET) to vet the redesign of each individual course. The design process summary includes a description of the redesign of all coursework for the online platform, an overview of the redesign of the traditional teaching internship component, as well as obstacles encountered during all redesign processes.
This design case documents the creation of JoyBots, a robotics-infused happiness education program for Asian American children in grades 1-4. Designed to address the growing need for emotional resilience and well-being among this population, the program aims to equip young learners with happiness-related knowledge and skills that prepare them to navigate future challenges with confidence. Developed by an interdisciplinary team in partnership with a Chinese heritage school, the six-session program was structured around the PERMA model of well-being and grounded in constructivist learning principles. The design process unfolded iteratively, beginning with the challenge of translating abstract psychological concepts into child-friendly activities, followed by the integration of robotics to make those concepts tangible, and culminating in refinements that addressed accessibility, multilingual supports, and instructor readiness. Pilot teaching sessions with 17 students confirmed the promise of combining robotics and happiness education while also revealing areas for improvement in pacing, scaffolding, and language support.
This design case presents the development of a digital tool to foster young children’s data science learning in preschool classrooms. Recognizing the growing importance of data literacy, our cross-disciplinary team sought to integrate the affordances of digital, mobile, touchscreen technology, and best practices in digital app development with developmentally appropriate approaches to data science. As part of this effort, we designed the Preschool Data Toolbox, a tablet app that, with teacher support, allows children to complete data investigations by providing meaningful, kid-friendly questions they can answer with data. The app was designed to be used by teachers while also being developmentally appropriate for preschool children to both view and use directly. It supports the collection, organization, visualization, and analysis of data to help children answer questions, complete investigations, and create their own data stories to share findings. We share the development of the Preschool Data Toolbox as a design case that documents our attempt to create a demonstration project: a data science digital tool usable for young, preliterate preschool children with teacher support and adaptable to common preschool classroom practices. The goal of this design case is to document the design decisions and the team’s approach to developing a tool that is developmentally appropriate, instructionally meaningful, and technically feasible for teachers and children to use together in preschool classrooms. The case does not claim proof of effectiveness; rather, it examines the design goals we set, the constraints we encountered, and the extent to which the final product reflects those intentions.
As a journal dedicated uniquely to open-access publishing promoting design knowledge building and sharing, the International Journal of Designs for Learning (IJDL) has benefited greatly from the unwavering support of Dr. Phillip (Phil) Harris (1939-2026).
The increasing frequency and sophistication of cyberattacks underscore the urgent need for cybersecurity education, particularly for K-12 students who are often vulnerable to digital threats. Despite its importance, access to cybersecurity education remains limited, especially in low-resourced schools. To address this gap, we developed a ChatGPT-integrated 3D immersive escape room game aimed at equipping K-12 students with essential cybersecurity skills. Over a two-month intensive design and development period, this design case details our iterative design process, collaboration with subject matter experts, game developers, and K-12 teachers, and the pivotal role of generative AI in enabling personalized and adaptive learning experiences. Alongside positive feedback from an early usability test, the study shares key challenges that naturally arose during the rapid prototyping process. This design case provides valuable insights into the creation of educational games, particularly in contexts requiring rapid prototyping.
The Midjourney Artificial Intelligence (AI) image- generating tool was introduced to students in a senior interior design studio for early ideation. It was employed on a competition project, which required a two-week timeline from research to presentation. Midjourney was used to rapidly translate concept ideas, atmospheres, and keywords into images for use as inspiration. The project topic was to create a mental health respite space on the students’ university campus. The end results for the project were promising, but a collection of generated images representing gender and stereotypes made it clear that I needed to integrate intentional analysis of text-to-image software and strengthen of visual literacy in design students when introducing image generators.
The transition to fully asynchronous teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic created substantial challenges in engaging and satisfying students in undergraduate Management Information Systems courses. This redesign case emphasizes increasing students’ engagement and hands-on experience while offering a greater instructor presence. The new version of the course exposes students to a variety of enterprise software such as SAP, Salesforce, and Tableau. In addition, the use of Slack and changing the assessment format led to an increase in student satisfaction. We analyzed student feedback before and after the redesign and found that learners significantly improved their perception of their instructor’s social presence. This improvement enhanced engagement and strengthened students’ preparation for the real-world experiences.
