We are delighted to share this collection of publications on the future of AI and Open Education, written by researchers and practitioners from across the globe. The collection results from a call for abstracts issued by MIT Open Learning’s new AI + Open Education Initiative, generously supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. This call comes at a moment where AI is entering public consciousness and reshaping how we learn, communicate, and collaborate. In the spirit of open education, we invite broad participation in shaping the path forward. We believe this will equip us to address the challenges posed by this new technology, and to purpose that technology toward solving long-standing challenges in education.
As this was the inaugural year of the AI + Open Education Initiative, we did not know what to expect when we issued the call. We received 147 abstract submissions, and after blind review by our jury, 10 were invited to contribute rapid response papers (a 7% acceptance rate). Many of the papers published in this collection are the result of cross-institutional—and largely international—collaborations, with authors from Armenia, Brazil, Canada, Ghana, India, Mexico, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The papers address both technical innovations and practical implementations, from automated curriculum evaluation systems to deployment of AI-enhanced offline resources in sub-Saharan Africa. Together, the projects in this collection depict a future for AI and open education that is deeply personal: rather than supplanting current OER with general-purpose AI systems, our authors explore ways that AI can be used to customize and refine OER for individual needs. Authors describe applications ranging from dynamically generating custom learning paths, to enhancing visibility of OER for colorblind learners, editing Spanish Wikipedia articles, and localizing UDL curriculum translations for Kazakhstan. We are excited for readers to engage with the ideas in this collection and to imagine new ways of integrating AI into their own practices, to create more dynamic, accessible, and empowering educational resources.
The AI + Open Education Initiative has committed seed funding to advance each project presented in this collection, and we look forward to following these projects as they evolve. Stay tuned for upcoming developments; you can sign up here to join our community of practice and receive future updates.
We are grateful to Angela DeBarger, Program Officer in Education at the Hewlett Foundation, for her foresight and early support of this effort. This collection would also not have been possible without the vision of the planning committee at MIT Open Learning, the editorial leadership of Sarah Gulliford, and the efforts of our jury members, whose insight and guidance helped bring the collection to light.
(Image courtesy of Sarah Schwettmann. License CC BY.)