Presence Meets Prompts in AI-Supported Language Course

How blending tried-and-true course design with emerging technologies equals a successful online course

Creating presence and connecting with students in an asynchronous online course is a challenge even for the most vibrant instructors.

Pamela Bogart’s warm, personal delivery has helped make her open online courses the most popular language learning options on Michigan Online. Yet there is far more to her success with online learners than personality. Bogart, Lecturer IV at the English Language Institute in the School of Literature, Science, and the Arts, has built purposeful elements into her curriculum while embracing technical tools, like generative AI, to establish an inclusive, engaging online classroom where learners feel seen and heard. 

Her use of those elements, such as thoughtfully created assessments or online discussion boards, brings a sense of belonging to the courses.

“If we set up the assignments right, it gives learners the opportunity to share their wisdom,” Bogart said. “[It] creates a sense that I’m not alone here in these big online classes.”

Teacher Presence

Working with the Center for Academic Innovation, Bogart launched her latest online course, “Learning Languages with AI,” in August 2024. The course prioritized student connections and leveraged generative AI to create a personalized, interactive learning environment. 

Over the years, Bogart has iterated and perfected the right formula for building relationships in an asynchronous environment. Bogart’s first massive open online course, or MOOC, “Preparing for Graduate Study in the U.S.: A Course for International Students,” has drawn more than 30,000 learners since it opened in 2017.

To achieve this, Bogart first focuses on fostering teacher presence. She includes autobiographical pieces of her own journey as a learner, and keeps her videos brief, engaging, and digestible, working with the center’s media design team to produce professional-quality recordings.

Connecting with her students has demonstrated advantages for online learners, from building relationships to increasing engagement, which all help students sustain momentum throughout the course. 

“That notion of presence is sort of a hallmark of successfully built online learning environments,” Bogart said.

Learner Presence

Another priority for Bogart is to make the learners feel included and like they are active participants. This is no small feat when your learners often hail from different countries or have varied backgrounds and academic experiences. 

She accomplishes this in a few different ways. 

Create congruent, clear instructions with lots of examples

Providing students an understandable starting point for each course assignment or activity, and modeling methods for accomplishing it levels the playing field for a diverse group of learners. 

Bogart worked closely with the center’s learning experience designers to ensure those student needs were met. Hedieh Najafi, a learning experience designer who partnered with Bogart in creating the course, said by providing detailed instructions for each task using the same template, Bogart was able to create a consistent structure for her students.

“Her pedagogical design in general assumed an active role for the students,” Najafi said. “She scaffolds that process for learners who may be new to this approach to teaching and learning.”

Use technology to encourage student interaction

Allowing learners to share their experiences with and get feedback from each other enhances the feeling of learner presence. 

Simple tools like Canvas Discussions, Discord, or even Zoom can foster engagement with students. Bogart and the center team opted to implement Coursera’s Gamut Gallery tool, which allows students to exchange feedback, and they added a discussion prompt at the end of each module to encourage students to look back at their learning journey. 

Bogart praised the center’s collaboration and the input of the learning experience designers as pivotal to creating an engaging and interactive experience for the online learners.

“As my learning experience designer, Hedieh offered creative ways to make the student experience of each video, resource, and task clear and accessible,” Bogart said. “The degree of student engagement in the resulting course is testament to her insight.”

Encourage self-reflection

Finally, Bogart makes sure her students reflect on why they are taking the course, and prompts them to approach each course activity through that lens. 

In a course like “Learning Languages with AI,” each student’s goal is likely different, whether it’s to master writing in a second language so they can attend university abroad or to converse comfortably for an upcoming trip. 

Anchoring learning in the “why” lends to a more motivated and enjoyable experience for learners, which leads to more successful outcomes, Bogart said.

“The course keeps circling back to why are you here, and how could you do this kind of task in a way that is relevant to the reason that you came here,” Bogart said.

AI as a Learning Partner

As generative AI emerged and improved, Bogart saw the opportunity to deepen that language learning process with customized AI tools. Learners of French, for example, could use an AI study partner to practice fluent conversations with their future landlady, boss, and clients before landing in Paris for a summer internship. 

This also presented a unique challenge – how to use AI to support language acquisition without endorsing specific large language models or chatbots. 

Bogart purposely maintained an agnostic approach, knowing that AI technologies often have different affordances and accessibility, and are also constantly changing. Instead, Bogart focused on guiding her learners through the steps toward language acquisition.

“So we needed to not try to teach how to use today’s technology, but to teach how does language learning work,” Bogart said. “And so the content of the class is sort of the classic ‘how to be an effective language learner’.”

Once learners understood the process, they could use chatbot-based tools as a supplement. The course design team made sure to include substantial support and resources for students as they approached the AI tools, such as modeling how to write prompts.

Bogart was then able to include many generative AI-based activities for students to practice creating their support tools. Examples of AI-supported tasks in the course include:

• Create an AI conversation partner
• Develop a vocabulary quiz
• Answer questions for a job interview
• Practice reading newspapers
• Learn to write names of tourist attractions in an unfamiliar alphabet
• Write a cover letter
• Evaluate a learning language app

Old learning model meets new technology

The course’s focus on applying technology to language learning is a confluence of Bogart’s past and present approaches to teaching.

More than 20 years ago, Bogart created the CRESP model – a categorization of the different areas of language learning that students need to balance in order to achieve their language acquisition goals. The center’s learning experience design team produced a visual representation of the model that underpins Bogart’s course. 

CRESP stands for:

C – Context and communication objective

R – Reflection

E – Exposure

S – Study

P – Practice

To complete each of these components, it’s optimal for a learner to be immersed with fluent language speakers or have access to adequate study materials. Now with AI tools, learners have access to vast amounts of materials and simulated interactions, opening the door for learners with limited resources.

AI is also helpful because it allows practice, reflection, study, and exposure without the worry of embarrassment over making mistakes or taking up too much time from a human speaker. Using AI-supported study methods allows learners to be better prepared for real-life human interactions using their newfound language skills.

“The whole point of using AI is to get more confidence so you can use language with people,” she said.

Here to Stay

Bogart encourages learners to consider AI technology as a support tool in their language acquisition. She understands the hesitance around embracing generative AI, yet Bogart calls herself a pragmatist, choosing to engage critically rather than avoid. 

One University of Michigan student affirmed this approach, writing in a course reflection that this was the first class where they were encouraged to use AI, and they learned how to use it strategically to support their learning outcomes. 

“She actually learned something about how to make choices about her use, the ethics of her use, and the learning outcomes of her use,” Bogart said. “And I think that’s what we’re here to do as educators.”