Tutor programs help students study, graduate

Researchers at The University of Memphis Institute for Intelligent Systems received two grants totaling $1.3 million last month to create a tutoring program for high school students which mimics the dialogue and teaching strategies of expert teachers.

"Writing Pal" is a program designed to help students write essays, while "Guru" will help students study biology.

About 25 people are developing "Writing Pal," including Tanner Jackson, a post doctoral fellow at The U of M. Jackson said the main goal of the program was to "improve student writing, specifically on the SAT."

"Writing Pal" does this, he said, by teaching students how to write more structured and cohesive essays.

"Writing is a difficult thing to do," Tanner said. "You have to hone that skill. This program will be able to help people on a large scale."

"Writing Pal" will use a game-based system to tutor students, he said. Games like "Bridge Builder" will allow students to earn points and unlock bonuses by connecting words to form coherent ideas and sentences.

Bruce McDaniel, junior information business major, said a game-based format could be a good idea, depending on the student.

"It's good for students who prefer a hands-on approach," McDaniel said. "It could be a great benefit for both student and teacher."

Souleymane Sall, sophomore management information systems major, said the program would've helped him because writing essays was especially difficult for someone who has learned English as a second language.

"I'm having problems in my English class right now," said Sall, who is from Senegal. "Trying to get your introduction right, your conclusion right, your body right - it's a lot of work."

Jackson said "Writing Pal" should not be considered a teacher replacement but a design to help the teacher instruct students.

The program requires research from many disciplines, Jackson said. English professors, computer scientists and psychologists have been consulted for the project. Because the program is designed to help students pass the SAT, trained experts on how the SAT is graded have also been consulted.

Alex Smythe, junior photography major, was curious why the program focuses on the SAT.

"I didn't even take the SAT," Smythe said. "But I bet if people were better studied on it, they would be more willing to take it."

"Guru," like "Writing Pal" is a software program, but instead of helping students with writing, it is intended to help them learn biology.

Andrew Olney, an assistant professor at The Institute who is beginning his second year working on "Guru" said there were both research and social issue sides to the project.

"Funding agencies don't want you to just do research," Olney said. "Almost all projects have some societal issue that they address."

Olney said the project would research "how expert tutors tutor effectively" with the goal of more students graduating high school.

"Guru" will focus on the information included in the biology Gateway test, which is one of the three tests required to graduate from high school, he said.

The program is different from others, Olney said, because "Guru" mimics what a human tutor would do by being interactive.

"Students should be able to see, hear and talk back to the tutor," Olney said.

Currently, students have to type their conversations with the computer, but Olney said the program may use voice recognition in the future.

The project is still in the development phase, he said, but in a year or so, he hopes to partner with Memphis City Schools.

"We should try and make an impact on Memphis City Schools because that's what we should do as responsible researchers," Olney said. "We should make the world better."

Olney said the program may include other high school subjects in the future, as well as voice recognition software.

"It's challenging to make a program that lets you talk to a computer," Olney said. "It will take decades to make it perfect."

While some people have high expectations for what technology can do because of what they see in movies, Olney has a more realistic view of his research.

"It's going to be a while before we can talk to computers, like in Star Trek," he said. "But where we are now is pretty amazing."