Charting the Future: A Research Agenda for AI in Education

AI applications are currently proliferating in the educational landscape but research regarding effects on teaching and learning is proceeding at a much slower pace. In this paper, a call for a broadscale AI in education research agenda is proposed, one that incorporates the best of lessons learned regarding waves of new information technologies introduced into education over the past 50 years, but also with a particular eye toward the systematic study of the tremendous benefits as well as possible dangers to our society that could result with the unchecked explosion of this new emerging technology. The authors propose to ‘fast track’ research by simultaneously looking through the lens of qualitive, quantitative and mixed methods research paradigms in a coordinated fashion, while also recognizing that systems being studied will be rapidly evolving in a design-based research evolutionary cycle. The authors contend that the highest priority for research on AI in education should be focused on effectiveness for improving human learning.