Iris: An AI-Driven Virtual Tutor For Computer Science Education

TL;DR

Iris is an AI-powered virtual tutor integrated into an educational platform that provides personalized, context-aware assistance to computer science students, enhancing their problem-solving skills and complementing human tutoring.

Contribution

This paper introduces Iris, a novel chat-based virtual tutor that uses GPT-3.5-Turbo to deliver personalized, context-aware guidance in large-scale computer science education settings.

Findings

Students find Iris effective and relevant for programming exercises.

Students feel confident solving programming tasks without Iris in exams.

Iris offers immediate, personalized support and fosters independent problem-solving.

Abstract

Integrating AI-driven tools in higher education is an emerging area with transformative potential. This paper introduces Iris, a chat-based virtual tutor integrated into the interactive learning platform Artemis that offers personalized, context-aware assistance in large-scale educational settings. Iris supports computer science students by guiding them through programming exercises and is designed to act as a tutor in a didactically meaningful way. Its calibrated assistance avoids revealing complete solutions, offering subtle hints or counter-questions to foster independent problem-solving skills. For each question, it issues multiple prompts in a Chain-of-Thought to GPT-3.5-Turbo. The prompts include a tutor role description and examples of meaningful answers through few-shot learning. Iris employs contextual awareness by accessing the problem statement, student code, and automated feedback to provide tailored advice. An empirical evaluation shows that students perceive Iris as effective because it understands their questions, provides relevant support, and contributes to the learning process. While students consider Iris a valuable tool for programming exercises and homework, they also feel confident solving programming tasks in computer-based exams without Iris. The findings underscore students' appreciation for Iris' immediate and personalized support, though students predominantly view it as a complement to, rather than a replacement for, human tutors. Nevertheless, Iris creates a space for students to ask questions without being judged by others.