Abstract
Generative AI has reshaped visual design education, enhancing students’ creativity and efficiency. However, early AI implementations often prioritized technical skills over ethics, neglecting the importance of ethical literacy in AI-involved design practices. To address this gap, this exploratory pilot study introduces a structured, tool-based pedagogical framework to foster undergraduate design students’ understanding of AI ethics through hands-on design practices. Centering on the “ethical touch points,” AI tool-specific features that prompt ethical reflection, this framework was implemented in a four-week-long AI-enhanced motion graphics design project, conducted in a studio course capped at fourteen students (n=14). Students engaged with key ethical principles, including transparency, human-AI collaboration, reliability, and related ethics through interactions with tools such as ChatGPT, Adobe Firefly, and Runway ML, tailored for the motion design workflow. A mixed-methods survey assessed learning outcomes, combining Likert-scale questions to quantify students’ understanding of AI ethics and open-ended responses for qualitative insights into their learning experiences. Findings revealed an improved understanding of AI ethics and highlighted the frameworks value in cultivating ethical awareness, despite some skepticism due to the students’ traditional art background, laying the groundwork for larger-scale research. The framework provides design educators with a practical structure for integrating AI ethics into creative projects, preparing students for responsible AI design practice, and advancing ethical pedagogy.
Keywords
AI ethics; Generative AI; Visual design; Pedagogy
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.954
Citation
Hu, N.,and Wang, W.(2025) Ethical Touchpoints: A Tool-Based Framework for Teaching AI Ethics in Design Education, in Chang, C.-Y., and Hsu, Y. (eds.), IASDR 2025: Design Next, 02-05 December, Taiwan. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2025.954
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Conference Track
Track 12 - Design Education
Ethical Touchpoints: A Tool-Based Framework for Teaching AI Ethics in Design Education
Generative AI has reshaped visual design education, enhancing students’ creativity and efficiency. However, early AI implementations often prioritized technical skills over ethics, neglecting the importance of ethical literacy in AI-involved design practices. To address this gap, this exploratory pilot study introduces a structured, tool-based pedagogical framework to foster undergraduate design students’ understanding of AI ethics through hands-on design practices. Centering on the “ethical touch points,” AI tool-specific features that prompt ethical reflection, this framework was implemented in a four-week-long AI-enhanced motion graphics design project, conducted in a studio course capped at fourteen students (n=14). Students engaged with key ethical principles, including transparency, human-AI collaboration, reliability, and related ethics through interactions with tools such as ChatGPT, Adobe Firefly, and Runway ML, tailored for the motion design workflow. A mixed-methods survey assessed learning outcomes, combining Likert-scale questions to quantify students’ understanding of AI ethics and open-ended responses for qualitative insights into their learning experiences. Findings revealed an improved understanding of AI ethics and highlighted the frameworks value in cultivating ethical awareness, despite some skepticism due to the students’ traditional art background, laying the groundwork for larger-scale research. The framework provides design educators with a practical structure for integrating AI ethics into creative projects, preparing students for responsible AI design practice, and advancing ethical pedagogy.