Course Redesign
with AI Integration
The Training of Trainers course is designed to develop both new and experienced teacher trainers’ skills in designing, facilitate, and evaluate teacher training programs in global educational contexts. The course was first designed and piloted in 2020 for a group of alumni of English Language Programs. It was then delivered exclusively to participants in the English Language Fellow Program, who participate in 10-month-long fellowships in countries around the world, delivering training to local teachers. In 2022, I supported a redesign of the course and its migration from Canvas to English Language Programs’ LMS plugin (LearnDash) embedded directly into the program’s member hub. Each year after that, I implemented small changes to the course based on participant feedback and stakeholder needs.
The most significant course redesign took place in 2026, when stakeholders at the U.S Department of State decided to make the course open to all participants in English Language Programs, beyond just English Language Fellows. This expanded audience would include more experienced teacher trainers (Specialists) as well as program participants whose work is entirely virtual (Virtual Educators), as well as course participants who are both currently completing a project for English Language Programs and alumni of the programs who may be working in entirely different contexts than what program participants might encounter. With this audience in mind, the course could no longer include in-person components and would need to be changed from hybrid to entirely asynchronous.
The following are the primary challenges and solutions I undertook as the instructional designer.
Podcast Consulting
As the co-creator of the Teacher Think-Aloud Podcast, I have shaped the podcast from its very beginnings. Some challenges I’ve undertaken:
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Choosing a name for the podcast that reflects its focus on reflective practice for teachers;
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Designing a logo and developing consistent branding for the podcast across its website, social media, and other appearances;
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Building and maintaining the podcast’s website, leveraging SEO, and distributing episodes on hosting platforms;
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Planning monthly episode content, writing scripts, scheduling guests, and writing interview questions;
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Engaging guests in dynamic interviews that communicate the impact of their work and tangible takeaways for listeners;
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Editing episodes that weave together interview recordings and host commentary in a seamless, engaging listening experience, using tools such as Audacity (manual editing) and Descript (AI-powered).
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(1) Self-Paced Format for a Broad Audience
Challenge: The primary challenge of the redesign was transitioning the course from a narrow, hybrid model to an entirely self-paced format for a significantly broader audience. The course videos and examples in the course were designed specifically to support English Language Fellows in the field and relied on in-person components in addition to asynchronous modules. The new design had to ensure a cohesive, fully remote learner journey while maintaining meaningful peer exchange and keeping the content grounded in real-world scenarios, despite the lack of face-to-face interaction.
Solution: While I did not have the budget or time to re-create the course videos, for each module I integrated examples that illustrated course concepts in practice in all three programs—Fellow, Specialist, and Virtual Educator. I also designed the module tasks and final project to integrate participant choice and allow for flexibility based on each participant’s context and needs. Participants were to choose a realistic audience and a scenario they might actually deliver teacher training in; they could choose a past or future audience related or unrelated to their English Language Programs project.
Examples of teacher training across all three programs (Virtual Educator, Fellow, Specialist) were integrated throughout the course to ground the content in real-world scenarios.
Given the broad audience for the self-paced course, participants were given agency in choosing a teacher training audience for their final project.
(2) AI Integration
Challenge: Another core issue was the use of AI detected in the previous year’s cohort of course participants. In 2025, course facilitators had noticed increasing use of generative AI in participant discussion posts and assignments. In addition to this anecdotal date, results from the course evaluation revealed that some learners were using AI in ways that bypassed critical reflection, while others expressed concerns about its impact on authentic peer engagement. My goal in the redesign, therefore, was to intentionally integrate AI into the course and set clear expectations for how it should be used.
Solution: To avoid this issue, I integrated clear AI use guidelines explaining appropriate and inappropriate usage of AI, which was detailed in the syllabus and which participants needed to acknowledge with a check-mark in the pre-course survey. I then integrated AI in the final project: participants were to write a draft of their final project without AI, use an LLM of their choice to elicit feedback on their draft, and their share their evaluation of which suggestions to accept, reject, or revise on a group discussion board. This purposeful integration of AI transformed a potential barrier to learning into an opportunity to strengthen critical thinking. Read more in the course syllabus.
(3) Course Logo & Style Consistency
In addition to these two main challenges, I also gave the course a fresh new look and feel, with a new course logo with no specific program affiliation, icons to provide a visual break on module pages, and updates to module handouts and supplementary materials. Watch overview video.
Old course card
New course card