Learning is crucial for everyone. The association between biological lifestyle factors (i.e., physical activity, sleep, and nutrition) and learning performance has been well established for children, adolescents and college students in traditional education. Evidence for these associations for adult distance students is lacking however. The Adult Learning Open University Determinants (ALOUD) study is the first to identify the determinants of learning performance within adult distance education. Over the course of 1 year, all new students (n = 4945) of the Open University of the Netherlands were approached. At the start of their study, 2040 students fully participated in this observational study by filling out an online questionnaire and performing cognitive tests. Learning performance was measured over the course of 14 months, the subscription period of the first course bought by the student. The ALOUD study might result in tailor-made educational innovations for adults participating in distance education and, finally, a more successful distance education student population.

Of the 4945 students who were approached, 2842 responded and 2040 fully participated at baseline.The variables 'beroep' and 'opmerkingen' are removed due to privacy concerns.Because this is the biological part of the dataset, the variables regarding social support, life events, coping, self-efficacy, affect, perseverance, self esteem, test anxiety, goal orientation and learning strategies are not included.The variables 'dob_year_survey' and 'dob_year_OUdata' at the end of the dataset indicate year of birth.The Open University (NL) provided the .sav file. DANS converted this file to .por and dta. format and added these formats. As a result, the data is available in .sav, .por and .dta format.