Using AI tools with students to support their design inquiries

Over the past year I have been exploring how to use AI in the planning and delivery of design inquiries. These tools have opened up new opportunities and workflows, both for me and my students. I started by using AI tools to support the delivery of content to learners by providing differentiated background text and resources.

Recently my students and I have been exploring ways of using AI as a research assistant, critical friend, or colleague. This has lots of potential in the design inquiry process. Students can use chat bots such as ChatGTP, Poe, or Perplexity to inquire into, jumpstart, or scaffold various steps of a design inquiry. This might look like:

The links above link to chats with ChatGTP and Perplexity, where you can see how a conversation develops.

Below is an example of a scaffold we are using with students to guide them in the creation of a persona in an Large Language Model AI such as ChatGTP.

As we have navigated this, we are coming to see the importance of user research to help frame and guide the AI. This powerful technology can swiftly offer generic persona templates, but creating a meaningful persona demands a foundation rooted in research. As such its important to guide students through a process that includes face-to-face interactions, observations, and interviews. These steps are vital for developing a nuanced understanding of user needs and fostering empathy, a cornerstone of human-centered design. The AI offers a way to consolidate, summarize, or present different perspectives - but it is not a substitute.

Below is an example of the kind of resource that we are working through with students.

I’ve shared more of these explorations and strategies on my Design and Inquiry site for design educators and students.

It is crucial for educators to recognize that the outputs of AI models represent nuanced interpretations influenced by the underlying training data. Therefore, critical thinking plays a pivotal role in equipping students with the capacity to formulate insightful inquiries during the design phase. This intellectual rigor prompts students, under the guidance of educators, to question assumptions, discern potential biases, and scrutinize the model's operations. Through emphasizing these analytical skills, students are empowered to move beyond surface-level acceptance of AI-generated results, fostering a mindset oriented towards depth, precision, and nuanced understanding.

Unpacking Key and Related Concepts in MYP Design

Concepts are what drive our MYP Design curriculum. They establish the conceptual framework in which the teaching and learning takes place. MYP Design units of inquiry must be organized around one of four Key Concepts (KC): Communication, Communities, Development, and Systems; and one or two related concepts. Using this combination, MYP design educators explore and develop some of the conceptual understandings for the unit.

We’ve been looking deeply at the key and related concepts in MYP design and considering how they are connected, and how we might unpack them for students. As part of this process, we identified connections between the concept and the MYP Design Cycle objectives. For example, the concept “communication” has direct connections to how designers communicate with clients and themselves.

Mapping the key concept communication to the MYP Design Cycle criterion.

To be honest, this was the first time we looked for connections between the key concept and the design cycle and it was hugely informative. We were able to make several strong connections and also generate some guiding questions about the role of these concepts in different parts of the design cycle. This has given us a different perspective on how these key concepts relate to the cycle, and also ways in which we can incorporate them into the teaching and learning experiences.

We took a similar approach in looking at the related concepts. These are the key drivers of the inquiry questions, so we looked at how they might connect with the three categories: Factual, Conceptual, and Debatable.

Many of the connections between these concepts and the inquiry questions were informed by conceptual understandings from the DP Design curriculum.

Below is the whole set. They can be downloaded as a PDF and used under a Creative Commons license.

Revisiting GRASPS: a model for project based learning

A while ago we started using GRASPS models to develop our units in MYP and DP design. I wrote about our initial work with this model a few years ago. Since then, we have used it to develop all our units in design and have noticed some meaningful results and benefits for both students and teachers.

What is GRASPS?

GRASPS is a model for demonstrating performance of understanding using authentic assessments. It is one of many performance of understanding models, but is ideally suited to the kind of project-based inquiries we do in design. GRASPS represent a framework for organizing, delivering, and assessing a project-based assessment. The assessment associated with the inquiry is structured around the following expectations and goals.

  • Goal: A definition of the problem or goal

  • Role: Define the role of the student

  • Audience: Identify the target audience

  • Situation: This is the context or scenario of the goal

  • Product: What is created and why it will be created

  • Standards: Rubrics or success criteria

Benefits of GRASPS

Over the years of organizing and implementing our units this way, we have noticed some benefits for students and teachers. Many of these observations are from the perspective of an MYP or DP classroom, but the underlying ideas would benefit any project-based learning experience.

