Collaborative Research: PRIME: Engaging STEM Undergraduate Students in Computer Science with Intelligent Tutoring Systems

The 'Engaging STEM Undergraduate Students in Computer Science with Intelligent Tutoring Systems' project will see the design, development, and evaluation of the Personalized Real-time Intelligent Mentoring Environment (PRIME) system, which will provide adaptive problem-solving support and adaptive motivational support to help students learn to solve computing problems. PRIME will track each student's progress while providing real-time feedback, multiple levels of hints, and customized problem-solving advice throughout students' learning interactions. The project will use the block programming language 'Snap!' as it eliminates most syntax errors, freeing students to focus on concepts and logic.

Introductory computing is a required component of many STEM undergraduate curricula, and because of the fundamental importance of computing for all STEM disciplines, courses that introduce computing to STEM undergraduates hold enormous potential for shaping the way students develop computational fluency that will serve them throughout their careers. The PRIME intelligent tutoring system will be evaluated in a large introductory computing course at North Carolina State University, which serves more than 2,000 students each year. The PRIME environment will also be evaluated at the University of Florida and at Florida A&M University, a Historically Black University. Experimental studies with PRIME will have a dual focus: investigating its impacts on helping students learn about computing (analyzing problems, creating models and abstractions, and building and refining programs) and improving students' attitudes towards computing (self-efficacy for computing and interest in computing).