Pensieve Discuss: Scalable Small-Group CS Tutoring System with AI

TL;DR

Pensieve Discuss is a scalable platform combining synchronous editing and AI tutors to enhance small-group CS tutoring, improving collaboration, satisfaction, and engagement at large scale.

Contribution

It introduces a novel software system integrating AI and human tutors with synchronous editing for scalable, effective small-group CS tutoring.

Findings

High collaboration rates maintained during deployment

Positive student feedback on AI tutor helpfulness and correctness

Significant increase in student questions and satisfaction

Abstract

Small-group tutoring in Computer Science (CS) is effective, but presents the challenge of providing a dedicated tutor for each group and encouraging collaboration among group members at scale. We present Pensieve Discuss, a software platform that integrates synchronous editing for scaffolded programming problems with online human and AI tutors, designed to improve student collaboration and experience during group tutoring sessions. Our semester-long deployment to 800 students in a CS1 course demonstrated consistently high collaboration rates, positive feedback about the AI tutor's helpfulness and correctness, increased satisfaction with the group tutoring experience, and a substantial increase in question volume. The use of our system was preferred over an interface lacking AI tutors and synchronous editing capabilities. Our experiences suggest that small-group tutoring sessions are an important avenue for future research in educational AI.