TutorUp: What If Your Students Were Simulated? Training Tutors to Address Engagement Challenges in Online Learning
Name
3706598.3713589.pdf
Size
1.38 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
56b23309f79d3798c636aa2d5f03c244
Author(s)
Pan, Sitong
Schmucker, Robin
Garcia Bulle Bueno, Bernardo
Llanes, Salome Aguilar
Albo Alarc?n, Fernanda
Zhu, Hangxiao
Teo, Adam
Xia, Meng
Date Issued
April 25, 2025
Publisher
ACM|CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Citation
Sitong Pan, Robin Schmucker, Bernardo Garcia Bulle Bueno, Salome Aguilar Llanes, Fernanda Albo Alarcón, Hangxiao Zhu, Adam Teo, and Meng Xia. 2025. TutorUp: What If Your Students Were Simulated? Training Tutors to Address Engagement Challenges in Online Learning. In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '25). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 20, 1–18.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
With the rise of online learning, many novice tutors lack experience engaging students remotely. We introduce TutorUp, a Large Language Model (LLM)-based system that enables novice tutors to practice engagement strategies with simulated students through scenario-based training. Based on a formative study involving two surveys (N1 = 86, N2 = 102) on student engagement challenges, we summarize scenarios that mimic real teaching situations. To enhance immersion and realism, we employ a prompting strategy that simulates dynamic online learning dialogues. TutorUp provides immediate and asynchronous feedback by referencing tutor-students online session dialogues and evidence-based teaching strategies from learning science literature. In a within-subject evaluation (N = 16), participants rated TutorUp significantly higher than a baseline system without simulation capabilities regarding effectiveness and usability. Our findings suggest that TutorUp provides novice tutors with more effective training to learn and apply teaching strategies to address online student engagement challenges.
Description
CHI ’25, Yokohama, Japan
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713589
