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Facilitated and chaired by: Vily Papageorgiou, co-convenor of the SRHE Digital University Network. For more details about the network and its activities, please click here.

Overview

Generative AI (GenAI) is increasingly becoming part of conversations about learning design in higher education. It offers new possibilities for supporting learning design work, but also raises questions that remain unsettled: How should GenAI be used in learning design, and where might its limits lie? What should remain the responsibility of educators and other educational professionals? How might GenAI reshape the expertise, roles and relationships involved in learning design and teaching? And what would it mean to use these technologies in ways that are pedagogically meaningful, ethically responsible and attentive to context?

Taking a multivoiced perspective, this international online event brings together four complementary contributions. The opening talk takes a conceptual perspective on GenAI across the learning design lifecycle, exploring teacher–AI complementarity, educator agency and critical thinking, AI literacy, and the role of community and analytics, alongside examples and emerging guidance for practice. The second talk considers the educational developer perspective, asking how GenAI is reshaping professional identities and what forms of expertise, values and practice are needed as educational developers support colleagues through emerging uncertainties. The third talk moves into learning design practice through an empirical case study from King’s College London, examining how learning designers are using GenAI in creative and innovative ways, alongside their attitudes and concerns. The final talk foregrounds educators themselves, drawing on empirical research into how university educators use a purposefully configured GenAI environment to design learning activities, with attention to affordances, pedagogical judgement and critical GenAI literacy.

Schedule

Speakers

Yannis Dimitriadis is Full Professor of Telematics Engineering, University of Valladolid, Spain (institutional website). He is also coordinator of the GSIC/EMIC interdisciplinary TEL research group. His most recent research work has focused on human-centered learning analytics and artificial intelligence, ethics in research, alignment of learning design and learning analytics, design for learning, and orchestration of computer-supported collaborative learning processes. He is member of the editorial board of multiple journals, such as JCAL, APIN, BJET, ETS, etc. and co-editor of the 2024 BJET special section on Human-Centered Learning Analytics.  He has participated in more than 50 competitive research projects in TEL and co-authored more than 100 journal papers and 215 conference papers.

Monika Pazio Rossiter is a Principal Teaching Fellow in Educational Development in the Centre for Higher Education Research and Scholarship at Imperial College London. She is a programme director for MEd in University Learning and Teaching. She holds Senior Fellowship of Advance HE. Her research interests revolve around assessment practices, inclusive and culturally responsive feedback practices, and the changing role of technology in educational practice.

Gennadii Miroshnikov is a Senior Learning Designer at King’s College London with over 15 years of experience in technology-enhanced and blended learning across higher and professional education. His research focuses on the integration of systems thinking into educational practice, with particular interest in scenario planning, strategic forecasting, and the development of future-oriented learning design. Dr Miroshnikov is also actively involved in academic development initiatives that explore innovation in digital education and curriculum transformation. He works extensively on enhancing the quality of online education, contributing to institutional strategies for improving learning design, student engagement, and pedagogical alignment in both higher and professional education contexts.

Jessica Ferro is a learning designer at King's College London. Her research interests concern whether Generative AI is affecting learning design professionals' practice and professional identity, with a particular focus on how learning designers engage with Generative AI, its implications for professional identity, and the ethical concerns it raises within the field. 

Anastasia-Olga (Olnancy) Tzirides is a Research Scientist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign whose research explores the role of artificial intelligence in teaching, learning, and educational design. Her work focuses on generative AI, human-AI collaboration, AI literacy, and the design of learner-centered digital environments. Combining expertise in learning sciences, educational technology, and user experience research, she investigates how AI can support meaningful learning while maintaining human agency and critical engagement. Dr Tzirides has published extensively on AI-supported learning, feedback systems, and multiliteracies, and has presented her work internationally across Europe and the United States. She holds a PhD in Learning Design and Leadership from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Vily Papageorgiou is a Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at the Surrey Institute of Education, University of Surrey. Her work focuses on learning design and digital education, with a particular interest in supporting educators and institutions to create evidence-informed and engaging learning environments. Her research spans learning design, educational technologies, teacher professional development, education futures, and sustainable pedagogies. She is Co-Director of Surrey’s Wellbeing, Identity, Transition and Technology in Higher Education (WITT-HE) research group. From 2022 to 2024, she served as pedagogic lead for the University of Surrey’s institution-wide Curriculum Design Review programme. She is a Senior Fellow of Advance HE