{"id":126496,"date":"2022-07-13T13:10:56","date_gmt":"2022-07-13T13:10:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.microsoft.com\/?p=446694"},"modified":"2022-07-13T13:10:56","modified_gmt":"2022-07-13T13:10:56","slug":"online-math-tutoring-service-uses-ai-to-help-boost-students-skills-and-confidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2022\/07\/13\/online-math-tutoring-service-uses-ai-to-help-boost-students-skills-and-confidence\/","title":{"rendered":"Online math tutoring service uses AI to help boost students\u2019 skills and confidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

Like many students around the world, Eithne, 14, in Chorley, United Kingdom, was struggling to keep up in math at school after more than a year of COVID-19 related disruptions. In June 2021, her parents signed her up for a summer program offered by Eedi, an online math tutoring service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust dealing with lockdown, she hadn\u2019t had enough of a really good background,\u201d said her mother, Arianna. \u201cShe missed most of the Year 7 Maths, then Year 8. So, we thought, \u2018Let\u2019s give it a go, let\u2019s see where she needs a bit of help.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Newly enrolled students on Eedi are asked to take a dynamic quiz of 10 multiple choice diagnostic questions that the service uses to learn where students struggle most in math. This information allows the service to place students on a learning pathway to overcome those specific obstacles, or misconceptions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask them a question based roughly on their age group and then we say, \u2018Well, what\u2019s the next best question to ask them based on their previous answer?\u2019\u201d explained Iris Hulls, the head of operations at Eedi. \u201cWe learn as much about them as possible to predict either growth or comfort topics for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dynamic quiz is powered by AI developed by researchers at the Microsoft Research Lab in Cambridge<\/a>, United Kingdom, who specialize in machine learning algorithms that help people make decisions.<\/p>\n

The AI uses each answer to predict the probability the student will correctly answer each of thousands of other possible next questions and then weighs those probabilities to decide what question to ask next to pinpoint knowledge gaps.<\/p>\n

The information gleaned from the quiz is akin to what a teacher might learn from a one-on-one conversation with a student, explained Cheng Zhang<\/a>, a Microsoft principal researcher at the lab who led the development of the machine learning model that powers Eedi\u2019s dynamic quiz.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the student doesn\u2019t know 3 times 7, we may want to ask 1 plus 1,\u201d Zhang said. \u201cWe want to adapt the quiz based on the previous answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Once students\u2019 misconceptions are identified, the Eedi platform slots students onto a learning pathway that helps them overcome their misconceptions and do better in math at school.<\/p>\n

Eithne was slotted onto a pathway that included a review of topics covered in Year 8 and prepared her for success in Year 9, including geometry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very good for finding your weaknesses and your strengths and being able to understand why you\u2019re maybe not as good in this one area,\u201d Eithne said. \u201cYou\u2019re able to realize, \u2018I\u2019ve been doing this wrong for ages.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Eithne, 14, in Chorley, United Kingdom, gained confidence in math through lessons on Eedi, an online tutoring service that uses AI developed by Microsoft. Photo by Jonathan Banks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Good questions, good data<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The success of Microsoft\u2019s next-best-question model<\/a> hinges on the data used to train it, noted Zhang. In Eedi\u2019s case, these are thousands of vetted, high-quality diagnostic questions developed specifically to help teachers identify student misconceptions about math topics.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur technology is just an enhancer that makes this high-quality data give more insights,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n

Diagnostic questions are well-thought-through multiple choice questions that have one correct answer and three wrong answers, with each wrong answer designed to reveal a specific misconception.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaths lends itself quite well to this kind of multiple-choice assessment because more often than not there\u2019s a right answer and these wrong answers; it\u2019s much less subjective than some of the humanities subjects,\u201d said Craig Barton<\/a>, an Eedi co-founder and the company\u2019s director of education.<\/p>\n

