Wiley and the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University (ASU) are collaborating to develop a new generative AI-powered tutor to help students succeed in their online computer science labs.
The goal of the new AI tutor, now in the pilot research phase, is to provide feedback to students who have hit a barrier in their zyBooks coding lab, helping them get back on track to complete the lab. And the tutor doesn’t give students the answers. It gives them hints and tips to help them see where they may have gone wrong so they can try again. Wiley hopes the tutor will encourage students to learn better by overcoming challenges and obstacles — a process known as productive struggle.
The Wiley and ASU teams completed the first phase of the pilot study over the summer in an introductory computer programming course. Even though improvements are needed, the AI tutor is promising. It helps students grasp the material and earns favorable reactions from students and instructors.
The Wiley and ASU teams are working closely together on the AI tutor. ASU instructors monitor the results and send feedback to Wiley’s research and creative team, who then adjust the tutor to correct issues and improve performance.
The next phase of the pilot study will use a control group and a research group to measure how the tutor helps students successfully complete the online labs. That segment of the research will be completed in early 2025, and results are expected to be available in late spring.
zyBooks are Wiley’s fully interactive online learning courseware solutions designed to empower student engagement and success through animations, learning questions, auto-graded challenge activities, and integrated tools. zyLabs are online labs embedded within zyBooks courses designed to help computer programming students learn coding skills in a realistic, professional environment.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our goal in developing this AI tutor was to provide students with real-time, personalized support tailored to their learning needs. By leveraging AI, we can offer students a resource that reinforces key concepts and helps them solve computer science problems at their own pace. The zyBooks AI tutor allows us to provide immediate guidance to students wherever and whenever they are working.”
- Ryan Meuth, an assistant teaching professor in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, one of the schools in the Fulton Schools of Engineering at ASU
“Wiley’s philosophy is to prove the efficacy of our products through research before we release them widely to customers. ASU is a perfect partner for Wiley in this project because we both embrace innovation, research-based decisions, and student success.”
- Lyssa Vanderbeek, Wiley group vice president for courseware
