Context

As the lead faculty coordinating the COMM 2025 (Fundamentals of Communication) OER course redesign at Chattanooga State Community College, I worked alongside two other faculty members on our OER committee after Open Educational Resources (OER) were identified as an institutional priority by our college president. Together, we redesigned the course by developing and revising instructional materials, assignments, rubrics, and learning activities, while ensuring consistency across online, hybrid, and TNeCampus sections. As the coordinator of the redesign effort, I helped guide the overall project, maintain alignment with course learning outcomes, and support a consistent, high-quality learning experience across all course formats.

How AI Was Used

Throughout the course redesign process, we used ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot as instructional design partners to support the work on this project. AI assisted with refining assignment instructions, improving rubric language, generating discussion prompts and practice activities, brainstorming examples to illustrate communication concepts, and improving the clarity and organization of course materials.

Using AI allowed us to move through multiple drafts more efficiently by suggesting alternative wording, improving organization, and identifying opportunities to make materials more student-centered and accessible. Every AI-generated response was carefully reviewed, edited, fact-checked, and aligned with course objectives, accessibility standards, and faculty expertise before implementation. While AI improved efficiency, all instructional decisions and final content remained under faculty oversight.

Outcomes

The redesigned OER course was successfully implemented across all COMM 2025 sections, including Chattanooga State online, hybrid, and TN eCampus offerings. Using AI helped reduce the time required to develop and revise instructional materials while improving consistency across multiple course sections. The project reinforced that AI is most valuable when used collaboratively with faculty expertise rather than as a replacement for it. By streamlining drafting, editing, and revision tasks, AI allowed our committee to devote more time to instructional design, collaboration, student engagement, and continuous course improvement.

The experience demonstrated that the greatest value of AI was not generating content independently but serving as a collaborative partner that enhanced faculty productivity while preserving academic quality, human judgment, and instructional intent.

This workflow has become part of my ongoing course development process and continues to support regular updates to course content and instructional materials. Because the approach emphasizes responsible faculty oversight rather than AI-generated instruction, it can be readily adapted by instructors across disciplines who are redesigning courses, developing OER materials, or creating consistent instructional resources.