Designing Curiosity: Reimagining Online Engagement with AI

Heather Evans of Wayne Community College will share innovative strategies for transforming passive online submissions into active learning experiences by designing multimodal, learner-centered assignments with AI assistance. Teaching medical billing and coding fully online, Heather extended learning beyond textbooks by curating trusted external media from platforms like YouTube and short-form reels from TikTok. This allows students to explore through guided discovery instead of instructor-created video overload. Her workflow uses AI tools like ChatGPT to co-create assignment criteria, scaffold dialogue, and meet learners where their attention spans and ambitions live. This encourages deeper cognitive engagement, increases motivation, and reduces academic dishonesty by making authentic learning the easiest path forward.