Building an AI Tutor

As experts in student learning, teachers are best positioned to build AI tools that meet the needs of both students and educators.

This activity gives you the opportunity to create a custom AI tutor, showing how teacher-built AI can be tailored to serve your students in the way that best fits their needs.

Objective

Your goal is to build an AI tutor that mimics one of the many roles you play in the classroom—whether through direct one-on-one interaction with students or indirect interaction, such as providing feedback on their work.

To do this, you’ll craft clear instructions and guidelines to shape how the tutor interacts with students, ensuring its responses align with your teaching objectives.

After testing the tutor, you can make adjustments before launching it for others to explore.

Instructions

You will use the teacher@sd64.ai account, which has an OpenAI API key linked, so you can focus on designing your tutor without technical barriers. Follow the steps below to create, test, and finalize your AI tutor.

1. Log in to AI Tutors

• Go to AI Tutors and log in using:
  • Username: teacher@sd64.ai
  • Password: (provided during the workshop)

2. Define Your Tutor

• Tutor Name and Description:

Be sure to create a unique name!

• Create the Tutor’s Introduction: Write an opening message that sets the tone for the interaction.

Think about how you’d want the tutor to welcome students and what information the tutor needs from the student.

3. Design the Tutor Instructions

• Provide guidance on how the tutor should engage with students. Think about how it should encourage students to explain their thinking and reflect on their methods.

For example: “Ask students to explain their steps clearly. If their explanation is unclear, try asking, ‘Can you walk me through your thinking on that step?’ Encourage them to explore alternative strategies.”

4. Set Guidelines for the Moderator

• Define how the moderator should review and adjust the AI responses. This can help ensure that the tutor promotes exploration rather than giving direct answers, and that conversations remain encouraging and helpful.

I suggest providing the guidelines as numbered list!

5. Configure Tutor Availability

• For this activity, select Open to Public so that everyone can view and test out your tutor

6. Test Your Tutor

• You can use the “Test Interaction” button to initiate a conversation with your tutor.
• Test how it prompts students to explain their thinking and provides feedback.

Try experimenting with different student responses, including mistakes, to see how your tutor handles follow-up questions and encourages deeper thinking.

7. Finalize and Save Your Tutor

• Once you’re satisfied with the behavior, click “Launch Tutor” to save it.

Feedback Form

After building your tutor, please fill out the form below to provide feedback on the AI Tutors platform: