In previous research, we created the Adaptive Peer Tutoring Assistant (APTA), an intelligent peer tutoring system that supports pairs of middle school students tutoring one another to solve equations. The goal is that the students both learn math and become better at tutoring. While APTA has been tested in face-to-face classrooms, it has not been demonstrated in an online context, where even getting both students in a pair online at the same time is a challenge. Therefore, we are looking for students who are interested in implementing new features in APTA for engaging students in productive online peer tutoring activities.

Skills or requirements:

• Programming experience with HTML and JavaScript.

Intelligent tutoring systems are very effective in helping students learn individually, but sometimes learning collaboratively is more effective. We have a tutoring system, APTA, that helps students learn with a peer, in addition to systems for single students. What we still need is a tool by which teachers can easily monitor paired work and let students switch back and forth between working individually and working collaboratively. We have some low-fidelity designs, and we are looking for students who can help us implement a high-fidelity interactive prototype.

Skills or requirements:

• Programming experience with HTML and JavaScript.
• Experience with Vue.js is desirable, but not a strict requirement.

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) are very effective in helping students learn. How can we make them super easy to create? Our CTAT authoring tools support non-programmers in creating ITSs. In order to make it easier to build tutors in teams—so that developers or teachers could share work on them, we want to move the authoring tools into the browser, using the Vue.js framework. We are looking for students who can help us implement an initial version of a browser-based version of CTAT.

Skills or requirements:

• Programming experience with HTML and JavaScript.
• Experience with Vue.js is desirable, but not a strict requirement.

Intelligent tutoring systems are very effective in helping students learn, but when used in online learning environments (as opposed to in the classroom), it can be really difficult for teachers to know how well their students are doing, and what specifically they might be struggling with. We are working to create a dashboard to help teachers keep track of student progress and struggle. To gain insight into student struggle, it may help to provide the teacher with a tool to replay student work on one or more problems (i.e., their correct and incorrect solution steps, hint requests, and so forth). The back-end largely exists, but the front-end does not. We are looking for a student who can design, prototype, and implement a first version of such a tool. The student will be able to take advantage of existing data from interviews with teachers and will be able to work with teachers in participatory design activities.

Skills or requirements:

• Programming experience with HTML and JavaScript.
• Experience with Vue.js is desirable, but not a strict requirement.

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) are online learn-by-doing activities with step-by-step guidance (feedback and hints); they are like a coach helping students with problem-solving practice. These systems have proven very effective in helping students learn. Our lab pioneered this technology; over 20 years ago we spun off a firm that since then has sold ITSs to teach math in thousands of schools. Along the way we developed a set of tutors that cover all of middle-school math. We used the software tools we had then, but to make sure the tutors can continue to work on the web, we need to translate them to HTML and JavaScript. We have made great progress, but we have more to do. We are looking for a student who can reimplement tutors using our CTAT authoring tools.

Skills or requirements:

• Programming experience with HTML and JavaScript.

Our tutoring software for equation solving (Lynnette) has been very effective in helping middle school students learn in over a dozen classroom studies, but students would prefer that it be more engaging. We are working to make the tutor more game-like, though without fully converting it to an educational game. In one approach, we try to support students’ thinking about equation transformations with smooth and efficient drag-and-drop manipulations of the equation. An initial classroom study with the new prototype showed the promise of the approach, but also revealed the need for additional design iterations. We are looking for a student who can help make the tutor even more engaging and effective.

Skills or requirements:

• Programming experience with HTML and JavaScript.
• Experience with Svelte is desirable, but not strictly required.

Intelligent tutoring systems are very effective in helping students learn, but it can be difficult for teachers to know how well their students are doing, and what specifically they might be struggling with. We have created a teacher awareness tool for use in classrooms; it has been very successful when used in middle school classrooms. The tool however is not well-designed for use in online learning environments, when students are using the tutoring software at home. We are working to redesign the teacher tool for use in online learning. It will run within our CTAT+Tutorshop infrastructure for intelligent tutoring systems development. We are looking for a student who can design, prototype, and implement a first version of such a tool. The students will be able to use information gleaned from teacher interviews that we have conducted already.

Skills or requirements:

• Programming experience with HTML and JavaScript.
• Experience with Vue.js is desirable, but not strictly required.