Design Training Faster and Easier with AI
There is an exciting new tool that is a game-changer in instructional design! As an instructional designer, you're always on the lookout for tools that can help you create engaging and effective learning experiences for your learners. One such tool is ChatGPT, a powerful language model that can assist instructional designers in so many different ways. In this article, we'll look at the benefits of using ChatGPT and how it can help you create personalized learning experiences, reduce your workload, and improve the learning outcomes of your learners. Now AI can bring your training to all new levels.
Personalized Learning Experiences
One of the biggest challenges for instructional designers is creating content that is personalized to each learner's unique needs and preferences. ChatGPT can help you overcome this challenge quickly and easily by analyzing each learner's learning history and providing recommendations for the best course of action. This means that learners get the content that's most relevant to them, helping them to stay engaged and motivated.
You can paste all of the data that you have on a learner or a group of learners and then ask ChatGPT something like:
“Can you summarize all of this data into a short paragraph?”
“Organize this information for me into different sections.”
“Create a brief description of each learner.”
“Given this information that I have collected on the learners, what Instructional Design approaches would be the most appropriate to use and why?”
When you learn to prompt ChatGPT correctly, it can actually understand the context you give it and the data you send to it, and it can reply in so many different impressive ways. Seriously, just ask it anything and you got it. Just plug in the information that you have on the learners and ask ChatGPT and ask away.
Automated Content Creation
Recently I had new teammates join my training department, and I had to get them caught up in Instructional Design theories. I explained my exact situation to ChatGPT and asked that it create a syllabus for me to get them from beginner to advanced in eLearning development. Within seconds I had a full syllabus that helped me get started. When I was struggling to think how to logically organize the massive amount of information I had to teach, ChatGPT did it in mere seconds.
It even included lessons I hadn’t thought about. I then asked ChatGPT to make reading material in a conversational tone to make the theories fun and interesting, and I immediately had high-quality material that was actually interesting to read. No more having to read research articles in a boring tone!
As you know, creating instructional materials from scratch can be extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. ChatGPT can help you save time a mass amount of time and effort by generating content automatically based on specific parameters that you set. Plus, because the content is generated by ChatGPT, it's consistent and high-quality every time.
Another project I had ChatGPT help me with is customer service skills for a very specific situation. It was a topic I really know nothing about. I wrote in the chat exactly what I had to create and who I had to create it for and I asked for a syllabus. Bam! A full syllabus complete with theories and approaches on an entire subject. This led me to ask further questions to learn more, and it taught me about these approaches. If that wasn’t cool enough, I asked it to generate a script between a customer service representative and an irate customer, and include ways that the representative can diffuse the situation. Well, I got exactly that. A full script ready to be edited and used for eLearning.
The support that it gives me in writing content, planning out lessons, using software, learning stuff I could not find on the web, helping me write emails for challenging situations within minutes, literally anything I can think of, it just does! It makes my content, I explain to it how I want the content to be improved, and I go back and add personal touches. ChatGPT can even create material on software that it doesn’t know about as if by magic.
Natural Language Processing
One of the most impressive features of ChatGPT is its ability to understand the intent and meaning of your learners' questions. This is thanks to its use of natural language processing (NLP), which enables learners to ask questions in their own words and receive accurate and relevant answers. This can help learners to better understand the material and retain the information more effectively.
When you ask it questions and have it generate any form of writing for you, you can ask it to create the written material for any audience. Some examples you could prompt ChatGPT to do include:
“Make this script for a 10-year-old to understand.”
“I’m writing an email to a client apologizing for the delay with their shipment. It will be delivered by the 15th. Write this email in a conversational style and make it sound friendly and professional.”
“The learners are not familiar with computer terminology. Can you write this article so they can easily understand it?”
“The article is intended for doctors at a cancer center. Write this article as a script between Dr. Bill and his patient Fred.”
You may need to prompt it in different ways to get it to create exactly what you are looking for, but by providing it with clear instructions, you will be amazed by what it can do. It can fully understand the context and situation you explain when you ask it questions, and you often get better material than you could have come up with if you had struggled for days to create.
Real-Time Feedback
ChatGPT provides real-time feedback to learners, helping them to identify areas where they may need to focus more attention. This means that learners can get instant feedback on their progress, helping them to stay motivated and engaged. And as an instructional designer, you can use this feedback to improve the content and make it even more effective.
We are just scratching the surface here, but you can use ChatGPT in meetings and training sessions held in virtual conferences. This allows you to instruct ChatGPT to provide real-time feedback on learners. For instance, if you are having learners present, ChatGPT can be instructed to look into specific aspects of performance and provide immediate feedback. You can also prompt ChatGPT to take meeting notes so you can stay fully engaged in the conversation and remember everything.
Want ChatGPT everywhere? Add it as an extension in your web browser. With the extension installed, you can generate natural language responses to various prompts, get writing assistance, generate summaries, answer questions, and translate languages, all without leaving your web browser. Whether you're composing emails, researching topics, or chatting with friends online, the ChatGPT browser extension can help you communicate more effectively and efficiently.
24/7 Availability
Late at night an idea or question pops into my head, and I immediately jump on my phone to ask ChatGPT. In seconds I have an answer, and I can go deeper into anything it explains. If I still don’t understand, I can ask it to explain in a simple way until I get it. Since it saves all of my chats, I can read them later when I need to come back to them.
Because ChatGPT is available 24/7, learners can access the information they need at any time, from anywhere in the world. This means that learners can learn at their own pace, on their own schedule, making it more convenient for them.
Reduced Workload
I am completing tasks at the speed of Superman while looking impressively professional. By automating certain tasks and providing real-time feedback to learners, ChatGPT can help reduce your workload as an instructional designer. This means that you can focus on other important aspects of your work, such as creating new content or improving existing content.
Just plug your content into the chat and ask it to make any corrections you are going for… and Vooala! Did I mention before that this is magic?
Improved Learning Outcomes
Ultimately, the goal of any instructional designer is to improve the learning outcomes of their learners. By providing personalized learning experiences, generating content automatically, using natural language processing, providing real-time feedback, and reducing your workload, ChatGPT can help you achieve this goal. Learners will stay motivated, engaged, and learn more effectively, leading to better learning outcomes.
One downside to keep in mind is that ChatGPT is not always correct. As amazing of a tool as it is, you still need to fact-check any writing that it creates.
Overall, I cannot even begin to explain what a powerful tool ChatGPT is for instructional designers. You really got to try it out for yourself. Its ability to create personalized learning experiences, generate content automatically, use natural language processing, provide real-time feedback, and reduce your workload makes it an indispensable tool in your instructional design toolkit. So why not give it a try and see how it can benefit you and your learners?
I am incorporating AI into many areas of my workflow. Check it out here in my portfolio.
