Creating effective, engaging courses requires more than just content—it demands thoughtful instructional design strategies that bring learning to life. As AI continues to transform the education landscape, educators are starting to explore how AI can enhance teaching and learning.
Our AI Course Builder is equipped with a wide range of instructional design frameworks to help course creators design interactive, learner-centred experiences. Here’s a look at 12 key frameworks you can leverage in your next course. These are just a few of the 50+ frameworks, styles, and taxonomies available, making your course design process smoother and more impactful. Explore them all on the OpenLearning platform!
Case studies provide real-world examples or scenarios that learners can analyze to apply the concepts they’ve learned. This content style encourages critical thinking and problem-solving by allowing learners to dive into practical, complex situations where they can explore multiple solutions. It’s particularly useful for professional development, business, and academic courses where theory needs to be applied to real-world contexts.
▶️ Watch an example: Generate a case study for an Economics 101 course
This content style emphasises logical, quantitative reasoning, and problem-solving skills. It focuses on the understanding and application of mathematical concepts, allowing learners to develop their skills in areas such as calculation, analysis, and data interpretation. Courses using this style can range from foundational arithmetic to advanced topics in calculus, algebra, or statistics, helping learners approach problems systematically and think critically about numbers and equations.
Worked examples guide learners through step-by-step problem-solving processes, helping them understand how to apply a method or solve a particular type of problem. By breaking down a complex task into manageable steps, learners can grasp the practical application of theoretical knowledge. Worked examples are ideal for math, science, and technical subjects, but can be adapted for any learning area where problem-solving is key.
▶️ Watch an example: Generate worked examples for a Physics 101 course
In addition to the Case Study, Mathematical, and Worked Example styles, our AI Course Builder offers a range of other content generation tools designed to enhance your course. These include tools for delivering clear, structured explanations, guiding learners through techniques, and comparing ideas. Whether you're creating step-by-step guides, building glossaries, or engaging learners through storytelling, these tools provide the flexibility needed to craft informative and engaging learning experiences.
👉 Explore all available content styles with a free trial of OpenLearning.
This activity style engages learners by allowing them to contribute to solving a problem or completing a challenge collectively. It promotes collaboration, creative thinking, and community-driven learning by encouraging diverse inputs from participants. Crowdsourced challenges work well in courses that emphasise peer interaction and active problem-solving, making learners feel like contributors to the learning experience rather than passive consumers.
▶️ Watch an example: Generate crowdsourced challenges for a Physics 101 course
Tutorial exercises guide learners through structured, step-by-step activities that reinforce the skills or knowledge they’ve just learned. These exercises help solidify concepts by giving learners a practical task to complete with guidance along the way. Tutorial exercises are especially effective for technical subjects, hands-on skills, or complex processes where learners benefit from guided practice.
▶️ Watch an example: Tutorial Exercises for Customer Service in Retail
In addition to key tools like Crowdsourced Challenges, Introduce a Concept, and Tutorial Exercises, our AI Course Builder provides a wide variety of activity-building tools to promote learner interaction and practical application. These include methods for applying knowledge in real-world contexts, engaging learners through creative ice-breaker activities, and offering opportunities to practice techniques. Whether learners are collaborating on projects, participating in role-playing exercises, or sharing their experiences, the activity builder equips you with versatile activity styles to foster active participation and deeper learning.
👉 Explore all available activity styles with a free trial of OpenLearning.
Bloom’s revised taxonomy provides a framework for defining clear and measurable learning outcomes. It categorizes cognitive skills into levels of complexity, from basic knowledge recall to higher-order thinking skills like analysis and evaluation. By using measurable verbs associated with each level, course creators can design assessments and activities that align with specific learning goals, ensuring learners progress through increasingly complex cognitive tasks.
▶️ Watch: Using learning outcomes and outcome tags on OpenLearning
SEL focuses on developing learners’ social and emotional skills, which are critical for success in both academic and personal life. These competencies include self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. Integrating SEL into courses promotes not only cognitive development but also emotional intelligence, empathy, and resilience, equipping learners with the skills to navigate social challenges and build positive relationships.
