A Scalable Intelligent Tutoring System Framework for Computer Science Education

Computer Science is a difficult subject with many fundamentals to be taught, usually involving a steep learning curve for many students. It is some of these initial challenges that can turn students away from computer science. We have been developing a new Intelligent Tutoring System, ChiQat-Tutor, that focuses on tutoring of Computer Science fundamentals. Here, we outline the system under development, while bringing particular attention to its architecture and how it attains the primary goals of being easily extensible and providing a low barrier of entry to the end user. The system is broadly broken down into lessons, teaching strategies, and utilities, which work together to promote seamless integration of components. We also cover currently developed components in the form of a case study, as well as detailing our experience of deploying it to an undergraduate Computer Science classroom, leading to learning gains on par with prior work.