AI Tutor Differentiates Itself from Chatbot, Possibly Leveraging Its Distinctiveness as a Strength
The Arizona State University (ASU) and Wiley have collaborated to refine an AI tutor, designed to provide immediate, accurate support to online learners. This innovative teaching assistant, modelled after earlier systems like "Jill Watson," operates by leveraging extensive past student data to answer routine questions with a high degree of accuracy (around 97%).
The AI tutor, currently undergoing pilot studies, is particularly beneficial for online students taking condensed courses. It offers 24/7 support, reducing wait times and freeing human teaching assistants for more complex mentoring tasks. Over successive semesters, the tutor has evolved to autonomously post confident responses, enhancing teaching presence and improving retention and grades in large online courses.
The AI tutor's interface is not an open-text field, which helps keep it focused on helping students solve problems. It offers multiple input options to students when they are struggling with a problem. The tutor is designed to work within Wiley's zyBooks coding lab, a platform used by Arizona State University for classes.
However, concerns have been raised about potential over-reliance on the AI tutor by students. To address this, a control group study is being conducted, with one group having access to the tutor and another not. The study aims to compare academic achievement and self-efficacy between the two groups.
Ryan Meuth, a professor at Arizona State University, believes that AI tutors have significant potential, especially for online students. Yet, he cautions that students can trick an AI tutor into giving away answers if it allows for open conversation. To mitigate this, the AI tutor is intended to help students find the answer, rather than providing the answer directly.
The AI tutor underwent a pilot study with 150 students this fall. After improvements, a second cohort of 350 students began using the AI tutor this fall, using it ten times as frequently. Lyssa Vanderbeek, group vice president for courseware at Wiley, states that the highest value hints have been identified for the AI tutor. Initial performance of the AI tutor was not effective, providing unhelpful hints. However, with ongoing studies and refinements, the team aims to ensure the value students get from the tutor contributes in a healthy way to their learning experience.
The study's ultimate goal is to ensure the long-term efficacy of the AI tutor in helping students. Meuth and the Wiley team are studying how best to use the AI tutor, with the aim of ensuring its value to students contributes positively to their academic journey. This partnership highlights continuous efforts to refine AI tutor capabilities and better embed them into online education.
- The AI tutor, being designed to work within Wiley's zyBooks coding lab, a platform used by Arizona State University for classes, is an innovative digital tool aimed at enhancing student learning in online education-and-self-development.
- Although concerns about over-reliance on the AI tutor by students have been raised, Professor Ryan Meuth at Arizona State University believes that it has significant potential, particularly for online learners, and emphasizes the importance of using it to help students find the answer rather than providing it directly.
- In the collaboration between Arizona State University and Wiley, the team is conducting a control group study to compare academic achievement and self-efficacy between students who have access to the AI tutor and those who do not, with the ultimate goal of ensuring the long-term efficacy of the AI tutor in aiding student learning and success in online school environments.
