Human-Centered Tutoring in the Age of AI

With over 30 years of experience in higher education, secondary education, and martial arts, I am an educator and leader dedicated to fostering belonging, building responsive support networks, and integrating martial arts principles into a modern, transformative leadership style focused on growth, resilience, and authentic connection.

In an exclusive interview with Education Insider, he shared invaluable insights on how true academic support thrives on human connection, blending scalable tutoring systems with personalized, community-driven guidance that AI alone cannot replicate.

1. Can you share your professional journey and the experiences that led you to your current role at San Jose State University?

My pathway into the field of education began on the mat of a martial arts dojo. I started at a young age and was encouraged by my teachers to begin coaching others as an instructor. The training was rigorous, but infused with a mentor’s care and guidance. It helped me to grow in confidence and find fulfillment in helping others to succeed. Coaching others helped me to learn the value of adapting the curriculum to fit the needs of individual students’ ages, backgrounds, and ability levels, rather than attempting to fit every student into the expectations of the curriculum.

Throughout the training, I was encouraged to take the lessons that I learned on the mat and put them to work in the world. For several years, I led classes at my teacher’s dojo, but as I made my way through college, I eventually felt a need to step away from the dojo and into the classroom. I taught at both the high school and college level while continuing to practice martial arts independently and eventually added a martial arts class on top of the academic subjects that I was teaching. Teaching opened doorways for me to grow as a leader, which led me to my current role at San Jose State University.

2. From an education consulting perspective, what strategies have you found most effective in scaling personalized, student centered tutoring systems at a large public university?

I think that it is easy to aim for big targets, like the courses where the data reveals that students are struggling most. It is also easy to aim for strategic points in a student’s academic trajectory where passing a critical course can impact their ability to make adequate progress towards their degree objective. It makes sense to target services in these areas because it is an efficient use of university resources and will impact large numbers of students.

There will always be outliers in that data: students whose needs aren’t being met because we aimed for the cluster and not the individual. It is important to also consider methods to engage and support individual students as individual people. That’s much harder to do at scale without creating communities of support that involve more than professional staff. Investing in a peer-assisted learning program can help.

“True tutoring isn’t just about coursework it’s about building connections, fostering belonging, and developing future leaders through human-centered support that AI can never replace.”

I see my work with tutoring at SJSU as an effort to satisfy both goals. There’s not enough tutors to help everyone in every class, so we aim at big targets to provide students with support in courses where we have identified areas of need. However, we also create enough room for students in other courses to come to us for individual needs.

3. What do you believe are the biggest gaps in traditional tutoring services at the university level, and how is your team at SJSU addressing them?

Although tutoring services at the university level are often under resourced, the biggest gaps are not necessarily due to a lack of funding. More often, barriers prevent students from utilizing available support. No program reaches everyone perfectly, so there is a constant need to evaluate how we are doing and where students need help.

At SJSU, we address this from several angles. Tutoring is promoted during orientation as part of academic support. We use university data to identify areas of need and adjust staffing accordingly. Many tutors are embedded in high-need courses, helping during class and holding office hours outside of it. We also partner with University Housing to provide after-hours tutoring in residence hall study areas. Our outreach team attends campus events, and tutors visit classes to explain our services. We maintain an active social media presence to engage students and share tips throughout the semester. Our program works closely with academic advising and the Accessible Education Center to receive referrals.

AI presents a new and growing gap. While useful, AI can shift focus away from human-centered services. Peer tutors offer irreplaceable value through lived experiences and familiarity with the campus community and its instructional nuances.

4. Many tutoring programs focus on transactional help with coursework. You’ve emphasized community, belonging and leadership development. Why is that important, and how do you operationalize it?

There are several aspects to this.

Transactional help with coursework is the most common form of tutoring, but it is also the most at risk as education continues to evolve. As academic work shifts to reflect changing workforce demands, the expectations of students are changing. The transactional model of tutoring is also the most easily replicated by AI tools, which calls for a renewed emphasis on human-centered practices.

From another angle, community and belonging are essential for student success. Students who feel connected to their environment experience less academic anxiety, are more likely to ask questions and engage, and perform better in their coursework. To operationalize this, we focus on building genuine connections with students and meeting them where they are.

Sometimes tutoring is not about coursework at all. It can involve navigating the hidden curriculum of college life, managing personal challenges, or acting as a mentor.

We also prioritize the development of our tutors. While I supervise the program, I also mentor peer tutors preparing for various careers. We want them to develop leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills. Our focus is on creating a meaningful, enjoyable experience that prepares them to succeed and become strong candidates for future roles.

5. As more institutions adopt hybrid and online models, what must tutoring services do to remain relevant and effective for today’s learners?

Today’s learning is flexible and can be personalized to the needs of the learner. In order to remain relevant and effective, tutoring services must also be flexible, accessible, inclusive, and personalized.

Tutoring needs to be available through a diverse set of modalities: live sessions vs. virtual sessions, individual and small group tutoring, appointment-based and drop-in, synchronous meetings and asynchronous support options, and more. Some of this may necessitate the incorporation of AI chat tools for quick, low-barrier support and 24/7 access as a supplement to humancentered tutoring, but not as a substitute for it.

That is easier to say and harder to execute. The training required to have a diverse set of services can be time-intensive and cost-prohibitive to many programs.

6. What’s your advice to institutions or academic leaders looking to improve student support systems in the age of AI?

As institutions begin to invest in AI and explore its potential, there will be many opportunities for growth, but as tempting and cost-effective as it may be to focus on AI, it should not come at the expense of human-centered student support.

AI-augmented, human-centered student support is the direction we need to be headed.