Reimagining the Oxford Tutorial Experience in a Large Introductory Course using Chrysalis, an LLM Companion

Description

This project models the traditional Oxford tutorial experience, where a student meets one-on-one with a tutor to explore a course topic, in Introductory Cell Biology using Chrysalis, a UWaterloo-developed LLM companion. Recent advances in large language models (LLMs) present an opportunity to replicate aspects of the Oxford Tutorial through interactive and adaptive dialogue. Chrysalis approaches this by providing each student an AI protege they can teach. The protege is designed to be less knowledgeable and inquisitive, encouraging the student to walk it through a concept. This inverts the traditional student-AI interaction paradigm, which assumes a flow of knowledge from the LLM to the student.

Project Goals and Research Questions

1.  Assess the impact on students’ understanding of core biological concepts following engagement with the Oxford Tutorial using Chrysalis, using pre- and post-activity evaluations. 
Question: How does engagement with Chrysalis relate to changes in students’ conceptual understanding of core course concepts?

2.  Evaluate the student experience with Oxford Tutorial using the Chrysalis companion.
Question: How do students experience learning through Chrysalis in terms of usability, engagement, and instructional support?

3.  Assess the scalability of the Oxford Tutorial to large class sizes.
Question: How feasible is it for the Chrysalis platform to be deployed in large-enrolment courses (1000+) while maintaining responsiveness, instructional quality, and usability?

4.  Investigate how the use of the Oxford Tutorial using Chrysalis influences long-term knowledge retention and knowledge decay between related courses.
Question: To what extent do Oxford Tutorials with Chrysalis improve the retention of foundational concepts in subsequent courses?