05/08/2026
Ed Week ran a piece last year on Khan Academy's AI tutor. The most common student response, reportedly: "Bro, IDK."
Not a knock on Khan - they're doing good work. But it pointed at something real. When a learning environment asks a student to produce answers to content questions, the student often produces the minimum.
In our sessions, across 471 analyzed transcripts, the average learner writes 500 words per session. The longest conversation ran 83 turns and over 2,700 words. These are professionals practicing design thinking and risk management - voluntarily investing an hour of focused effort in a simulated scenario.
The difference isn't motivation. It's architecture. When the scenario requires you to interview a user, synthesize an insight, and defend a recommendation, "IDK" isn't an option - the scenario won't advance. You have to think.
That's the whole design brief. Build an environment where the only way through is to practice the methodology.
Curious what your team's transcript would look like.