Duke University has been awarded Coursera’s prestigious Vision and Values Award, recognizing the university’s leadership in principled innovation, thoughtful experimentation, and deep commitment to learners. Quentin Ruiz-Esparza, Director for Digital Product Strategy and Design at Duke Learning Innovation & Lifetime Education (LILE), accepted the award on behalf of Duke at the Coursera Connect Awards Banquet on September 9.
In its award letter, Coursera praised Duke for its role in shaping “promising new learning features, particularly in the evolving field of generative AI.” Coursera also highlighted Duke’s strategic leadership across its portfolio and a commitment to ensuring that the future of online education is “equitable, thoughtful, and deeply aligned with our shared goal to transform lives through learning.”
The team behind the award
The honor shines a spotlight on LILE’s Learning Experience (LX) Design team. The LX Design team partners with Duke instructors to design digital learning experiences that are flexible for students, connect with alumni and prospective learners, and extend Duke’s global reach. Their work includes translating faculty ideas into learner-centered courses, prototyping and testing digital activities, producing media, and conducting market research to expand Duke’s online learning opportunities.
“This year, the LX Design team has advanced innovation in learning at scale by deeply collaborating with Coursera in the design of AI tools for teaching and learning and experimenting with new approaches to course review that hopefully optimizes learner engagement in Duke Coursera courses,” said Ruiz-Esparza. “Throughout the team’s hard work, I’ve witnessed firsthand how the team puts their values into action and keeps the learner at the center of all that they do. The team’s passion for education inspires me in my work and career.”
Building and testing new approaches
Over the past year, the team has contributed to a number of Coursera initiatives that push the boundaries of online learning. They offered thoughtful early feedback on AI tools Coursera was developing that influenced their design, piloted AI-graded questions and the Dialogue function, experimented with using AI during course development, and participated in a major course review project. In each case, the team’s mix of creativity, critique, and evidence-based design ensured that innovation never came at the expense of quality or the learner experience.
The team’s commitment to principled innovation also extends to research. For example, several members of LILE presented a poster at Duke’s Responsible AI Symposium earlier this year on their development of a platform-agnostic, values-centered evaluation framework for assessing AI tools in pedagogy. In piloting this framework, they found that their process helped promote trustworthy and transparent uses of AI in learning contexts. At the core of their approach is a conviction that technology should always serve learners first.
A collective effort
The award reflects contributions from every member of the LX Design team:
- Michael Hudson, Learning Experience Designer
- Nicholas Janes, Learning Media Designer
- Tara Kramling, Learning Experience Producer
- Maria Kunath, Learning Experience Designer
- Catherine Lee-Cates, Learning Experience Designer
- Megan Lancaster, Senior Learning Experience Designer
- Hannah Rogers, Learning Experience Designer
- Quentin Ruiz-Esparza, Director for Digital Product Strategy and Design
- Beth Shepherd, Assistant Director of Learning Experience Design
In conversation, members of the LX Design team reflected on the award as recognition of their collaborative spirit and learner-first mindset:
“Our unit as a whole has been given both the guidance and the freedom to be very entrepreneurial,” said Kunath. “This award reflects that balance—having the creative autonomy to innovate while also having the trust of our leadership to ensure our work benefits all stakeholders. So I see it as an affirmation of that style of management and leadership, as well as an affirmation that my coworkers are incredibly creative and have a very outside-of-the-box approach to all things pedagogy-related.”
“We’ve been given the opportunity to think really critically about AI and how it’s being used,” said Hudson. “This award, to me, is nice because we’ve been vocal, and we’ve been critical, and Coursera has taken all of that in stride… To see our values and the way that we care about this being reflected in decisions they’ve made over the past year matters. It’s good to know that they’re listening, especially because there’s not a lot of competition in the online education space.”
“[Since AI came onto the scene], our team has been thinking about, how are we going to use this? What are the guidelines we need to set? How do we make sure we’re following our values?” said Rogers. “At the end of the day, two things really matter to me: our learners and the ability to collaborate with this team on our shared values… It’s not every day you get to work with a group of people who care in such a strong way.”
Together, the LX Design team has not only strengthened Duke’s courses on Coursera but also helped shape the future of digital education. Their work demonstrates how thoughtful design, principled innovation, and a focus on learners can transform education at scale.
Generative AI transparency statement: This story was originally drafted using ChatGPT 5.0 and then revised and edited by Blythe Tyrone.
