Mathematicians are people. The tutor bot is not.

11am Friday, 4 September

Abstract

A millennia of technological change has continually altered the relationship between mathematics students and educators. More recently, calculators, online resources, recorded lectures, learning management systems, and now generative AI serve to put distance between learners and experts. In this talk we discuss two on-going T&L initiatives that respond to this changing relationship in different ways.

The first is an AI tutor bot designed to help students revise the secondary school mathematics assumed at the beginning of university study. The bot provides bespoke revision activities by  conducting an adaptive diagnostic conversation, identifying gaps in prerequisite knowledge, and giving targeted support as those gaps arise. I will discuss the design of the bot, what it can do, and where its limitations lay.

The second is an assessment design framework that gives flexible space for reflective thought about the practice and culture of mathematics alongside traditional mathematics problem sets. These tasks ask students to engage with mathematics as a human, social, and cultural practice. I will discuss the genesis of the idea, how it has evolved over the years, how it is currently being used at the University of Melbourne.