University of Miami transforms relationship support with Totara and AI | OurRelationship Customer Story

University of Miami’s ‘OurRelationship: when the learner is a couple’ program redefines digital relationship support with AI-powered, personalized learning at scale

The OurRelationship program, led by Dr. Brian Doss, University of Miami, helps couples strengthen relationships through flexible digital support. Over 10,000 couples have completed the program, which combines research-backed content with innovative technology to improve communication, intimacy, and trust.

Powered by Totara, OurRelationship has been led by Mindtools Kineo since 2012 – one of our longest client relationships, with a roadmap evolving to meet the needs of couples and individuals.

The Challenge

Many couples experience relationship challenges that significantly impact their mental and physical wellbeing, yet the majority never seek professional support.

The University of Miami set out to remove these barriers by creating a highly accessible, scalable digital intervention that could replicate the effectiveness of in-person therapy while reaching a far broader audience. This program is run as a part of grant-funded services funded by the United States’ Administration for Children and Families and is also sold direct to businesses and consumers under a licensed model.

To achieve this, the platform needed to:

• Seamlessly support two individual user journeys (one per partner) while combining insights into a shared couple experience.
• Deliver deeply personalized content based on relationship dynamics, user context, and participation type (individual vs. couple-led).
• Provide coaches with real-time visibility into progress, responses, and intervention points.
• Scale efficiently while maintaining a high-quality, tailored user experience.

Crucially, the solution also needed to evolve over time, supporting new innovations in digital engagement and behavioral support without requiring fundamental redesign. The OurRelationship platform began with Kineo on a Moodle instance. We migrated it to Totara circa 2014 and have continued to customize, update, and upgrade it every year.

The Solution

Totara’s flexibility enabled OurRelationship to build a highly personalized, research-driven platform delivering 8–10 hours of tailored content designed to improve communication and relationship outcomes. Accessible across mobile, tablet, and desktop, the platform supports both self-guided and coach-supported journeys, ensuring flexibility for diverse user needs, while aiming to be a consumer-grade experience.

A key strength of the solution is its ability to dynamically tailor each user’s experience. Through structured assessments, conditional logic, and personalized feedback, couples receive guidance that reflects their unique circumstances. Coaches benefit from a comprehensive dashboard, offering visibility into participant progress, key insights, and recommended next steps.

Learning content, built in the Adapt Framework, passes data back and forth to Totara, providing a truly tailored experience that recognizes where the learner is in the experience as well as their partner. Couples who chose to work with a coach can use the custom scheduler to schedule meeting times directly with their personal human coach.

Building on this strong foundation, OurRelationship is introducing an AI Tutor – a significant innovation in how support is delivered. Acting as a responsive, always-available guide, the AI Tutor enhances the learning experience by:

• Providing real-time, conversational support to help users reflect on and apply key concepts.
• Reinforcing learning between sessions, increasing engagement and completion.
• Offering a safe, private space for individuals to explore sensitive topics at their own pace.

In this context, the AI Tutor is being used in a particularly innovative way, facilitating elements of a relationship coach’s role within a digital environment. This extends the reach of traditional coaching, allowing users to access meaningful support whenever they need it, not just during scheduled sessions.

Totara’s adaptability has made it possible to integrate this new layer of intelligent AI support without disrupting the existing user experience. Combined with robust reporting, automation, and scalability, the platform continues to evolve alongside the program’s ambitions, delivering increasingly personalized, impactful support at scale.

Results

OurRelationship continues to deliver exceptional outcomes, combining strong engagement with measurable improvements in relationship and mental health.

• 94% of couples report high satisfaction.
• 97% would recommend the program.
• 63–86% completion rates, significantly higher than typical digital interventions.
• Over 10,000 couples have completed the program, with reach extending to 3+ million couples.
• Randomized controlled trials involving more than 5,000 couples have demonstrated statistically significant improvements in relationship satisfaction, alongside reductions in depression and anxiety and improved workplace functioning.
• The platform has enabled a 100%+ increase in partners while supporting continued programme growth.
• The platform has successfully supported the delivery of a federally funded programme helping approximately 2,500 low-income couples annually at no cost.
• The introduction of the AI Tutor is further enhancing accessibility and engagement between structured sessions, helping users stay on track, deepen reflection, and apply learning more consistently – key drivers of long-term behavior change.
• 52% of couples report they no longer require traditional couples therapy after completing the program, highlighting the real-world impact of this innovative digital approach.
• Totara has been instrumental in enabling this success, providing the flexibility, scalability, and extensibility required to continuously evolve the platform, including the seamless integration of AI-driven support.

The platform also continues to support diverse populations, including low-income couples, same-gender couples, military couples, and couples with cancer through tailored learning journeys.

User Feedback

“We liked that it wasn’t done in a traditional sense of going into an office and talking one-on-one with someone we didn’t know. We are both very busy between our work and five kids. This program was absolute perfection for our busy schedules.”

“This is a revolutionary new program that allows couples to work in tandem with each other and their respective schedules and provides the flexibility and accessibility to the resources of a clinical workshop that does not require a specific date and time to be in attendance every week. I would highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in learning more about how to communicate and resolve conflicts with their partner.”