Meet the Faculty: Alex Ambrose

Alex Ambrose directs the Lab for AI in Teaching and Learning (LAITL) at Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence. He serves as a professor of the practice with concurrent appointments in both the Education, Schooling, and Society and Computing and Digital Technologies programs. He is also a faculty fellow of the Institute for Educational Initiatives and the Pulte Institute for Global Development.

At the heart of Alex’s work is a bold mission: to liberate learning and reduce unnecessary anxiety and harm in education—for both students and faculty. He sees himself as a learning experience architect, committed to designing student-centered learning environments and advancing authentic, meaningful assessment.

His current research focuses on applied learning research, design, and evaluation, including artificial intelligence in education, pedagogy, assessment, learning analytics, active learning classrooms, flexible learning spaces, microcredentials, digital badges, and portfolios. His work has been recognized by Google, IBM, the Gates Foundation, and the National Science Foundation, and earned him the 2015 Campus Technology Innovator Award.

With over two decades of teaching experience across K–12 and higher education—spanning suburban New Jersey, downtown Detroit, community colleges, and both public and private universities—Alex has taught in face-to-face, hybrid, and fully online formats. Before entering higher education, he served as a combat infantry platoon leader in Baghdad and as a military leadership instructor for Officer Candidate School and ROTC as a captain in the U.S. Army National Guard.