The Export Gasp: Why Instructional Designers Want Better Tools, Not More Work
Dec 05, 2025Some moments at conferences stick with you—the kind that capture an entire movement in a single reaction. At OLC, we experienced one of those moments.
During a demo of our Course Design Accelerator, Jarred clicked “Export to Canvas.”
In seconds, a complete course shell appeared: modules, pages, quizzes, media briefs, assessments—everything aligned to objectives and built using backward design. And right then, from the small crowd gathered around our booth, we heard it:
A collective, audible gasp.
Not because the tool was flashy. Not because it replaced someone’s job. But because it finally solved a problem that instructional designers have been battling for years:
the time-consuming, repetitive, copy/paste drudgery that keeps them from doing the work they love.
Designers don’t want automation for creativity.
They want automation for the tedious parts that take hours and add no instructional value.
Exporting a module shouldn’t take half a day.
Rebuilding course pages shouldn’t feel like a second job.
Aligning assessments shouldn’t require three versions of the same document.
What people saw in that moment—what triggered the gasp—was a glimpse of a better workflow:
- Quality design stays human
- Creativity stays human
- Alignment stays human
- But the grunt work is automated
That’s the promise of faculty-in-the-loop AI. Technology should lighten the load, not replace the person doing the thinking.
If you want to hear the full story and the reactions from the exhibit hall, check out our latest Engaged By Design podcast episode.
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