Distributed Agency in AI‑Enhanced Cybersecurity Education
A Posthuman Instructional Design Framework

Ryan Straight
ryanstraight@arizona.edu

University of Arizona

Josh Herron
jherron@clemson.edu

Clemson University

2025-11-13

Follow along!

ryanstraight.com/research/cisse‑2025

What Does “Posthuman” Mean Here?

NOT “replacing humans” or “post-humans”

INSTEAD: Recognizing that effective action emerges from networks

→ Human + AI + tools working together

Key shift: From “humans using tools” → humans and tools as partners

❌ Eliminating human teachers | ❌ Replacing traditional education | ❌ “AI knows best”

✅ Additive to existing pedagogical approaches

AI‑Enhanced

Practice

≠

Human‑Centered

Education

Why Not Traditional Frameworks?

Traditional instructional design assumes:

  • Individual learners with static content
  • Instructor as primary agent
  • Individual reflection and experimentation
  • Human-only teams using AI as tools

  1. Design for the Assemblage
  2. Cultivate Relationality
  3. Embrace Emergence
  4. Assess Distributed Performance

P1: Design for the Assemblage

NOT

Individual Competencies

INSTEAD

Network Capabilities

Technology as embodied integration, not as tool

P2: Cultivate Relationality

NOT

Individual Responsibility

INSTEAD

Ethical Orientation

Response-ability: Quality of relationships between all actants

P3: Embrace Emergence

NOT

Predetermined Being

INSTEAD

Messy Becoming

Indeterminacy as pedagogical feature: Learning emerges from complex assemblages

P4: Assess Distributed Performance

NOT

Individual Performance

INSTEAD

Assemblage Evaluation

Assemblage performance: Evaluate distributed human-AI capabilities

Practical Implementation

  1. Reframe scenarios: Make AI systems visible participants
  2. Design for collaboration: Assignments requiring human-AI coordination
  3. Assess the assemblage: Evaluate team performance
  4. Embrace productive messiness: Use ambiguity as a feature

Implementation Evidence

“It’s easy to pick a side, but doing this gave us a better way to approach ethical case studies”

Thank You

Ryan Straight, PhD
ryanstraight@arizona.edu
ORCID: 0000-0002-6251-5662
College of Information Science
University of Arizona

Questions & Discussion