As part of the SAILeR project, five focus groups with experienced higher education teachers were conducted at partner universities in Croatia, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Spain. The research explored how educators currently design and redesign their courses, how a teaching vision develops and is translated into learning design, how learning outcomes are prioritised, what educators expect from learning design tools, and how AI can support this process. 

The focus groups revealed several common patterns across different higher education contexts. Teachers generally described course planning as an iterative and non-linear process, often starting from an existing course, learning outcomes, available workload, assessment requirements or other practical constraints rather than from a completely new design. Student feedback and previous course experiences were also identified as important inputs into redesign. 

Storytelling and storyboarding emerged as important ways of connecting an educational vision with concrete course planning. Although educators use different approaches and tools, participants across the five institutions recognised the value of creating a coherent narrative that connects different elements of the learning design. 

The discussions also provided important insights into the future development of learning design tools. Educators highlighted the need for flexible and collaborative tools, support for visualising relationships between learning outcomes and courses, and possibilities for adapting the design as it evolves. 

Another important topic was the role of artificial intelligence. Across the focus groups, AI was primarily viewed as a supportive and conversational partner that can assist with brainstorming, generating alternatives and checking aspects of a learning design, rather than as a replacement for educators' pedagogical judgement. At the same time, participants raised concerns related to academic integrity, institutional guidance and the need to critically review AI-generated suggestions. 

The findings provide direct input for the next phases of SAILeR and the further development of the Balanced Design Planning (BDP) tool, particularly in relation to course vision, storyboarding, learning outcome prioritisation, cross-course visualisation and human-centred AI support.