This design case describes the creation of an open, self-paced microlearning course on academic goal setting developed within the Open Education for a Better World (OE4BW) mentoring program. The course targets diverse global learners, emphasizes accessibility, cultural responsiveness, and open licensing. I integrated GenAI throughout the process to accelerate content creation, create culturally situated personas, and produce multimedia elements. The learner-facing artefact consists of four structured modules, accessible via Canvas Learning Management System (LMS), and contains interactive H5P activities, scenario-based examples, downloadable planning templates, and narrated media. I organized the navigation by module and designed it to be mobile-friendly. Mayer’s multimedia principles, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and microlearning strategies informed the layout and sequencing, while copyright and open licensing considerations shaped resource selection and adaptations. The case foregrounds key design decisions, including AI-human collaboration workflows, accessibility trade-offs, and cultural adaptation strategies. It also addresses tensions around copyright, authorship, and ensuring relevance for learners in under-resourced contexts. Reflecting on these decision points revealed what I learned about adopting GenAI responsibly within the open education design and development process.
In this instructional design case, I described a final project implemented in a Software Systems Engineering course and explored the integration of generative AI tools in undergraduate engineering education. I, as the course instructor, asked students to design and develop text-based educational games using C programming, incorporating Microsoft Copilot as an assistive technology. I generated the project description and rubric with a generative AI tool, focusing on ethical, creative, and effective AI use. Students reflected on their design process, learning outcomes, and challenges. Highlights of this design include a practical approach to preparing students to use generative AI tools responsibly and productively in Software System Engineering, while identifying areas for improving guidance on their implementation.
Generative AI (GenAI) poses a pedagogical challenge to data visualization education by enabling the rapid creation of persuasive, misleading visuals. This design case presents a three-phase learning experience designed for a graduate course to foster critical AI-visual literacy. The design inverts the typical use of AI by tasking students with using GenAI as a ‘cognitive partner’ to intentionally create a misleading version of their own honest data visualization. The activity guides students through establishing an ethical baseline, creating the misleading visual, and engaging in peer critique, supported by scaffolds like a prompting guide and reflection templates. Analysis of student work shows the design effectively fostered critical AI literacy.
This design case describes our faculty redesign effort in the College of Education’s Special Education Department at Towson University. We redesigned two key junior-year courses, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Curriculum and Methods for Instruction in Special Education, to improve coherence, strengthen field connections, and model collaborative practice. We reviewed both syllabi, identified essential content, and aligned major assignments and shared case studies to create a unified learning experience. We used faculty pairings to model co-planning and co-teaching, while practice-based teacher education (PBTE) pedagogies and structured school visits provided authentic opportunities to apply course concepts. Ongoing feedback from teacher candidates informed our iterative refinements. This redesign effort, as documented in this design case, highlights the decisions, challenges, and lessons we learned in developing a more connected, practice-centered approach to special education teacher preparation.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has rapidly become embedded in the professional practices of educators, learning designers, and learners, changing expectations around productivity, creativity, authorship, and expertise. This Editorial introduces the International Journal of Designs for Learning (IJDL) Special Section on Generative Artificial Intelligence in Learning Design, which features sixteen peer-reviewed Design Cases documenting how GenAI is being designed with, constrained, and interrogated across diverse learning contexts. These contexts include higher education, K–12, informal learning environments, professional learning, civic education, expressive arts, engineering, and open educational resource development. Rather than positioning GenAI as a miraculous or autonomous solution, the Design Cases foreground it as a facilitation tool, creative material, and site for critical inquiry within human-centered design practice. Across cases, GenAI functions as a co-designer, co-writer, co-critic, and provocation—supporting ideation, drafting, reflection, and iterative design—while remaining dependent on human judgment and contextual expertise. Authors explicitly address ethical tensions related to authorship, accuracy, bias, accessibility, equity, and rapid technological change. This Editorial synthesizes key themes across the collection and argues that GenAI does not replace learning designers. Instead, it makes their design work more visible, more complex, and more essential than ever.