From the teacher’s perspective, we have noticed:

  • Develop authentic learning experiences: The overall GRASPS structure allows us to identify more authentic learning experiences that drive our units of inquiry.

  • Clearer presentation of the purpose and content of a project-based inquiry: Because of the way a GRASPS inquiry is framed, communication of the goals, content, and purpose of the inquiry is clearer. During planning it is easier for teachers to plan and develop more authentic units. This has become particularly important for collaboration between teachers, as most our units are planned to be taught by several people.

  • Clarify the roles, perspectives, and responsibilities of students: The GRASPS model clarifies these aspects of the inquiry. Teachers can choose resources, learning experiences, and content to support the students’ development in these areas. In particular, the Role has become an important part of how we frame units to students (see below)

  • Communicate the expectations of the inquiry: The structure allows for clear communication of the rubric, assessment expectations, as well as the approaches to learning that students need to utilize to be successful. This has been particularly important in recent times when some of our teaching and learning has shifted to remote

  • Guide the selection of learning experiences, content and skills necessary for success: Through planning a unit around the GRASPS framework, teachers can think critically and creatively about the type of learning experiences that are needed to support the inquiry. We have started to look more broadly at the skills that re needed, with a particular focus on the Approaches to Learning (ATLs).

New understandings about GRASPS

Since employing GRASPS to guide our unit development, we have come to some understandings about aspects of the model that helping us strengthen the delivery of our units.

Role

In the past, we often defined the role of the student in a very brief way - almost like a job title. You will be a a designer, engineer, marketer, etc. However we found that this often relied on student’s assumptions of what the role is. The role is very important as it defines the perspective from which the student approaches the task.

Now, we spend some time considering the role of the student in this inquiry, the skills they need, and how this role is closely connected to the Goal, Audience, and Product. For example, in a unit that defines the role as a design researcher, we spend time in class unpacking what this role entails, and how it connected to the goal, audience, and product. We discuss and highlight the skills, perspectives, and approaches that a person in this role might need to draw upon in order to be successful.

Some questions we ask in the planning stages to help us better identify and describe the role include:

  • What are some authentic roles that are related to the goal or discipline?

  • How will students understand the scope and expectations of the role?

  • What prior knowledge about the role will students have?

  • What skills and knowledge will students need to be successful in this role?

  • Is there a role model that students can refer to or meet in person?

Audience

The audience provides much context to the inquiry. To this end, the audience helps teachers identify, organize, and prioritize the content and skills that students need in order to meet the needs of the audience. This goes beyond just satisfying the immediate needs of the audience, but also includes understanding the audience from a user-centered design perspective and empathizing with their needs in order to develop a more successful design solution. We’ve started to use User-Task-Environment analysis as part of the research approach. In Design, this approach also supports our research goals, and helps students think more broadly about the problem.

Some guiding questions we ask include:

  • What is the relationship between the audience and the role?

  • What are the defining characteristics of the audience, and how might these influence the skills and knowledge needed by students to be successful?

Developing stronger GRASPS assessments

To support teachers I’ve created a guide to developing a GRASPS assessment and incorporating into MYP and DP units of inquiry.

Extended Essay in Design Technology

This year I have seven students registered to do their extended essay in DP Design technology. This is a great opportunity for students to investigate an area that is of interest or new to them. In the IB Diploma Program, the Extended Essay (EE) is an opportunity to develop research skills through an independent inquiry. I really enjoy this aspect of the course - it is rewarding to work with students in a different capacity, one that is so focused on research. It is an opportunity for them to take risks, explore new areas of interest, and grow as researchers.

Because of the large number (it’s usually been 2-3 in the past), I’ve had to think more deeply about how to support and guide students in this inquiry. Within the subject of Design Technology, the EE can take many forms, from a problem-solution inquiry that sees the development and testing of a prototype, to the testing of materials or products to determine their performance characteristics, to the analysis of design strategies, concepts or approaches in a real-world context.

For most students my course, it is their first time writing a 4,000 words research paper - the task can be quite intimidating. I have developed a set of guidelines to guide and support them, which are organized around several sections

  • Choosing a topic and approach to the inquiry

  • Organizing a research paper, methodology, and apparatus

  • Understanding the expectations of the extended essay rubric and how they connect to design technology inquiries


The full set of resources is below and can also be found on Design and Inquiry