The team is creating a hybrid human-AI tutoring system that gives each student the necessary amount of tutoring based on their individual needs. The project builds on decades of learning science research through cutting-edge tutor training and an AI-powered app that gives tutors ‘superhuman’ power, allowing them to reach all students rapidly and effectively. Using the app, tutors can access data from students’ existing math software to use motivational support tools and personalize learning in real-time.
CMU

Project Title

PLUS - Personalized Learning Squared: Doubling Math Learning by Optimizing Tutoring from Training to Practice

   Pennsylvania, Maryland, and California

Where it is used:

  • Prince George’s County School District in Maryland
  • Central Unified School District in Fresno, California
  • Gateway School District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
  • School District of Lancaster, Pennsylvania
  • Life Male Steam Academy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Project Summary
 

What’s the problem that Carnegie Mellon University is trying to solve?

Different students need different types of help, but not every student can get the personalized tutoring or access to tutors trained in best practices.

What does PLUS do?

The project makes one-on-one tutoring for low-income students accessible at scale. Using a dashboard, the PLUS platform recruits and trains tutors, matching them to low-income students in need of tutoring help and social-motivational support.

What is the wow factor?

The approach allows students to be matched with an optimal tutor using the right model of learning support. Tutors are matched to students not just based on the students’ prior knowledge and skills, but also their self-regulatory skills and social-motivational dispositions.

How does it work?

The approach uses an AI-driven matching system to recommend tutors and assignments to students, gradually moving students from scheduled support toward support as needed.

Learn More
or contact Shivang Gupta at shivang@cmu.edu

Team Members

Ken Koedinger
Professor of Human Computer Interaction and Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University
Shivang Gupta
Head of Product at Carnegie Mellon University
Emma Brunskill
Associate Professor in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University
Danielle Thomas
Systems Scientist in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute within the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University
Lee Branstetter
Professor of Economics and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University
Vincent Aleven
Professor of Human-Computer Interaction & Director, Creating Adaptive Tutoring Systems (CATS) Lab