A note about this video. This video is a recording from the live Design Sprint, which has now concluded. Any registration details or dates mentioned in it no longer apply. The full sprint is available here on demand, for free.
Design Session 4 Focus
Plan how you will test and evaluate your redesign.
Design Time
~60 minutes, including the Recap video
Live Session Slides
Our final live session was held on June 18, 2026 at 1:00 PM Eastern. The full recording is not included here. The Recap video above gives an overview, and you can use the Session 4 slides to review what we covered in the live session:
- Compared directions across the cohort
- Completed the final section of the document
- Planned to deliver and test the design
Design Decisions Document
Work through the Deliver section of your copy of the document to:
- Name your first step, the one concrete change you will make the next time you teach this.
- Decide what you will watch for, pulling your “success would look like” line forward into something you can observe in your learners.
- Name what would make you adjust, and if you left with a fork, what the trial will reveal so you can choose.
- Set when and where you will try it, keeping it realistic: one context, one iteration.
Your Design Reflections
As you wrap up the Design Sprint, you are left to complete the development and implementation of your learning experience. What is your plan for delivering it and evaluating the outcome? Jot your thoughts in your Design Decisions Document.
Jennifer’s Design Session 4: Plan to Deliver
My Design Reflections:
Like everyone who worked through the live Design Sprint, I’m working through an AI-vulnerable design challenge of my own. What follows are my design session notes and reflections that align with the same design decisions you’re working through.
Redesign Delivery Plan
- Which direction to test first, and if a fork, what will decide it? The synthesis matrix plus the short oral walkthrough, carried forward from Develop. I am holding Direction 3 in reserve; if the matrix work this round shows students can synthesize well in writing, I will consider shifting weight toward it next time.
- Where and when, and why is it realistic? Next term’s literature review course, in the existing mid-semester annotated bibliography slot. It is realistic because the assignment already exists and I am adding to it rather than rebuilding from nothing.
- What will it take to prepare and deliver, in time and effort? Rewrite the prompt and rubric, build a matrix template, schedule oral slots with an asynchronous video option, and prepare one example.
- What support, preparation, or communication will I need first? Explain the change and the reasoning to students, model using AI as a verified aid rather than a ghostwriter, and give clear criteria for the oral component so it lowers anxiety rather than raising it.
Redesign Evaluation Criteria
- What will help me know the first test is working? Students’ matrices and orals show real engagement with their own question, with fewer generic or fabricated sources and richer connections among them.
- What outcome measures will I look for? Quality of synthesis rather than summary, ability to defend choices live, and a drop in invented citations.
- How will I know it reduced the AI vulnerabilities I identified? I re-run the AI test on the redesign. AI cannot produce the oral defense, and a matrix genuinely tied to the student’s evolving question and reading is hard to fake. The evidence that now carries the grade is attributable to the student, which is the shift from vulnerable to resilient.
Looking Ahead
Now that you’ve worked through the Design Sprint, take a few minutes to capture what you are taking forward. Your Design Decisions Document is now a record of the design process you worked through:
- Your core design challenge
- The direction you chose
- What you plan to test next
- The decisions and trade-offs you made along the way
As you look back over your document, consider where you are in your process. You may find that you:
- Have a clear direction and are ready to implement
- Are deciding between two strong options
- Want to revisit parts of your design challenge
- Are still working through trade-offs
All of these are valid outcomes of the sprint. This experience was not designed to produce a finished redesign. It was designed to help you make better design decisions.
The work you have done here is meaningful because it is grounded in your context and your learners. Your willingness to examine your assumptions, test possibilities, and make informed choices is what makes this process valuable.
The process you used is yours to reuse. The next time a learning experience feels exposed, you can run the same four lenses, write a new design challenge, and work through your options.
The AI for Educators Design Lab podcast has additional episodes ready for you to dig into with more on the horizon, and future design sprints will incorporate new considerations. You can find everything at nextpathdesign.com/join.
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