Integrating GenAI into EAP course materials design: A case study of the “English academic writing in the digital environment” course

The rapid advancement of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) is reshaping the ways in which English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course materials are developed, adapted and evaluated. Appropriate and effective collaboration with GenAI in EAP course material design has been receiving significant scholarly and practical attention. This case study proposes a design thinking-informed pedagogical design framework for EAP material development with GenAI (DT-GenEAP), mapping human-AI collaboration within an iterative instructional design process for EAP materials. This study also demonstrates the implementation of DT-GenEAP in the design of course materials for English Academic Writing in the Digital Environment . A subset of the course materials was piloted in the Test stage, and students' feedback was collected through student journals and classroom observations to inform revisions to the outputs of the other design stages. The facilitative impacts of human–AI collaboration within the DT-GenEAP framework on EAP instructional design and material development are discussed, along with the importance of maintaining teachers' oversight of their collaboration with GenAI. Implications for teachers’ professional development for effective and ethical collaboration with GenAI are offered.