Case Study · Student Learning Resources
From Question to Synthesis: AI-Assisted Literature Review
Building a credible student-facing online literature review at AI speed
CONTEXT UPDATE · AUGUST 2026
A Snapshot from an Earlier AI Moment
This case study was created approximately one year before today’s much faster generation of AI research tools. Although completing the review in under an hour is no longer remarkable, the enduring value lies in the method: framing a useful question, selecting credible sources, applying human judgment, and transforming scattered research into a coherent synthesis.
When AI Becomes a Scholarly Collaborator
What does it look like when an instructional designer stops treating AI as a production shortcut and starts treating it as a scholarly collaborator? This case study documents the creation of Designing for Restoration — a curated online literature review that synthesizes nine peer-reviewed and institutional sources on trauma-informed pedagogy, SDA educational philosophy, and Universal Design for Learning into a single, navigable student resource. It was built in under an hour. The speed is not the point. The resource is.
The Problem
A fragmented research landscape
Neurobiological frameworks live in one place. Faith-based applications in another. UDL principles somewhere else entirely. Instructors at research-intensive institutions like Andrews University spend significant time curating these threads for their students — time that could be spent teaching.
What if that curation could be done in an hour, and the result was something students could actually use?
The Artifact
A curated online literature review
Designing for Restoration is not a course. It is a new category of student-facing resource — structured, cognitively paced, and grounded in nine peer-reviewed sources. Every claim is anchored to scholarship. The visual architecture follows trauma-informed principles of cognitive ease and grace-based accessibility.
The Tools & the Process
From Concept to Live Resource in Under an Hour
Four AI collaborators, each assigned the role it does best — curation, architecture, translation, and publication.
Step 01
Curate the sources
Nine scholarly sources uploaded to NotebookLM — ensuring every claim traces to peer-reviewed research, not AI inference.
Tool: NotebookLM
Step 02
Develop the architectural intent
Using Gemini as a senior web architect, the content was mapped into a “trauma-informed” visual hierarchy that prioritizes cognitive ease and pacing.
Tool: Gemini
Step 03
Translate the architecture
Claude converted the content structure into hand-coded, accessible HTML — no template, no drag-and-drop builder.
Tool: Claude
Step 04
Publish the resource
Concept to live, cited, navigable literature review in under one hour.
Result: live site
The Iterations
Three Evolutions, Fifteen Minutes
Iteration 1
Clean Academic - light mode
Iteration 2
Modern Dark — neon blue accents
Iteration 3 (Final)
Modern Dark — gold accents
Three design evolutions completed in under 15 minutes — each driven by instructional-design judgment, not template selection.
Explore the Resource
Visit the Resource
The living version of Designing for Restoration opens in a new tab.
THE CHOICE IS YOURS
Possible Next Steps