What if every student had a tutor who was always available, always personalized, and always ready with the right feedback at the right moment? In this episode of Inside the Learning Experience, host Betheny Gross sits down with Lauren Zito, a senior research scientist at WGU Labs, to explore how AI is transforming postsecondary education — not just as a delivery tool, but as a core part of how courses are designed. They dig into the science behind why timely feedback matters, what personalization actually looks like in practice, and how role-play and simulation are opening up entirely new kinds of learning that weren't possible before. Plus: the "experience gap" facing new workers, and why Lauren believes students need to learn how to learn with AI before they can effectively work with it.

What if AI could finally help higher education do what it’s been trying to do for decades? In this episode of Inside the Learning Experience, Betheny Gross and Drew Ceccato discuss how AI is enabling new postsecondary pathways, closer alignment with workforce needs, and expanded access for learners who’ve historically been left out. From degrees to micro-credentials and everything in between, this conversation explores what the future of learning could look like—and what it will take to get there.

2025 wasn’t just another year for higher education; it was the moment theory turned into reality. Institutions stopped planning for AI and started deploying it. Things broke. New tools emerged. And long-standing assumptions about how students learn, how credentials work, and who controls educational pathways began to crack.

In this episode of the Inside the Learning Experience Podcast, we dive deep into our 2025 End of Year Impact Report to examine how AI is being used to tackle higher education’s most persistent wicked problems.

What happens when students don’t get the help they need, despite institutions offering robust support services? In this episode of Inside the Learning Experience, WGU Labs researchers unpack what they’re learning from students as they design Stu, an AI-powered student support tool built to proactively connect learners with the right resources at the right time.

Betheny Gross is joined by senior research scientists Youngki Hong and Stephanie Reeves to explore why student support services are underutilized, how barriers like belonging, stigma, and awareness shape help-seeking behaviors, and where AI can and can’t step in. Drawing on large-scale surveys, interviews, and early user testing, the conversation highlights critical design insights, equity considerations, and open research questions around personalization, trust, and the role of AI in supporting motivation, belonging, and long-term student success.

What does it take to build an AI mentor—and what data should power it?

In this episode of Inside the Learning Experience, WGU Labs explores how AI can support students by scaling mentoring, personalizing guidance, and connecting learners to the right resources at the right time.

In this episode of Inside the Learning Experience, host Betheny Gross, director of research, and research coordinator Susie Chen explore how WGU Labs is reimagining student support through proactive, data-informed technology. STU is a first-of-its-kind student-facing AI assistant built to identify when students might be struggling and reach out before challenges escalate. From connecting learners to academic coaching and mental health resources to helping normalize help-seeking behaviors, STU is designed to make belonging structural, not accidental.

Listen in as we discuss how technology, empathy, and design can come together to create more equitable support systems that meet students where they are—before they even ask.

Mental health challenges are reshaping the student experience, but traditional counseling can’t reach everyone. In this episode of Inside the Learning Experience podcast, we discuss the findings in Beyond Counseling: Unlocking Student Belonging through Peer Connection, one of our latest reports, which provides an overview of the pilot with WGU and Flourish Labs that tested professional peer support as a scalable complement to clinical services.

Learn how peer supporters with shared lived experiences helped students build confidence, focus, and a stronger sense of belonging, and what higher ed leaders need to know about implementing these models effectively.

This podcast episode was made using Notebook LM.

In this episode of Inside the Learning Experience, host Omid Fotuhi, the former Director of Learning Innovation at WGU Labs, sits down with Katy Kappler, Co-founder and CEO of InScribe, to explore how digital communities are transforming online education.

Katy shares her journey from the early days of eCollege to founding InScribe, a platform designed to foster connection, belonging, and social capital among nontraditional and online learners. Together, they discuss why a sense of belonging is critical for student success, how AI can support (without replacing) human connection, and why the future of online education depends on designing for community.

🎧 Tune in to learn how intentional community-building can turn isolation into inclusion — and make online learning more human than ever before.