Generative AI and Adult Education: Designing Transformative and Inclusive Digital Learning Environments

Dear Colleagues,

Responding to the growing need to design innovative, transformative, and inclusive digital learning environments, there are calls to integrate groundbreaking technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in education. Traditional design models in education are gradually being replaced with more personalised, adaptive, and flexible learner-centred digital environments. However, scholarly debates and publications about GenAI’s role in learning and co-creating immersive learning environments have largely focused on young learners and sidelined the field of adult education, where many adults have the need to utilise novel and advanced digital technologies in their educational, family, and professional lives.

At the same time, digital technologies for GenAI-saturated digital environments do not guarantee successful learning. As adult learners in higher and further education increasingly engage with advanced digital technologies, they face unique challenges that can impact their learning, work, mental health, social interactions, and overall quality of life. How can GenAI be effectively designed to facilitate the education, work, health, and personal development of different cohorts of adult learners? That is, it is crucial to carefully design the implementation of GenAI in different adult learning ecosystems for achieving a just and sustainable society.

Therefore, this Special Issue solicits studies on how to effectively design innovative, transformative, and inclusive digital learning environments for learners in diverse adult learning ecosystems, such as higher and continuing education, community and lifelong education, open and distance education, vocational and technical education, workplace and corporate education, and others. Both original empirical and review articles are welcome. Preferably, studies should focus on discussing and proposing evidence-based solutions for integrating adult learning principles in instruction, scalable solutions for accessibility and inclusion, human–AI interaction, examining GenAI’s role beyond automation, and ethical guidelines for GenAI-mediated adult learning and wellbeing.

Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Andragogical and pedagogical design for GenAI-powered instruction;
• GenAI for authentic and dynamic assessment;
• GenAI for designing learning spaces;
• GenAI for curriculum development and design;
• GenAI for designing and delivering customised professional development training programmes;
• The fusion of GenAI with complementary technologies for immersive learning;
• Educational policies and ethical guidelines for GenAI implementation;
• Leadership and management of GenAI systems;
• GenAI for methodological innovations in adult education research;
• Women learning and co-creation of GenAI-saturated environments;
• Cultivating GenAI literacy and multiliteracies;
• Digital/GenAI inclusion of older adults and adults with disabilities;
• GenAI for workplace learning, productivity, and wellbeing;
• GenAI in different instructional modalities (e.g., virtual, blended, hybrid, face-to-face, etc.).

Dr. Michael Agyemang Adarkwah
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• generative artificial intelligence
• adult learning
• vocational education
• educational design
• digital inclusion