U-M Professor is First to Launch AI-powered Coursera Coach for Interactive Instruction

Sean Corp, Communications Lead

Vic Strecher has taught at the University of Michigan for nearly 30 years. He loves teaching and his students. However, lecturing in front of a chalkboard or a video screen can feel like teaching in two dimensions. 

Strecher said the material really comes alive when students engage with him after the lecture or visit him during office hours. While Strecher always took advantage when those opportunities arose, in the online learning space it becomes impossible with hundreds of thousands of learners around the world. 

Now, with the power of Coursera Coach, Coursera's new generative AI tool powered by Google Gemini, Strecher said he feels like he is teaching in three dimensions. 

"When a student comes up to me with questions, I can find out more about that person and can really interact. This tool allows me to simulate that with an online course. The material can be far more interactive and engaging," Strecher said. "This is a dream come true for me. It's something I've been interested in, literally since the 1980s." 

Strecher is the first professor to integrate Coursera Coach AI into his online course to deliver more personalized, interactive lessons through a Socratic dialogue focused on the course's themes. Each dialogue is trained on the course material, such as videos, PDFs, articles, and other files. The tool features a customizable rubric configured by instructors to ensure the learner fully understands the material, can relate it to their experience, and reflects on key course concepts. The learner answers questions to begin a back-and-forth conversation with the AI tool.

Strecher integrated the AI tool into his existing “Finding Purpose and the Meaning of Life,” online course. The “Finding Purpose” course was already one of the most popular on Coursera, with nearly a quarter million enrollments since launching in 2020.

The AI Coach recognizes when a user has satisfactorily fulfilled the prompt, highlights when using course concepts, and redirects and recontextualizes if a response is too negative, off-topic, or the tool assesses that the learner needs to re-engage with course material and learning concepts. 

Strecher spent months working with Coursera's team to ensure the AI-powered Socratic dialogues would provide quality, helpful feedback that allowed learners to advance through the course. Really, though, it represents the culmination of more than 35 years of his interest in the power of technology to drive better health outcomes. 

"I've been working in digital health communications for 35 years," Strecher said. "Back in the '80s, if we could collect a little information on a person, we could use software to tailor feedback to help a person quit smoking or manage stress."

That was the origin of the Center for Health Communication Research at U-M. The research showed that the more tailored the information was to the individual, the better the results. With large language models and generative AI, you can now do tailoring and intelligent dialogue in a way Strecher couldn't even conceive when beginning his work in the 1980s. 

"Grounding the AI in the human expertise and oversight is critical," said Jeff Maggioncolda, CEO of Coursera, when announcing the AI integrations at Coursera Connect 2024 in September. "It is an extension of the instructor, not a replacement of the instructor." 

Strecher spent months fine-tuning the beta version with Coursera's tech team, adjusting and testing the system to ensure the information would be relevant and useful for learners. His course has 11 new AI-powered dialogue sections in total, and Strecher is amazed at the quality of the AI tool's responses. 

"In testing, it was clear it was accomplishing just what I would want to accomplish in the classroom. It empathizes and tries to understand where you are coming from. It evaluates the emotional words and tries to learn the underlying root cause of the response, while at the same time bringing the learner right back to the objectives of the course," Strecher said. 

One day after the tool went live, a Coursera employee caught up with Strecher at Coursera Connect to inform Strecher his course had already logged more than 2,000 interactions between learners and the Coursera Coach AI dialogue lessons. 

"As a teacher and researcher, my interest in digital technologies has been to reach millions of people. And to do it efficiently and to reach people who are underserved who really need help. What makes me so excited about systems like Coursera Coach is that it allows me to do all of those things," Strecher said. 

Finding Purpose and Meaning In Life: Living for What Matters Most

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Welcome to Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life: Living for What Matters Most! In this course, you’ll learn how science, philosophy and practice all play a role in both…