Project Overview
Deliverable
User Research
Key Outcome
Launched Site
8 months from concept to website launch, project continues today
10 Interviews
Conducted 10 interviews with university-level educators across 5 countries
6,300 Visitors
In the first month after website launch
Problem Definition
As accessibility to AI tools has increased, so has the need to define their role in education
Myths about the capabilities of AI abound, making it difficult for some educators, such as those in the humanities, to enter the conversation.
What are AI tools and
how do they fit into my classroom?
We set out to create a tool to remove barriers for university-level humanities educators to use AI technologies in their classrooms.
User Research
Top five pain points from interviews with 10 educators
We conducted a thematic analysis by interviewing 10 educators across five countries, grouping quotes into themes, and prioritizing themes based on prevalence.
User personas
We created user personas based on the four key criteria above. We aim to accommodate both AI-nascent and AI-fluent educators. AI-resistant educators were deemed out of scope for this project.
Defining our design goals and moral stance
Our team aligned that AI tools should not be banned from schools, and they should not be taught as a panacea. Instead, they should be subject to critical reflection by students about their benefits and dangers.
Design System
Precedent Research
I aimed to create a simple and straightforward feel that would be appropriate in an academic context.
Components created and organized in Figma
I chose colors a magenta pop color that would feel at home both in a programming IDE and in a classroom. The typography is intended to be large and legible, even for older instructors.
Developer handoff
For page layouts I made use of images and whitespace to break up the significant amount of text. My goal was to make the site feel approachable for educators who might feel overwhelmed at the thought of learning about AI tools. I labeled each page clearly with notes describing the design intent for our developer.
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Images with an AI twist
Images used for each assignment are from the public domain, and I often modified the images using an AI tool. This image was modified with Adobe Firefly with the prompt "orange cat sleeping in tree in the style of van gogh almond blossoms." Images credits, AI tools, and prompts are detailed on the website.
Technical writing
I contributed significantly to writing and editing a guide to AI tools including Large Language Models and text to image tools. The guide is careful to accommodate educators of all levels of AI proficiency.
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Launched Product
Introducing The AI Pedagogy Project
A collection of assignments and materials for educators curious about how AI affects their students and their syllabi. It has two main parts: an AI Guide so educators can get started with common AI tools, and a repository of assignments for inspiration. Educators can submit assignments they create as well.
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Assignments that incorporate AI tools
Search & filtering
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AI Guide
Interactive Large Language Model tutorial
Footnotes
During the 10-week summer internship I contributed to weekly sprints on our remote team. I was invited to continue working beyond summer, and the project launched in October 2023.
Website
Visit aipedagogy.org →
Implementation