Yes, you can push out content faster—but should you?
“Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”
I’ve worked in online education for over 15 years. I earned my master’s degree and a graduate certificate fully online, and I’ve picked up several digital credentials that helped me develop valuable, real-world skills. Some of the most important lessons I’ve ever learned came through those programs.
But lately, I’ve been wondering: Are we on the wrong path?
Everywhere I look, there’s another online course—most of them little more than talking-head videos with a worksheet. No real structure, feedback, or transformation.
And now with AI, the temptation to crank out content fast—and disappear from the process entirely—is stronger than ever.
To be clear, I use AI tools. But I keep coming back to the same question: At what cost?
That’s why I wanted to share the excellent insights from Christopher Lind’s article The Illusion of Effortless Work. One quote especially stayed with me:
“If you’re the person who works to quickly hand off the work and disappears, it won’t be long before the system realizes it doesn’t need you at all.”
That line hit me hard—not just as an educator, but as someone who has benefited from well-crafted, human-centered online learning. The most valuable parts of my online education weren’t the readings or videos. They were the interactions.
The feedback I received from instructors who had been in the field for decades.
The moments when they challenged my assumptions.
The ways they guided my projects when I was off track—before I made mistakes in the “real world.”
That personal connection didn’t just make the material more meaningful—it made it transformative.
And I worry we’re losing that.
It’s not that self-paced courses can’t be done well. They absolutely can. But they require thoughtful design: opportunities to apply ideas, reflect on missteps, and course-correct with support. When that’s missing—when a course becomes a content dump—it leaves people feeling isolated and unchanged.
People don’t finish courses that don’t feel relevant and that don’t help them solve their actual, current problems. And they definitely don’t grow without space to try, fail, and get feedback.
This isn’t an argument against technology. Or efficiency. Quite the contrary. I am where I am because I saw the potential of online learning to help people who couldn’t get to a physical classroom on a regular basis.
But like Lind says:
“Real leadership sees things through. And in an age of machines that promise autonomy, our greatest value may come from staying involved, even when it looks like you don’t have to.”
So I’m sitting with this question: If we hand off the work and disappear… what kind of world are we building for one another?
