This webinar is part of the OLC Innovate 2026 Best-In-Track Webinar Series!
Webinar Overview
Navigate the rise of “artificial instructors” in online education through an instructional designer’s lens in this Best-in-Track presentation. As campuses become AI literate (but not necessarily fluent), the role of the instructional designer is evolving dramatically. Drawing from real faculty collaborations, this session explores the humorous and insightful experiences of supporting faculty who use AI for online content development—and the difficult conversations needed to maintain quality while leveraging AI’s potential.
Discover two complementary frameworks that transform AI from a shortcut into a strategic partner. The INQUIRY Framework provides structured guidance for students and teachers navigating AI collaboration through seven strategic stages. The Amplification of Critical Thinking Framework addresses a fundamental truth: AI amplifies what you bring to it—clarity or vagueness, critical thinking or shortcuts, excellence or problems. Together, these frameworks tackle four critical challenges: making learner thinking visible, teaching critical AI collaboration, reducing workload spent policing AI, and creating authentic AI-augmented assignments. Participants will reflect upon real-world scenarios, practice proven AI prompting techniques, and draft AI transparency statements tailored to their institutional or organizational needs.
Primary Audience
- Instructional Designers navigating faculty AI adoption and course quality standards
- Faculty integrating AI into course development and teaching practices
- Academic Leaders and Administrators establishing institutional AI guidelines
- Training Professionals seeking frameworks for AI-augmented learning
How Attendees Will Benefit
Instructional designers will gain practical strategies for supporting faculty AI use while maintaining course quality, including conversation frameworks for addressing “artificial instructors” and tools for evaluating AI-generated content through the amplification lens. Faculty will learn to use AI as a strategic partner through immediately applicable prompting structures with editable templates, understanding why some AI collaborations amplify excellence while others amplify problems. Administrators and leaders will receive scalable approaches to AI policy development, including multi-level transparency statements and frameworks for distinguishing AI literacy from fluency, with “red flag” prompts that identify when students bypass learning. All participants will leave with two complementary frameworks, a guide to drafting AI Syllabus Statements, real-world scenario analysis experience, and practical templates for immediate implementation in their contexts.
Why Attend This Session?
- Master the Amplification Principle – Learn why AI amplifies what’s already there: clarity or vagueness, critical thinking or shortcuts, good practices or bad ones. Discover how to amplify excellence instead of problems through intentional framework use.
- Navigate Difficult Conversations About Quality – Gain strategies for addressing “artificial instructors” in online courses while respecting faculty autonomy and maintaining institutional standards. Learn to recognize “red flag” prompts that bypass learning.
- Implement Multi-Level AI Transparency Statements – Draft transparency statements at assignment, course, personal, and departmental levels that build trust and set clear expectations for AI use.
- Take Home Immediately Scalable Tools – Leave with editable prompt templates, framework reference tables, assessment strategies that keep students “in the loop,” and practical approaches you can implement the next day.
Presenter
Dr. A. Bethany Buck, MSML, Ed.D. (ABD)
Instructional Designer & LMS Administrator
Bethany Buck is an Instructional Designer and LMS Administrator who makes educational technology accessible and engaging. Currently ABD and completing her dissertation research on how generative AI impacts higher education within the context of the University System of Georgia, Bethany is finishing up her Doctor of Education degree with a triple concentration in Organizational Leadership, Higher Education, and Curriculum Development. She also enjoys presenting, puppeteering, and playwriting…and alliteration.