The National AI Institute for Adult Learning and Online Education (AI-ALOE for short) is a research institute funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Accenture through NSF. Led by the Georgia Institute of Technology, AI-ALOE will develop an AI-based transformative model for online adult learning that can meet this challenge. This model simultaneously uses AI for transforming online adult learning and online adult education to transform AI. These innovative transformations are not “just doing things better” but “doing better things” in effectiveness, efficiency, access, scale, and personalization.

AI-ALOE will lead the country and the world in the development of novel AI theories and techniques for enhancing the quality of adult online education. It will foster a research community of computer scientists to conduct responsible use-inspired fundamental research into AI that is grounded in theories of human cognition and learning, supported by evidence from large-scale data, evaluated on a large variety of testbeds, and derived from the scientific process of learning engineering. Together with partners in the higher education and educational technology sector, AI-ALOE will advance online learning to make education more available, affordable, achievable, and ultimately, more equitable.