Designing with Love

AI can generate outlines, scripts, quizzes, scenarios, and slide drafts in minutes. That sounds like freedom, until you realize the real danger is volume: more content, more assets, more “resources” that don’t actually change what learners do. We’re making the case for a different kind of value in the AI era of instructional design and learning experience design: becoming the learning architect who decides what belongs, what gets l...

What if assessment made thinking visible and turned AI into a learning partner instead of a shortcut? Jackie sat down with Hamza Sami to close our series by unpacking practical ways to design for real understanding—where reasoning, judgment, and context take center stage.

We start by reframing purpose: assessment is for learning, not just measurement. That lens leads to formative moves that build trust and invite responsib...

AI can help you generate course content in minutes, but if you’ve ever looked at the output and thought, “This doesn’t sound like me,” you already know the hidden cost: inconsistency. When tone changes, terminology drifts, and structure varies across modules, your work stops feeling recognizable and trustworthy even if the content is technically correct.

We walk through a simple fix that doesn’t require a massive system or...

Curiosity turns into clarity when a seasoned teacher names the practices that work. Jackie sits down with Caroline Amberson, a K–12 demonstration teacher who completed her M.S. in Instructional Design at Grand Canyon University, to unpack how research transformed instinct into intention. She walks us through the moment Mayer’s multimedia principles gave her a common language, how UDL and cognitive load theory run alongside them, an...

AI output isn’t mysterious; it’s measurable. When we prompt like we’re chatting, we get content that feels generic and unpredictable. When we prompt like instructional designers, with audience, outcomes, constraints, and a definition of “good,” the same AI tool starts producing drafts you can actually reuse.

In this episode, Jackie walks through a simple mindset shift that changes everything: a prompt is a mini design docu...

Ever feel like your tools change faster than your lesson plans? Jackie sat down with tech translator and founder Charly Leetham to unpack a calmer, smarter way to work with technology—one that starts with first principles, respects human limits, and favors preparation over firefighting. From story-rich field experience to practical classroom routines, this conversation is a guide to making tech serve the teaching, not the other way...

AI can write training content that looks flawless, sounds professional, and still quietly mislead your learners. That’s the problem we tackle today, along with a practical fix you can use immediately: a fast QA scan that keeps AI speed while protecting trust, accuracy, and credibility.

In this episode, Jackie walks through three failure modes that show up again and again in AI-generated eLearning and microlearning drafts: ...

What if the clearest path to your calling is simpler than you think? Host Jackie Pelegrin sits down with artist, pastor, author, and motivator Daniel Bernabe for a candid look at how grief, faith, and relentless practice can turn raw potential into enduring impact. From a teenage moment of loss to the steady drumbeat of “seek first,” Daniel charts the habits and heart postures that helped him become a painter, publisher, and encour...

AI can crank out a draft in minutes, but if the audience is wrong, the tone is off, or the facts don’t match policy, you’ll lose every “saved” hour in rework. In this episode, Jackie breaks down the shift she keeps seeing in instructional design teams: the new bottleneck isn’t creating content, it’s creating trusted content. That’s why human-in-the-loop review isn’t an extra process. It’s the difference between fast and frustrating...

What if AI became your most thoughtful co-teacher instead of a shortcut students hide behind? Jackie had an engaging and insightful conversation with John Williamson, lead curriculum developer at Grand Canyon University and founder of Olive and Rose Education, to map out how generative AI can boost creativity, deepen learning, and give teachers precious time back—without losing professional judgment or student agency.

We u...

Training can look successful on paper and still fail where it counts: on the job. We’re digging into the data literacy instructional designers and educators actually need right now, especially as AI tools speed up decisions and raise new privacy questions. If you’ve ever stared at completions, seat time, or quiz scores and wondered, “So what do I do with this information?”, this conversation is built for you.

We walk throu...

Creativity isn’t extra; it’s how we unlock potential. That’s the heartbeat of this conversation with Austrian‑Californian multimedia artist and creativity awareness educator Michaell Magrusche, whose neurodiversity shaped a human‑centered approach to learning, design, and life. We talk candidly about why people must come before systems, how to balance money, meaning, and voice in design, and the simple habits that make creativity a...

AI isn’t just a time-saver anymore, it’s a trusted choice. When instructional designers paste the wrong thing into the wrong tool, the risk isn’t abstract: it can touch learner privacy, employee data, internal documents, proprietary processes, and even regulated content. In this episode, Jackie shares a simple way to stop guessing and start using AI with calm, clear guardrails you can actually follow. 

We walk through thre...

Ever wondered how a teacher’s instincts translate into real business value? We sit down with Jessica Smith, a former secondary Spanish teacher turned corporate instructional designer at ADP, to unpack the exact moves that make the leap from education to L&D not just possible, but powerful. From scoping with SMEs to beating scope creep, Jessica shows how to define clear performance outcomes, audit existing materials, and pick fo...

AI can generate outlines, quizzes, and scripts in minutes, but that doesn’t mean your learners will do the right thing on Monday. We zoom out to see what AI is really changing in instructional design and what remains stubbornly, beautifully human: context, empathy, trust, and accountability for results.

I walk through the pressure many of us are feeling as stakeholders start to assume “content equals training” and “AI equa...

Autonomy isn’t about handing learners the wheel and hoping for the best. We explore how freedom becomes fuel—when it’s matched to the stakes, the setting, and the supports. With guest Hamza Sami, we compare college courses where risk is a learning tool and corporate training where performance boundaries are real, then show how to design autonomy that fits both worlds.

We dig into the practical differences that shape outcom...

Switching industries shouldn’t feel like starting over. We walk through a Career GPS for instructional designers that turns uncertainty into a plan: define your core strengths, translate your experience into the right industry dialect, pick an environment that fits your energy, and build a bridge portfolio that proves transfer without rebuilding from scratch. Along the way, we unpack the language differences across corporate, highe...

What if job hunting could feel more like leveling up than burning out? Jackie sits down with language and mindset coach Jade Arthur to explore how AI and game design thinking can transform ESL learning, portfolios, and interview prep, especially for creatives entering the gaming industry. Jade walks us through a clear, repeatable workflow: define your outcomes, prompt ChatGPT for layered outputs, then move everything into Gamma to ...

Choosing between freelancing and a full-time role can feel like a high-stakes fork in the road. We take the pressure off with a five–mile marker roadmap that helps you define what matters most right now and match the path to your life, not your LinkedIn headline. Instead of arguing labels, we ask better questions: Do you need stability or flexibility? Variety or consistency? Specialist depth or broad systems thinking? How much risk...