Artificial Intelligence and education

Welcome to AIED, the SIG for Artificial Intelligence and education

About Artificial Intelligence and Education (AIED)

Artificial Intelligence and Education seeks to develop flexible, interactive, and personalised learning environments that can be adapted to many contexts and domains. Our team is an interdisciplinary group of researchers from the fields of computer science, education and psychology, interested in the questions of how computers can support learning, and what makes for effective learning and teaching in these systems. We coordinate the efforts of research activities in AIED concerning a wide range of topics, including intelligent tutoring systems, cognitive tools for learning, virtual learning environments, and analysing user actions in interactive learning environments. We support the creation of focused joint short-term research and of sustainable research teams in the field.

Achievements to date

We have established an annual workshop "New Directions for AIED"—the third one will be held this November. For each workshop, we publish a white paper that serves as a starting point for ongoing discussion and research projects on these new trends and topics. This resulted in several new AIED-related project proposals within the Kaleidoscope network. We have also paired researchers in the field with students to discuss on tools for supporting learning, including intelligent tutoring and training systems, and tools for scripting and scaffolding learning.

Contributions to the field by the end of December 2007

In the past, it has been difficult to build directly from the work of others in our field, thereby somewhat hindering the progress of research. Our goal is to establish sustainable research teams in AIED. To that end, the activities of our group have strengthened the bonds between researchers and have facilitated cross-fertilisation in the field. This includes the integration of students as tomorrow's PhD candidates.

The benefits of Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope has provided us with access to a large network of people across Europe, from researchers to students, to scholars, allowing for cross-fertilisation in the field. As a result, we have active involvement from an interdisciplinary team, all of whom participate in workshops and seminars, and joint activities in the Kaleidoscope network, as well as collaborate in the joint production of scientific publications and the sharing of perspectives and scientific outcomes.

Issues to address in the future

The adaptation of support to a learner’s individual needs is especially important for the field of lifelong learning, because every learner has their own background, motivation, and needs. AIED has a rich tradition of providing such adaptive support. This support can be extended to include collaborative aspects (such as matching interests or complementary competencies) and contextual settings and learning situations of the learners (such as availability of learning partners and learning infrastructure).

A message for European policy makers

Keeping up with the pace of our ever-changing world requires all of us to become lifelong learners. A huge challenge is the need to create adaptive systems that take into account the individual needs of learner, as well as the context in which they are learning. AIED can make significant contributions to this area because of its longstanding tradition of providing adaptive support for learning.

The importance of Artificial Intelligence and Education to the public Personalised learning with computers enables us to learn at any time and in any context adapted to the current situation and user's needs. To provide this flexible mode of learning is one of the goals of AIED.