Teaching skills are widely applicable and particularly useful for many graduate students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines who intend to become academic faculty. However, these students often receive little to no pedagogical training during their graduate education. This article describes the process of designing an in-depth, teaching-focused workshop that increased the self-efficacy of graduate students while accommodating their busy irregular schedules. The hybrid workshop includes both synchronous and asynchronous activities focusing on teaching and learning theory (e.g., learner-centered teaching, goal setting, lecturing, feedback, metacognition) and professor support (e.g., Canvas and Zoom management, classroom technologies). Participating students completed pre- and post-questionnaires that included a knowledge quiz and captured their perceptions of the workshop. The workshop designers then used the student responses and feedback to improve the design of future workshop iterations to better accommodate the needs of the graduate students. A total of 34 students attended the workshop. Students found the workshop to be helpful overall. They engaged in meaningful discussions about teaching and learning, learned new information about teaching and learning, and would strongly recommend this training to other graduate students. Many stated that they would likely implement what they learned into their own teaching and mentoring. As such, the designers believe that this teaching-focused workshop has the potential to provide our graduate students with a much-needed foundation in teaching and learning without significantly detracting from their other responsibilities.
This design case documents a curriculum development project integrating Claude, a generative AI (GenAI) assistant, with Book Creator for collaborative digital storytelling in civic education. The context involved graduate education students preparing for K-12 teaching, exploring Montgomery’s civil rights legacy while developing frameworks for ethical AI collaboration. As GenAI tools proliferate in education, educators face the challenge of leveraging these technologies while preserving student agency and authentic voice—a central tension that this design addresses. The designed artifact comprised a comprehensive instructional system including: (1) a collaboratively authored digital book containing 11 chapters on civic virtues illustrated through local history, (2) structured theoretical prompting frameworks guiding human-AI collaboration while preserving student voice, (3) verification protocols for ensuring historical accuracy, and (4) dual assessment approaches evaluating both final products and collaboration processes. Guided by Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Culturally Responsive Computing, Connected Learning Theory, and Universal Design for Learning principles, the design addressed three critical challenges: maintaining student authorship in the age of generative AI, ensuring culturally responsive representation of Montgomery’s diverse communities, and developing appropriate assessment paradigms for AI-collaborative work. Key design elements included progressive disclosure of AI assistance, explicit cultural preservation requirements, and transparent documentation of AI interactions. This case describes the concrete frameworks we developed for integrating GenAI thoughtfully in humanities education while aiming to maintain pedagogical integrity, student agency, and cultural authenticity.
This design case describes how we integrated Generative AI (GenAI) into a doctoral-level instructional leadership course and how students used the tool in real time. We positioned GenAI as a design partner as students drafted communications, analyzed data, and navigated complex school scenarios. As the course unfolded, we documented how students’ use of GenAI shaped ongoing redesign decisions. Three moments drove major adjustments: students relied too heavily on polished AI language, accepted AI-generated data interpretations without critique, and struggled to articulate their values during simulated decision-making. We responded by revising prompts, adding structured reflection cues, and reframing GenAI to better support professional judgment. Our design case describes how GenAI can catalyze reflection rather than replace thinking, helping students test ideas, surface assumptions, and strengthen their leadership voice.
This design case examines two interconnected designs: the design of a senior-level interior design studio course and the design of the speculative furniture artifact, Ch(AI)r, that emerged within that course. The studio was structured to engage generative artificial intelligence as a grounding perspective that shaped how students explored spatial, material, and conceptual possibilities. Within this context, Ch(AI)r developed from a sequence of poetic prompts submitted to platforms such as Midjourney and DALL·E, which produced visual cues that were interpreted, tested, and reimagined through hands-on prototyping. The resulting artifact is a luminous, bristle-skinned chair that invites sensory interaction while illustrating how AI-generated imagery can inform material and perceptual strategies. Beyond the artifact itself, the case describes how the course was intentionally designed to position AI as a creative collaborator and a site of critical inquiry. Students examined aesthetic tendencies, authorship questions, and issues of feasibility while documenting their iterative decisions. Ambiguity, failure, and refinement became productive forces in both the instructional design and the development of the chair. Rather than presenting AI as the motivation for the work or as the basis for a research study, this manuscript uses AI as the conceptual frame through which the two designs evolved. The case focuses on how structured experimentation, reflective judgment, and material translation supported learning within a studio environment informed by emerging generative tools.
