Aka, our toolkit for the AI & Learning Design Bootcamp
| Tools & Models |
|---|
| Gemini 2.5 Pro (Google): Requires a subscription, but known for its superior performance including on pedagogical tasks. |
| Claude Opus 4 (Anthropic): Requires a subscription, but known for its superior performance including on pedagogical tasks. |
| Qwen-3 (Alibaba): Overall strong performance, especially in pedagogy tasks. |
| Medium 3 (Mistral): Overall strong performance, especially in pedagogy tasks. |
| Claude 3.5 (Anthropic): Generally very popular with instructional designers who appreciate both the content and style of its outputs. Particularly strong on creative ideation & replicating tone of voice. |
| ChatGPT (OpenAI): Known for its conversational ability and versatility in handling tasks ranging from brainstorming to detailed content creation and summarisation. 4o is great for most tasks, o3 is increasingly powerful as a “deep thinking” assistant. |
| DeepSeek: Advanced open-source language model with exceptional efficiency, handling large context windows (up to 128,000 tokens) and excelling in reasoning, coding, and analysis. It competes with proprietary models like GPT-4 and Claude in performance, while emphasising cost-effective and accessible AI solutions. |
| Co-Pilot by Microsoft: Popular alternative to ChatGPT in the corporate setting, with similar (although less powerful) functionality. |
| Perplexity: Increasingly popular with instructional designers as the go-to general use AI tool, in both “pro search” mode (for general tasks) and “deep research” mode (for research & report writing) modes. |
| Function | Tools |
|---|---|
| Defining the Problem You’re Trying to Solve | Claude, ChatGPT: Analyse qualitative learner & business data (e.g. performance reports, Slack & Teams channels) to surface needs and refine problem statements and goals. |
| Defining the Optimal Solution | Consensus, Perplexity, STORM: Research instructional strategies to solve identified problems. |
| Running a Needs Analysis | Consensus, Perplexity, STORM: Identify optimal methods and question types to surface the data you need. |
ChatGPT, Claude: Create surveys and analyse qualitative data.
Julius AI: Analyse quantitative data like performance metrics & survey responses.
Fathom: Record and transcribe learner interviews.
Voxpopme: Delegate SME & learner interviews to AI. | | Creating Learner Personas | Consensus, Perplexity, STORM: Research best practices for persona development.
Julius AI: Segment learners into personas based on data.
ChatGPT 4o: Build “virtual learners” to give feedback on your designs as you go. | | Determining Requirements | Consensus, Perplexity, STORM: Identify essential skills for business and learning goals.
Claude, ChatGPT: Break down skills into sub-concepts and create knowledge & skills maps.
Whimsical, Gamma: Visualise knowledge and skill maps. | | Creating an Analysis Report | Consensus, Perplexity, STORM: Compile research-based evidence to support findings.
Julius AI: Generate visuals such as charts and graphs to present findings.
Gamma: Design visually engaging presentations tailored to stakeholders.
Claude, ChatGPT: Organise findings into structured sections and anticipate stakeholder feedback. |
| Function | Tools |
|---|---|
| Research & Content Curation | Perplexity (Deep Research), ChatGPT (Deep Research) Research Rabbit, Consensus, Deep Seek: Discover and organise domain knowledge/ resources aligned with learning objectives. Also, find the optimal instructional strategy or strategies to achieve your goal for your learner. |
STORM: Create research summaries tailored to your needs / learners and goal, e.g. give me a summary of research on X for Y purpose | | Content Summarisation and Ideation | ChatGPT 4o, Claude, Co-Pilot: Generate summaries of research, and brainstorm design ideas based on the research.
Notebook LM: generate summaries and mind maps from docs. | | Objectives Writing | ChatGPT 4o, Claude, Co-Pilot: Use structured prompting to write and sequence optimal learning objectives, based on information about your learners, goals etc. | | Content & Activity Design | ChatGPT 4o, Claude, Co-Pilot: Use structured prompting to turn your objectives into evidence-based recommendations for content and activity, based on information from your research about optimal instructional strategies, methods etc. Create flow charts to visualise the high level learner journey. | | Simulating Feedback & Needs Analysis | ChatGPT 4o: Simulate learner interactions to validate assumptions and refine content scope. | | Presenting & Prototyping | Whimsical: Create flowcharts and diagrams to visualise the course flow structure.
Gamma: Develop engaging presentation visuals to present your design ideas and rationale.
V0 by Vercel: Rapidly prototype online learning experiences for feedback.
Replit Agent: Rapidly prototype apps. |
| Function | Tools |
|---|---|
| Research Support for Best Practices in Development | Perplexity (Deep Research), ChatGPT (Deep Research) Research Rabbit, Consensus, Deep Seek: Use research to understand the most effective modes of delivery (video, audio, live class etc) for specific sorts of objectives and learners. |
| Image Creation | Ideogram, Google FX Images, Gemini 2.0 Flash (image generation) and https://flux1.ai/: Create custom images from text inputs. |
Gemini 2.0 Flash (image generation): upload and edit existing images & get enhanced control to edit AI-generated images.
ChatGPT 4o, Whimsical and Napkin AI: Create images, diagrams, infographics & graphs from text inputs. | | Video Creation & Editing | Sora, Lumen5, CapCut, Runway: Create AI-generated videos or convert scripts into video.
InVideo, Veed, Pictory: Use AI to create “audio slideshows”.
Synthesia, HeyGen, Colossyan: Generate AI-powered talking head videos for personalised instruction. | | Audio Creation & Editing | ElevenLabs: Create realistic AI-generated voiceovers / narration.
Notebook LM: generate audio “podcasts” from text.
Suno & Google Music FX: generate music / sounds. | | Slideshows | Gamma: Use AI to rapidly turn documents or pasted text into presentations. | | Optimising & Refining Content | ChatGPT, Claude: Review your content using structured prompts which include quality standards for AI to use as a rubric to score and give feedback on your design, e.g. accessibility standards, UDL. | | Prototyping and Testing | V0 by Vercel: Rapidly prototype online learning experiences for feedback.
Replit Agent: Rapidly prototype apps. | | Translation | DeepL: free to try, this is known to be one of the most reliable translation tools available |
| Function | Tools |
|---|---|
| Designing & Running Evaluation | Perplexity (Deep Research), ChatGPT (Deep Research) Research Rabbit, Consensus, Deep Seek: Gather evidence-based insights on evaluation techniques. |
ChatGPT, Claude: Create surveys and analyse qualitative data. Create pre-and post course activities / task to gather insights on impact.
Julius AI: Analyse quantitative course data like attendance records and performance data and build detailed RoI reports.
Fathom: Record and transcribe learner interviews. | | Insight Generation and Summarisation | ChatGPT 4o: Simulate your learners and evaluate the impact of your learning experience before you release it. | | Summarising & Visualising Findings | ChatGPT, Claude & Gamma: Create concise reports for stakeholders, highlighting key metrics and areas for improvement. |
Want to test the impact of AI on the speed and quality of your work with me? Apply for a place on the AI & Learning Design Bootcamp.
©️Dr Philippa Hardman (April, 2025)