AI Course Creation: Why Instructional Design Expertise Still Matters (And Always Will)

Most AI tools just write text faster. Here's why AI course creation needs instructional design expertise built-in—and what happens when it doesn't.

You've probably tried it by now.

You opened ChatGPT, typed "Create a training course on [topic]," and got back… something. A wall of text organized into modules. Maybe even with bullet points and a quiz at the end.

It looks like a course. It has the structure of a course. But if you've worked in L&D for more than a week, you know immediately: this isn't a course. It's just information organized into sections.

There's no learning progression. The assessments don't connect to clear objectives. The content assumes everyone starts at the same level. And good luck keeping anyone engaged past module two.

Here's the thing everyone's discovering right now: AI is fantastic at generating text. But building actual training courses? That takes instructional design expertise.

And that expertise doesn't come from the AI model itself. It comes from understanding how people learn—and encoding that knowledge into the prompts and systems that guide the AI.

Why Generic AI Falls Short for Course Creation

When you use a general-purpose AI tool to create training content, you're basically asking a very smart writing assistant to mimic what courses look like. It can do that. But it can't answer the questions that separate good training from bad:

• How do you sequence concepts so learners build on prior knowledge?
• What's the right balance between new information and practice opportunities?
• How do you write knowledge checks that actually test understanding, not just recall?
• When should you use scenarios vs. explanations vs. demonstrations?
• How do you adapt content complexity for different skill levels?

These aren't writing questions. They're instructional design questions. And unless someone with L&D expertise is either prompting the AI correctly or editing the output extensively, the results are going to be mediocre.

We've seen it happen. A company tries using generic AI to build compliance training. They get a course that dumps all the policies in lesson one, adds a few "true or false" questions, and calls it done. Completion rates are terrible. People don't retain anything. The L&D team has to rebuild it from scratch.

What AI Course Creation Actually Needs

Here's what works: AI combined with instructional design expertise.

Not AI replacing L&D professionals. Not AI as an afterthought feature. But AI trained specifically on how effective courses are structured—with that knowledge built directly into how it generates content.

When we built Workademy's AI course creation feature, we started with a question: What would it look like if an instructional designer's expertise could guide the AI at every step?

So we worked with experienced L&D practitioners to identify the frameworks and patterns that consistently produce effective training:

• How to structure learning objectives that are specific and measurable
• The ADDIE model principles that guide course flow
• The Backward Design principles to give to the prompt the needed chain of thought to build content for assessments for objectives
• How to write scenario-based questions that test application, not memorization
• When to introduce complexity and when to reinforce basics
• How to build in knowledge checks at the right intervals

Then we encoded those principles into the prompts that guide our AI (we use Claude, specifically chosen for its reasoning capabilities with long-form content). The result isn't just faster text generation—it's course generation that follows instructional design best practices.

The Difference in Practice

Let's compare what happens when you create a course on "Effective Customer Service Communication."

Generic AI approach:

• Generates a list of topics (active listening, tone of voice, handling complaints, etc.)
• Writes explanatory text for each topic
• Maybe adds a few quiz questions at the end
• Total time: 15 minutes
• Result: Information, but not instruction

AI with instructional design expertise:

• Starts by defining learning objectives (By the end of this course, learners will be able to…)
• Builds a progression from foundational concepts to application
• Creates scenario-based exercises where learners practice the skills
• Adds knowledge checks after each key concept to reinforce learning
• Includes reflection prompts that connect training to real work situations
• Designs assessments that test whether learners can actually apply what they learned
• Total time: 20-30 minutes (needed from you to input clear business and learning objectives)
• Result: A course that actually trains people

The second approach takes slightly longer. But it produces training that works—courses with better completion rates, better knowledge retention, and better real-world application.

And critically: It still saves you 5x the time compared to building courses manually.

What This Means for L&D Teams

If you're responsible for creating training content, here's what you need to know about AI course creation:

The promise is real. You can create complete courses in a fraction of the time it used to take. We're seeing customers build onboarding courses in 30 minutes that previously took days.

But the tool matters. Not all AI is built for course creation. If you're using a general-purpose AI tool, expect to spend significant time editing and restructuring the output. If you're using AI built for instructional design, you'll get pedagogically sound courses that need only minor tweaking.

Your expertise still matters. AI doesn't replace L&D professionals. It makes them more productive. You still need to define what learners need to know, review the generated course for accuracy, and customize it for your organization's context. But you're not starting from a blank page anymore.

Quality doesn't have to suffer. The choice isn't between "fast but bad" and "slow but good." With the right AI approach, you can have both speed and quality—because the instructional design expertise is built into the tool.

What to Look for in AI Course Creation Tools

If you're evaluating AI-powered LMS platforms or course authoring tools, here are the questions to ask:

1. Is the AI trained on instructional design principles, or is it just a text generator?
   Look for evidence that the tool understands learning progression, knowledge checks, and assessment design.
2. Does it generate complete course structures, or just content?
   You want AI that creates learning objectives, module sequences, and aligned assessments—not just paragraphs of text.
3. Can it adapt to different learning contexts?
   Compliance training needs different instructional approaches than soft skills training. Does the AI understand that?
4. How much editing do real users have to do?
   Ask for examples or trials. If you're spending hours restructuring AI output, the time savings aren't there.
5. What's the learning curve?
   Some tools require extensive prompt engineering. Others work out of the box. Choose based on your team's technical comfort level.

The Future of Course Creation

We think the future of L&D is AI as an assistant—taking over the time-consuming parts of course creation while L&D professionals focus on strategy, customization, and impact.

That means:

• Less time building courses from scratch
• More time analyzing what training actually needs to happen
• Faster iteration based on learner feedback
• Ability to create personalized learning paths at scale
• L&D teams that can finally keep pace with business needs

But only if the AI understands learning—not just writing.

Because at the end of the day, the goal isn't to generate content faster. It's to help people learn. And that requires instructional design expertise, whether it comes from a human or from AI that's been trained by humans who know what they're doing.

Ready to See AI Course Creation in Action?

Workademy's AI-powered course generator combines Claude's reasoning capabilities with instructional design frameworks developed by L&D experts. The result: pedagogically sound courses in minutes, not days.

Check our Website | Let's Talk!