Fostering SEL Through Empathy and Responsible Action with AI as a Design Partner

(Course 3 of 3 for those taking the Human Centered AI in the Age of SEL bundle; courses can also be taken individually)

Overview

We, as educators, know social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making matter for learners, yet these competencies often stay at the level of surface behaviors or classroom language. Social awareness can become asking learners to acknowledge another person’s feelings without helping them meaningfully consider perspective or impact. Relationship skills can become scripted communication moves disconnected from authentic trust, collaboration, or repair. Responsible decision-making can become analyzing tidy hypothetical scenarios instead of working through choices that carry real social, emotional, or ethical weight. When SEL remains disconnected from the actual interactions, tensions, and decisions learners face every day, much of the deeper relational work classrooms need never fully develops.

This course starts from a different place: the educator as a designer of SEL experiences. Grounded in the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework and a thoughtful approach to AI use, the course explores how educators can design classroom experiences that help learners strengthen social awareness, build healthier relationships, and practice responsible decision-making in meaningful ways. AI is used throughout the course as a thought partner that can support reflection, perspective-taking, organization, and synthesis while keeping educator judgment and learner relationships at the center of the work. Across the modules, educators move from understanding learners more deeply, to designing opportunities for empathy, collaboration, and decision-making practice, to pulling those experiences together into a connected and shareable SEL approach rooted in their own classroom context.

You'll discover:

• How cultivating social awareness and empathy equips educators to design SEL experiences that are truly responsive to the diverse needs of their learners.

• Hands-on AI experiences for perspective-taking, empathy mapping, decision-making simulation design, and experience crafting that bring SEL design to life.

• Practical strategies for building student-facing SEL experiences that develop responsible action and ethical thinking across developmental levels.

With AI as a design partner, educators walk away with a classroom empathy map, a student-facing decision-making skills plan, and a shareable SEL strategy map rooted in the understanding that great SEL design starts with knowing your learners. Starts with cultivating social awareness and empathy as the foundation for understanding learners and building relationships, moves into designing responsible decision-making experiences for those learners, ends with crafting and communicating a cohesive SEL experience design.

Who should take this course?

This course is designed for K-12 educators who want to strengthen social-emotional learning (SEL) practices while exploring thoughtful, grounded ways AI can support planning, reflection, and design. No prior experience with AI or formal SEL training is required.

What will you walk away with? 

• The asset you will develop through this course is X which will include

  • A Classroom Empathy Map grounded in the lived experiences and perspectives of learners

  • A Decision-Making Skills Plan designed for a specific group of learners

  • AI-supported dilemma scenarios and optional video-based ethical decision-making prompts

  • An SEL Strategy Map that synthesizes social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making into a connected classroom approach

  • Reflection entries and AI Tool Log documentation connected to each activity

  • Access to Saaya, a reflection bot you can continue to use as a reflection partner in your ongoing practice

  • A classroom SEL routine designed with AI and ready for implementation

  • A Learning Portfolio documenting your growth in adult SEL capacity, AI use, and instructional design

• The skills you will develop in this course include the ability to 

  • Design SEL experiences that integrate social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making

  • Use AI as a thought partner to support empathy work, reflection, synthesis, and SEL planning

  • Build classroom empathy maps grounded in real learner experiences and perspectives

  • Design ethical decision-making scenarios and learner-centered dilemmas

  • Critically evaluate AI-generated perspectives, assumptions, and biases

  • Apply guardrails related to learner privacy, anthropomorphism, and over-reliance when using AI

  • Facilitate perspective-taking, reflection, restorative dialogue, and collaborative SEL routines

  • Synthesize SEL artifacts, reflections, and practices into a cohesive SEL strategy

  • Communicate SEL approaches more clearly with colleagues, learners, and families

  • Use AI tools thoughtfully while keeping educator judgment, relationships, and community context at the center of the work

Course Breakdown

• Introduction

• Module 0: AI Readiness Check

• Module 1: Cultivating Social Awareness with AI

• Module 2: Designing Responsible Action with AI

• Module 3: Crafting SEL Experiences with AI

Time Commitment

Estimated time to completion is 5 hours

Course Access

3-months

Certificate of Completion and Digital Badge

Upon successful completion of this course, you will receive a digital certificate and badge.  This digital certificate links to a webpage outlining the learning outcomes covered in the workshop. You can display your certificates on LinkedIn or your CV. You can also share it directly with your school or prospective employers.

Course Designer

This course is offered as a collaboration with Ed3 and created by Armine Movsisyan