Background

The freely accessible tutor-web educational system can accommodate many more students than are currently registered. This is a request for fellow instructors to try this out with their students.

We are looking for partners

If you are a STEM teacher, please consider whether your class can benefit from doing exercises provided in the tutor-web system. These exercises should cover all of high school math and quite a bit outside that as well.

Instructors commonly assign tutor-web drills to students under the format "We are about to start differentiation. To prepare for this, take some of the drills on algebra and make sure you know these basics before we continue." Other teachers use these drills as the only homework. That may not be quite enough for your class but it will certainly reduce your grading load.

If you want to participate, you and your students are free to self-register. It is completely free.

If you want to get the most out of it, contact us and we will assist you with setting up your class. Note that registered students get differential treatment. For example, since we know they are real students and not bots or abusers, they receive more SMLY as rewards for their performance. Further, if you have instructor access, then you will get easy access to summaries of your students' grades and so forth. Yes, it is still free.

The SMLY or Smileycoin is a token of sorts, intended as a traditional smiley, to reward students. What is more, this is implemented as a cryptocurrency, so it also has uses outside the tutor-web system. If you would like your students to learn about the new electronic currencies, this place is where they can get some "for free", i.e. by studying.

What is in it for us?

We gain more partners and yes, we do look at the data collected. In particular we investigate whether parameter settings in the system (such as SMLY payments) affect student behavior. If you are interested in research collaboration, do let us know.

This is a research project: It is funded by grant agencies and no individual makes money off the project. It is completely non-profit. The only way to make money here is to buy SMLY and hope they increase in value :-)

More seriously, the tutor-web project has produced a fair number of research papers already including a complete PhD thesis.

More info

More information is available on the tutor-web intro pages for teachers and
students.