I am not a mornings person. But I do have some sort of routine. Once seated at my computer I first read the morning;s newspapers and then I go through my emails. This accompanied by several cups of coffee. This morning I had an email from Warwick University where I am a honorary Assistant Professor.

“Dear Graham”, it said. “Security & Information Management is Everyone’s Responsibility. We are contacting you to let you know it is time to complete your Data Protection (UK GDPR) and Information Security annual refresher training.

As you have previously undertaken the full introductory training relevant for your role you can now take our refresher course, which can be completed in approximately 30 minutes.

This training is important because it raises awareness of information security risks and supports safe working practices across our community. It is necessary for the University to be legally compliant – and it is mandatory for all staff. You are now within 30 days or less of the annual refresher date. This is one of a series of reminders you will receive.” (their emphasis)

Basically this means they nag you until you do the online course.

But then I had a newsletter from Philippa Hardman on Learning Design in the Era of Agentic AI. Phillipa’s newsletter is focused on AI and training for professional development like the kind of course Warwick University is telling me to do. And the point of this weeks newsletter is that “The rapid emergence of agentic AI has forced the learning and development field to confront a long-standing truth: most asynchronous online learning is not well designed.” Although their is no consensus on what agentic AI is, it is generally taken to be software which can be sent out to do things for you. And one of the things it has been doing is completing online courses for people, very successfully.

Philippa continues: “The point I put forward was that the problem is not AI’s ability to complete online async courses, but that online async courses courses deliver so little value to our learners that they delegate their completion to AI.”

She goes on to say: “The harsh reality is that this is not an AI problem — it is a learning design problem.” She thinks now is the time to re-imagine online asynchronous learning – courses like my Warwick course on Security & Information Management.

In a journey towards more relevant, valuable and impactful online learning experiences she thinks thinks the answer is three-fold:

Evaluation & Iteration: Transforming evaluation methods to measure real-world application rather than mere completion rates.

Analysis: Rethinking how we analyse learning needs, shifting focus from org and educator-first analysis, to learner-first analysis)

Design & Development: Redesigning content and activities to prioritise active decision-making over passive consumption and recall.

I would suggest that this diagnoses for the Learning and Development community has much in co0mmon with the pedagogic changes we need in VET in the age of Generic AI.

About the image

The outputs of Large Language Models do seem uncanny often leading people to compare the abilities of these systems to thinking, dreaming or hallucinating. This image is intended to be a tongue-in-cheek dig, suggesting that AI is at its core, just a simple information ‘meat grinder,’ feeding off the words, ideas and images on the internet, chopping them up and spitting them back out. The collage also makes the point that when we train these models on our biased, inequitable world the responses we get cannot possibly differ from the biased and inequitable world that made them. Attributions – Studio of: Willem van de Velde II, Michele Tosini https://nationalgalleryimages.ie/groupitem/40/ This image was created using Canva: www.canva.com