An Intelligent Tutoring System for Organic Chemistry

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Building upon content and first generation electronic homework websites that were created with prior NSF support, this IUSE: EHR project will develop an adaptive intelligent tutoring system for organic chemistry. The critical components of the system are (a) a student model that includes both cognitive and affective factors, (b) a network to evaluate students' knowledge, and (c) a meta-cognitive coach that will monitor the status of students' problem solving skills. Previous research has shown that self-efficacy and self-determination are the most important student-centric factors for high engagement with electronic learning tools. The meta-cognitive coach will attempt to identify students with poor self-regulation so that it can offer appropriate learning strategies to promote the active development of organic chemistry problem solving skills. The results of this research should contribute to the broader development of intelligent tutoring systems across a variety of STEM disciplines.The intelligent tutoring system will be developed and disseminated along with associated course materials that guide a method of instruction based on problem solving from fundamental organic chemistry principles (e.g., Lewis acid/base theory; retrosynthetic analysis). These materials together with the tutoring system are grounded in constructivist pedagogy, wherein students construct an understanding in a strongly guided setting, by applying fundamental principles to explain the properties and reactions of organic molecules. The evaluation of the meta-cognitive coach will be based on whether or not students are observed to have improved learning gains and motivational gains (exam scores and questionnaire responses). The assessment of learning strategy development will be done by the meta-cognitive coach itself, which will analyze log data to determine the extent to which students' actions conform to the learning strategy proposed. The results of this project will be disseminated at the Bienniel Conference on Chemical Education and the 2017 Gordon Research Conference (GRC) on Chemical Education.