The Office Hours Podcast by Coursera

More students than ever are choosing non-linear paths. They're earning two degrees at the same time, pausing their studies to launch a company, or building a business while still in school. The pressure this puts on universities isn't really about scheduling. It's whether flexibility can exist without quietly lowering the bar.

Join host Marni Baker Stein and Rajiv Tandon, CEO of BITS Pilani Digital and former CEO of BITS Pilani's Work Integrated Learning Division, as they take on a defining challenge for India's higher education system.

In this episode, you'll explore the trends and challenges shaping higher education in India.

• What is driving India's learners to study, work, and start companies at once

• How online learning can raise quality through data and industry co-teachers

• Why hiring of recent graduates in India fell, and what employers want instead

• How the practice school model builds industry experience into a four-year degree

At their core, universities exist to help learners develop judgment, purpose, agency, and confidence. As AI takes on more routine knowledge transfer, higher education  can reimagine its purpose—and lean into that mission more intentionally than ever.

In episode 3 of The Office Hours Podcast by Coursera, host Marni Baker Stein sits down with Dr. Paul LeBlanc, Visiting Scholar and Special Advisor at the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. Together, they discuss how this moment invites higher education to rethink how we teach, connect, and assess.

In this episode, you’ll learn about:

• The shift from knowledge transfer to human transformation

• Balancing foundational knowledge, human skills, and AI

• Educators becoming  “curators of community”

• Why assessment must be redesigned to measure what students can do

Tune in to The Office Hours Podcast by Coursera for real-world strategies that will help you turn your institutional data into a lifelong student asset.

Maryville University President Dr. Dan Shipp and Chief Future/AI Officer Phil Komarny join Marni Baker Stein to discuss how AI, data, and skills mapping are reshaping the student-institution relationship—shifting from fragmented systems to a truly learner-centered experience.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why building an AI-native campus requires a data-first foundation
• How to build an “achievement architecture” for lifelong success
• How faculty-built AI tutors cut one program’s course attrition from 40% to 10%
• What it means to be a lifelong learning companion

Tune in to The Office Hours Podcast by Coursera for real-world strategies that will help you turn your institutional data into a lifelong student asset.

Higher education is at a crossroads in the age of AI. EdGenerative founder and author Dr. Aviva Legatt joins Marni Baker Stein to discuss what it takes for institutions to shift from reacting to AI to strategically redesigning for it.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• How to move past what’s driving AI fear on campus 

• Why traditional admissions signals need rethinking

• Why AI policy requires professional development

• How to shift from reacting to AI to redesigning for it

Listen now for real strategies you can apply to your campus.