EDUCAUSE Symposium | Instructional Design in the Age of AI: Rethinking Roles, Work, and Capacity: December 2026

December 7, and 9, 2026 | 12:00 noon–3:30 p.m. ET
Online

Event Description

Higher education institutions face growing demand for instructional design expertise while many struggle to recruit, retain, and build sufficient capacity. At the same time, AI is accelerating content development, course design, assessment creation, and other traditionally time-intensive activities. Together, these forces are prompting institutions to rethink how instructional design work is accomplished. Some teams are redirecting time toward deeper faculty partnerships, learning experience strategy, accessibility, and experimentation, while others are taking on new responsibilities related to AI literacy, quality assurance, and the design of AI-enabled learning experiences.

This Teaching and Learning Symposium will highlight how institutions and instructional design teams are rethinking instructional design work in response to AI. Through examples from across higher education, participants will examine how institutions are reshaping roles, responsibilities, team structures, and workflows, and consider what these changes signal about the future of the instructional design profession.

Together we will explore where instructional design capacity is moving, what new work is emerging, which human and technical capabilities are becoming more valuable, and what these changes could mean for the future of instructional design in the broader teaching and learning workforce.

In this symposium, we will:

  • Explore how institutions are using AI to reshape instructional design work, and the resulting shift in roles, responsibilities, and workflows.
  • Examine how instructional design teams are redirecting capacity and taking on new areas of work as AI capabilities grow.
  • Identify how the skills, roles, and areas of expertise needed across instructional design teams may evolve as AI takes on more aspects of instructional design work.
  • Consider what emerging institutional and team practices signal about the evolving role, value, and professional identity of instructional designers.
  • Identify approaches that could inform how instructional design work evolves within participants’ own institutions.

Symposium Highlights

  • icon: lightbulb with a brain in it

    Gain Valuable Insights from Engaging Sessions Designed for Practical Application

  • icon: world with three silhouettes connected around it

    Connect with Your Higher Ed Teaching and Learning Community

  • icon: clipboard with game plan

    Be Inspired to Act with Strategies You Can Apply on Your Campus

Teaching and Learning Symposium Program Committee

The Teaching and Learning Symposium is informed, planned, and organized by an engaged, passionate, and experienced team of higher education teaching and learning professionals. Thank you to the program committee!