Stages of Course Creation
Their finding was that, of the four stages, lesson personalization is the one that can benefit the most from AI.
Why One Version Does Not Fit Every Student
Imagine a classroom of thirty students who learn in very different ways. One student learns best by listening, another by reading, and a third by working through examples. Traditionally, all of them receive the same textbook and the same lecture. This article explores how AI can help meet each student where they are, and why the source places personalization at the center of its argument.
Before reading on, pause and make a prediction. If thirty students learn in very different ways, what would it take to give every one of them the same textbook and the same lecture and still meet each of them where they are? Write down one or two ideas before moving on. The rest of the article will test whether an AI system could help close that gap, and how.
Hints
- Think about what could change between students without changing what the lesson teaches.
- Consider whether the amount of text, the lesson organization, or the medium of delivery could differ per student.
Personalized Learning as a Core Idea
Personalized learning with AI means using AI to adapt educational materials to individual students' needs, rather than delivering one uniform version to everyone.
The key word is adapt. The underlying subject matter stays the same. What changes is the version of the materials a particular student receives. A uniform course hands every learner an identical version. A personalized course keeps the same goal but produces different versions suited to different learners.
The diagram shows the central move. Each uniform input can branch into several adapted outputs. The left side shows what a single shared version looks like. The right side shows that the same underlying content can be reshaped into several versions for different learners.
Adapting How Much Content and How It Is Organized
The source names several concrete ways adaptation can happen. AI can summarize textbooks and generate a personalized lecture plan for each student. It can also help adapt the format of materials to whatever suits each learner best. Each of these is a different kind of change. One changes how much text a student must read, another changes how the lesson is organized, and a third changes the medium in which the material arrives.
The Four Stages of Course Creation
To understand where AI fits into building a course, the source describes course creation as four stages. They occur in a fixed order. The source's point is that AI can be used throughout all four of them, but that one stage stands out.
The source attributes this four-stage breakdown to Pajak and Bicknell of Duolingo (2022). Their finding was that, of the four stages, lesson personalization is the one that can benefit the most from AI. The sequence matters because personalization comes last: it adapts the course that the earlier stages have already produced.
Roleplay Practice in Language Learning
The source singles out language learning as an area where AI is especially helpful. The key capability it names is roleplay: a learner can ask AI to play a character in different practice scenarios. The source does not list specific scenarios, so the idea is best understood as a general pattern rather than a fixed script.
Notice that the learner does the choosing and the speaking, while the AI partner supplies the character and the responses inside it. The scenario keeps the practice focused on a real-feeling situation, such as asking for directions, rather than on isolated vocabulary lists.
Incorporating AI Instead of Banning It
Many people's first reaction to AI in schools is to shut it out. When a popular chatbot goes down, students who depend on it for homework flood online channels with complaints, and that dependence is exactly what worries teachers. Some large education boards responded by banning ChatGPT outright, out of concern that students would use it to cheat. Those boards later reversed their decisions, only a few months after the bans.
The source takes the opposite position. Instead of banning AI, schools could incorporate it so that students learn faster. The table below contrasts the two responses along the dimensions the source emphasizes.
| Question | Ban approach | Incorporate approach |
|---|---|---|
| What the response is | Keep AI out of the school | Bring AI into teaching so students learn faster |
| What teachers do | Enforce the prohibition | Use AI to adapt materials to individual students |
| What students do | Lose access to the tool in class | Practice and learn with AI inside structured lessons |
| Central concern | Preventing cheating | Meeting each learner where they are |
Ban versus incorporate, as presented in the source
Misreadings of the Source's Argument
The source's argument is easy to flatten into a slogan. The following misreadings are worth avoiding when you apply it.
Common mistake Treating personalization as changing what the course teaches
What it looks likeAssuming a student who asks for a read-aloud version is getting a different lesson.
Why it failsThe source states that format adaptation keeps the underlying material the same and changes only the form in which it reaches the learner.
Do this insteadPersonalization changes the version of the material a student receives, while the subject matter stays fixed.
Common mistake Believing AI contributes equally at all four stages
What it looks likeConcluding that AI is equally useful for curriculum design and lesson personalization.
Why it failsThe source says AI can be used across all four stages, but lesson personalization is the stage that can benefit the most.
Do this insteadRecognize that AI applies throughout course creation, with its largest benefit at the personalization stage.
Common mistake Reading the ban reversals as proof that AI should never be restricted
What it looks likeDeciding that because some boards reversed their bans, any restriction was wrong.
Why it failsThe source reports the reversals and uses them to illustrate a reactive response, not to make a general rule about every restriction.
Do this insteadFocus on the source's central claim: incorporating AI into teaching is presented as an alternative to banning it.
Common mistake Assuming the source lists specific roleplay scenarios for language learning
Applying the Four Stages to a New Course
Imagine you are planning a short course. Name one adaptation you could offer a learner at stage 4 that changes how much text they read, and one that changes the medium of delivery. Then explain why neither adaptation changes the underlying lesson.
Hints
- Summarizing and lecture planning change how much a student encounters and how the lesson is organized.
- Format adaptation changes the medium, such as reading aloud or turning math into code.
Key Takeaways
- Personalized learning with AI means adapting educational materials to individual students' needs rather than delivering one uniform version to everyone.
- Adaptation can change how much content a student encounters, how a lesson is organized, or the format in which material is delivered, such as reading aloud or translating math into code.
- Course creation has four stages in order: curriculum design, raw content creation, exercise creation, and lesson personalization. AI can be used across all four, and lesson personalization benefits the most.
- In language learning, AI can roleplay practice scenarios, and the source presents incorporating AI into teaching as an alternative to banning it.