Barton latched on to the power of diagnostic questions when, as a math teacher, he attended a training course on formative assessments and learned that well-formulated wrong answers can provide insight to why a student is struggling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past, it was always kids got things right, which is fine, or they got things wrong and then I had to start doing detective work to figure out where they were going wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s okay if you work one-to-one, but if you\u2019ve got 30 kids in a class, that\u2019s potentially quite time consuming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Good diagnostic questions, Barton said, must be clear and unambiguous, check for one thing, be answerable in 20 seconds, link each wrong answer to a misconception and ensure that a student is unable to answer it correctly while having a key misconception.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis notion that the kids can\u2019t get it right whilst having a key misconception is the hardest one to factor in, but it\u2019s probably the most important,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For example, consider the question: \u201cWhich of the following is a multiple of 6? \u2013 A: 20, B: 62, C: 24, or D: 26.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Barton, on the surface this is a decent question. That\u2019s because students could think a \u201cmultiple\u201d means the \u201c6\u201d is the first number (B) or last number (D), or the student could have difficulty with their multiplication tables and select A. The correct answer is C: 24.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the major flaw in this question is if you don\u2019t know the difference between a factor and a multiple, you could get this question right, whereas experience will tell us that the biggest misconception students have with multiples is they mix them up with factors,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A better question to ask, then, is, \u201cWhich of these is a multiple of 15? \u2013 A: 1, B: 5, C: 60 or D: 55.\u201d That\u2019s because the possible answers include factors and multiples. The correct answer is C: 60. A student who confuses factors with multiples might instead pick A: 1 or B: 5, and a student who needs work on multiplication might pick D: 55.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you write these things, you\u2019ve really got to think, \u2018What are all the different ways kids can go wrong and how am I going to capture those in three wrong answers?\u2019\u201d Barton explained.<\/p>\n

\"Screenshot<\/a>
In this diagnostic question, the correct answer is \u201cB:4.\u201d Students who answer \u201cA:20\u201d took the first step to find the mean, totaling the numbers. \u201cC:3\u201d represents confusion between the concepts of median and mean. \u201cD:2\u201d is a mix up of the concepts mode and mean.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Teacher tools to online tutor<\/strong><\/h2>\n

After the workshop, Barton went home and wrote about 50 diagnostic questions and tested them out on students in his class. They worked.<\/p>\n

Barton is also a math book author and podcaster with thousands of followers on social media. He used his influence to spread the word on diagnostic questions and collaborated with Eedi co-founder Simon Woodhead to build an online database with thousands of diagnostic questions for teachers to access for their lesson planning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen I thought, \u2018Wait a minute, we could do something a bit better than this,\u2019\u201d Barton said. \u201c\u2019Imagine if the kids could answer the questions online and we could capture that data and then, before you know it, we\u2019ve got insights into specific areas where students struggle.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The website exploded in popularity and attracted investors as well as the attention of Hulls, who along with colleagues was exploring options to use data to scale and make the benefits of math tutoring accessible to more families. The team formed Eedi. An advisor introduced them to Zhang and her team\u2019s research on the next-best-question algorithm, which aims to accelerate decision making by gathering and analyzing relevant personal information.<\/p>\n

At the time, the Microsoft researchers were working on healthcare scenarios, using AI to help doctors more efficiently make decisions about what tests to order to diagnose patient ailments.<\/p>\n

For example, if a patient walks into an emergency room with a hurt arm, the doctor will ask a series of questions leading up to an X-ray, such as \u201cHow did you hurt your arm?\u201d and, \u201cCan you move your fingers?\u201d instead of, \u201cDo you have a cold?\u201d because the answer will reveal relevant information for this patient\u2019s treatment. The next-best-question algorithm automates this information gathering process.<\/p>\n

The advisor thought the model would work well with Eedi\u2019s dataset of diagnostic questions, automating the collection of information a tutor could glean from a one-on-one conversation with a student.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were aware that we had collected a lot of data. We wanted to do smarter stuff with our data; we wanted to be able to predict what misconceptions students might have before they even answer questions,\u201d said Woodhead, who is Eedi\u2019s chief data scientist.<\/p>\n

The Eedi team worked with the Microsoft researchers to train the model on their diagnostic questions to efficiently pinpoint where students need the most support in math.<\/p>\n

The model works without collecting any personal identifying information from the students, Woodhead noted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t need to know a name. It doesn\u2019t need to know an email address. It\u2019s looking at patterns,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

From this information, the system can pinpoint the best lessons for students to take on Eedi. Without that guidance, students tend to rely on strategies they\u2019re already using at school, which isn\u2019t the right starting point for the majority of students who are looking for a private tutor, according to Hulls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really helps direct the children and their families at home to know where to start,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like many students around the world, Eithne, 14, in Chorley, United Kingdom, was struggling to keep up in math at school after more than a year of COVID-19 related disruptions. In June 2021, her parents signed her up for a summer program offered by Eedi, an online math tutoring service. \u201cJust dealing with lockdown, she […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126497,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[555,135],"class_list":["post-126496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-microsoft-news","tag-ai-blog","tag-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}