▶️ Watch: Generate learning outcomes with the OpenLearning AI Course Builder
In addition to taxonomies like Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy and the SEL Competencies, the Outcomes Generator offers other ways to define and measure learning success. These include the SOLO taxonomy, all-round outcomes, dimensions of knowledge, learning to learn, affective and metacognitive outcomes, project-based learning and soft skills to ensure your course meets a broad range of educational goals.
👉 Explore all available learning taxonomies with a free trial of OpenLearning.
This framework focuses on mastery. Rather than progressing through a course based on time or a set schedule, learners move forward only when they have demonstrated competence in a specific skill or knowledge area. It’s ideal for skills-based learning and allows learners to progress at their own pace. Competency-based learning emphasises personalised instruction and assessment, ensuring that learners achieve measurable outcomes.
▶️ Watch: Generate a course structure with the OpenLearning AI Course Builder
Backward Design is a planning framework that starts with the end in mind. Course creators first define the desired learning outcomes, then design assessments and finally develop the instructional activities that will help learners achieve those outcomes. By focusing on the end goals from the beginning, Backward Design ensures that courses are structured in a way that leads to meaningful, measurable learning experiences. It is particularly useful for aligning course objectives with assessments and ensuring that each part of the course supports the learner’s journey toward mastery.
The Course Structure Planner includes several key frameworks that guide the organisation and flow of your course. Curriculum-based courses are designed around a pre-defined sequence of learning objectives, ensuring a comprehensive coverage of content. Spiral structured courses revisit topics at increasing levels of complexity, reinforcing learning over time. The Subject-centred framework focuses on specific subject areas, allowing deep dives into specialised content, while the Thematic framework organises learning around key themes, promoting interdisciplinary connections and broader understanding.
👉 Explore all available course frameworks with a free trial of OpenLearning.
The ADDIE model is a foundational instructional design framework that guides the development of courses through five phases: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. It helps ensure that every aspect of course creation is considered, from understanding the needs of the learners to designing materials, developing content, implementing the course, and evaluating its effectiveness. This model offers a systematic, iterative approach, making it flexible and adaptable to any type of course.
▶️ Watch: Generate a module outline with the OpenLearning AI Course Builder
This framework focuses on creating impactful learning experiences by following nine instructional events: gaining attention, informing learners of objectives, stimulating recall of prior learning, presenting the content, providing learning guidance, eliciting performance, providing feedback, assessing performance, and enhancing retention and transfer. These steps are designed to support learner engagement and retention by structuring the learning process around psychological principles of how people learn.
This instructional framework encourages learners to engage in hands-on, real-world projects that require the application of knowledge and skills. Instead of passively consuming information, learners actively investigate, collaborate, and create solutions to complex problems. Project-Based Learning fosters critical thinking, creativity, and practical application, making learning more relevant and engaging, especially for subjects that benefit from experiential learning.
🔖 Read: A glossary of learning approaches such as project-based learning
The Module Structure Generator offers various frameworks to help shape the individual modules within your course. These frameworks support a wide range of teaching strategies, from inquiry-based learning that encourages exploration and questioning, to problem-based approaches that challenge learners with real-world scenarios. You can also introduce modules with historical progression, use comparative analysis to highlight differences and similarities, or adopt experiential learning cycles to ensure hands-on engagement. Whether your course focuses on interdisciplinary themes or a structured introduction to key concepts, these tools allow for flexible and effective module design.
👉 Explore all available module frameworks with a free trial of OpenLearning.
Our AI Course Builder is equipped with over 50 frameworks, styles, and taxonomies designed to support course creators at every step of the instructional design process. Whether you're focusing on competency-based learning, following the ADDIE model, or incorporating Gagne's Nine Events of Instruction, our tools make it easier to create courses that engage learners and deliver results. Explore these frameworks and more to elevate your next course and provide an enriching learning experience.