The ASTutE tutorial assistant: efficient, accessible and interactive

The ASTutE project provides a computer-based tutorial resource designed to work alongside tutors to help meet the challenge of teaching increasing numbers of students with increasingly diverse backgrounds. ASTutE is used to solve the majority of student difficulties, freeing the academic tutors to deal with more complex misunderstandings to which they are currently unable to devote sufficient time. Problems are broken down into key stages and then sub-stages using question types including multiple choice/response, text, number-unit and maths entry, diagram creation, hot spot and drag-and-drop, A key feature of ASTutE is the ease with which tutors can quickly write new, or modify existing, problems by editing a simple template. Templates are edited in a way that demands only the most basic knowledge of any spreadsheet package. Students use ASTutE interactively to check answers or as a detailed help system, accessing only as many help stages as they require. A fundamental objective of ASTutE is to provide feedback tailored according to the responses of an individual student. As a result, the student takes one of many possible routes through a tutorial problem, consistent with their understanding of the topic.