This spring and summer the Centre for Teaching Excellence began a pilot program called the Learning Design Dilemma (LDD) or Asynchronous Support Pilot. Faculty submit their challenge to the pilot, our team analyzes the submission and creates an activity or course-specific resource. Read below to hear from the LDD team to find out more about their work and how to get invovled.
What is the Learning Design Dilemma Pilot?
Starting in the summer of 2026, the LDD provides a flexible pathway where faculty can submit their teaching challenges for advice at their convenience and receive a response with resources, recommendations, or sample solutions. This asynchronous support offers an additional way for faculty to reach CTE whether they are working on the weekends or early into the morning
This whole process is designed to be completely asynchronous.
Why did you start this pilot?
Earlier this year, one of our team members were watching a “Roast my Design” series where viewers submitted photos of their home to an experienced interior designer for feedback and suggestions. Watching this they were thinking that maybe we could adapt this approach and offer it as an alternative to our typical consultation process.
Instead of a roast… perhaps a challenge… a dilemma?
How does it work?
The pilot starts and ends with your challenge.
To begin the process, faculty submit their challenge to our form sharing their course, teaching modality, and their challenge. After reviewing the submissions, the LDD team assigns a team member to respond and follow-up. This whole process is designed to be completely asynchronous unless meeting is really necessary.
We think closely about your challenge and context to prepare a response delivered right to your email
What’s an example of a challenge you worked on?
In the original request, a faculty teaching online asynchronously described challenges they were having with a particular assignment and asked for suggestions to make it more AI-resistant. In the original assignment, students were expected to respond to questions and take photos of themselves or their surroundings and identify aspects of the lesson being captured through those pictures. Connecting personal experience, multimedia and class content is a great way to foster learning while hindering AI use.
To build on the AI-resistant complexity, we suggested two ideas:
- Connecting the idea to past class-specific content: This might be something from a recorded lecture, discussion and response forum, activity or anything you see fit. Multi-step and classroom-specific content is difficult for AI to create independently. Perhaps more importantly, it is an opportunity for learners to think with multiple concepts at once and review previous learning.
- Provide multiple ways to respond: Allow students to record their responses if they choose. This additional format reduces the copy and paste risk while increasing engagement and equity. However, this change may increase the grading load for the instructor.
We recommended adding this direction to their existing assignment:
“Lastly, include a sentence connecting this type of [course content] to a class–specific activity or peer comment from a previous week (cite who you are referring to or the activity).”
How can I try?
To share your own challenge and receive asynchronous support, click the button below or visit our consultation page.
Recent Comments