Intelligent Tutors Beyond K-12: An Observational Study of Adult Learner Engagement and Academic Impact

TL;DR

This study investigates how adult learners engage with and benefit from intelligent tutoring systems, demonstrating their potential to support skill re-learning and improve academic performance outside traditional K-12 contexts.

Contribution

It provides the first observational analysis of adult engagement with intelligent tutors, showing measurable learning gains and transfer effects in a real-world adult education setting.

Findings

Adult learners show distinct engagement patterns with tutors.

Learning gains are observed through skill improvements.

Tutor usage correlates with higher course assessment scores.

Abstract

Intelligent tutors have proven to be effective in K-12 education, though their impact on adult learners -- especially as a supplementary resource -- remains underexplored. Understanding how adults voluntarily engage with educational technologies can inform the design of tools that support skill re-learning and enhancement. More critically, it helps determine whether tutoring systems, which are typically built for K-12 learners, can also support adult populations. This study examines the adoption, usage patterns, and effectiveness of a novel tutoring system, Apprentice Tutors, among adult learners at a state technical college. We analyze three types of data including, user demographics, grades, and tutor interactions, to assess whether voluntary tutor usage translates into measurable learning gains. Our findings reveal key temporal patterns in tutor engagement and provide evidence of learning within tutors, as determined through skill improvement in knowledge components across tutors. We also found evidence that this learning transferred outside the tutor, as observed through higher course assessment scores following tutor usage. These results suggest that intelligent tutors are a viable tool for adult learners, warranting further research into their long-term impact on this population.