AI in Education Conversations Become Practical
Last month, the Coursera team spent a day in Bhubaneswar with 100+ faculty members from Biju Patnaik University of Technology, Odisha, for a Faculty Development Program on "Strategic Thinking, Smarter Teaching & AI in the Classroom." The session was held in partnership with Odisha Skill Development Authority.
I have been part of many conversations on AI and education over the last couple of years. Some are exciting, some are speculative, and some get too abstract very quickly. What stood out at this event was how practical the discussion was.
Faculty were not asking whether AI is coming into the classroom. That question is already behind us. They were asking better questions.
How can AI help me teach more effectively?
How should assessments change when students have access to powerful tools?
How do we help students build skills that matter outside the classroom?
How do we use technology without losing the human judgment that good teaching needs?
That tone made the day valuable.
During the fireside chat on the future of work, one point came through clearly: industry expectations are changing quickly. Students will need more than subject knowledge. They will need adaptability, confidence with new tools, problem-solving ability, and hands-on experience applying what they learn. This is easy to say and hard to build into an academic system.
That is where faculty play such an important role.
Technology can support learning, but it does not automatically create better learning. A platform can make content available. AI can help generate ideas, simulate practice, or personalize support. But the design of the learning experience still matters. The teacher still matters. The context still matters.
I had the opportunity to showcase some of Coursera's AI capabilities, including Course Builder, Coach, Role Plays, Dialogues, and AI-powered learning paths. What I tried to focus on was not the novelty of the tools, but the teaching problems they can help solve.
Course Builder can help faculty move from idea to structured learning experience faster.
Coach can give learners support when they get stuck.
Role Plays and Dialogues can create safe practice environments where students can build confidence before they face real situations.
AI-powered learning paths can help connect skills, goals, and content more thoughtfully.
None of this replaces the faculty member. If anything, it makes the faculty role more important. Someone still needs to decide what good learning looks like, what students should practice, how feedback should be used, and how the experience connects to the real world.
The questions from faculty were thoughtful and encouraging. You could sense curiosity, but also healthy caution. That balance is important. Education should not adopt every new tool just because it is available. At the same time, institutions cannot afford to ignore a shift that is already changing how students learn and how work gets done.
What encouraged me most was the openness to experiment. Not in a reckless way, but in a practical way. Faculty wanted to understand what these tools can do, where they can help, and where human guidance still needs to lead.
Days like this make the future of education feel less like a headline and more like real work.
The shift is already underway. The next phase is about building momentum in the right direction: better teaching, more applied learning, smarter assessments, and stronger connections between classroom learning and the skills students will need after graduation.
Big thanks to Prof. Amiya Kumar Rath, Prof. Sujit Kumar Khuntia, and the BPUT team for partnering with us. Grateful to Dr. Neharika Vohra and Deepak Kumar Arora for bringing depth and perspective to the conversations. And thank you to the Coursera team, both at the event and behind the scenes, for making the day successful.
There is a lot still to figure out. But after spending a day with faculty who are curious, serious, and willing to engage with the hard questions, I left optimistic.
The work ahead is not just about bringing AI into the classroom. It is about using it well.
