How Performance Improvement Tools and Generative AI Can Improve Faculty–Instructional Designer Collaboration

This is the first in a two-part series on the collaborative roles and functions for higher education course design. It asks: How can performance improvement tools identify opportunities to integrate generative AI (GenAI) into efficacious instructional design? Instructional designers and faculty are beginning to learn more about using GenAI for course design and development. Opportunities to eliminate the unnecessary duplication of steps during course construction can initially be identified using such process improvement tools as DMAIC and after-action review. (AAR). Integrating these tools into the course design process makes more efficient resource use and improved outcomes more likely. Based on our collective efforts and direct experiences, we seek to heighten an awareness of potential opportunities that intentional and prescriptive collaboration can improve between instructional designers and faculty members for course design quality. We offer that GenAI can replace mundane course design administrative tasks and digitize manual processes. By integrating GenAI, staff and faculty can imagine, assess, and create quality content that simultaneously promotes optimal academic performance and mitigates plagiarism and suboptimal student work.