Unit 2 Portfolio

 

AI Tutoring verses Human Tutoring

   Both AI tutoring and traditional human tutoring share the goal of improving student learning, but they differ in their strengths towards the students: AI tutoring excels in instant feedback, personalized pacing, and round-the-clock accessibility, while human tutors contribute emotional support, adaptive reasoning, and deeper contextual understanding. This contrast reveals an important balance between efficiency and empathy in modern education.

AI Benefits                  

AI tutoring platforms offer a highly efficient and adaptable learning experience, making them a strong alternative to traditional human tutors. From the article, AI Tutoring vs. Traditional Tutoring: Key Differences, from Dial Zara, “AI tutoring platforms rely on advanced machine learning to tailor the learning experience,” tracking student performance in real time, including analytics such as response speeds, mistakes, and progress. This means students are not only receiving help faster, but they’re also more interested and involved in the learning process. 

In addition, while human tutors can read emotional cues with 92% accuracy, AI systems are ranging to around 68%. This is room to grow for AI, but can be quickly changed due to the learning capacity of AI. In terms of accessibility and affordability, there is access to AI 24/7, where human tutors have set hours throughout the week. “Most AI platforms use a subscription model, charging $20-$60 per month per student…human tutors charge $50-$150 per hour,” This shows that the cost difference for AI is significantly lower, which makes it more accessible to all. 

“Human tutors are limited by time and energy, typically managing 20-30 students per week. During busy seasons, like November through January, this can result in 40% capacity gaps.” This shows that human tutors work really hard to help each student and eventually could burn out. AI tutors are always available, offering consistent support without any breaks. AI is not just keeping up, but reshaping how we approach personalized education.

Reflection from a Student at Syracuse University:

    Response 1: AI tutor is useful for students that need immediate help that is accessible 24/7. Since AI has no office or working hours, it can provide help when you are working on an assignment at 8 AM to 3 AM. When asking the right questions it can help me get to the answer that I need or if I am super lost know the right answer. When the AI is not sure if something is correct, it would not say something like, “I am not sure but this is how I would approach it” like a human would. The AI says their answers confidently, like they are correct.

    This student is highlighting both the convenience of AI tutoring and where it falls short. They appreciate that AI tutors are available 24/7, offering immediate help regardless of the time. This can be extremely useful for college students, where they might be working late at night or early in the morning due to jobs and class schedules. They note that AI can guide them toward answers or even provide the correct response when they’re completely lost, as long as they ask the right questions, however, a major drawback is that AI doesn’t express uncertainty like a human tutor would. Instead of showing doubt or offering alternative methods, AI tends to respond confidently when the answer is wrong.

My Personal Reflection on AI:

    My personal experience: I usually have to study early in the morning or late at night due to having a lot of spread out classes, jobs, and organizations. This semester, a lot of my classes overlap with my professor’s office hours, where I have to learn the material on my own. While AI isn’t perfect, it still helps me understand topics when I ask it enough questions.

    In my experience, I have the accessibility advantages of AI tutoring and the limitations of human tutoring. Professors often have limited availability due to their busy schedules, which can make it difficult for students to receive timely support. When both students and instructors have conflicting or packed schedules, arranging one-on-one help becomes a challenge. In contrast, AI tutors offer consistent, on-demand assistance, helping to bridge the gap created by the inaccessibility of traditional human tutoring.

Fall of AI 

    Although AI has some benefits, can it truly replace a human tutor? From the article, Why AI Will Never Replace Great Human Tutors, Chris Lele says, “1. I got inside the test taker’s head, as shown above. 2. I relied on my domain knowledge of SAT questions. In this case, it’s knowing that one “trick” the test writers create for harder fill-in-the-blank questions is to create a wrong answer choice that describes the context of the sentence but does describe the exact part of the sentence where the blank appears.” This quote is explaining the strategic thinking and experience a human tutor brings to the table. The tutor can understand why the student is making the mistakes in the problem, in this case specifically the SAT, and help the student learn and grow to get a better understanding. This insight allows them to guide students not just toward the right answers, but also to understand why certain answers are misleading. AI struggles to help students by describing the problem to students and just giving the answer. 

He also says, “For a student to improve, they have to be aware of the traps and their thought processes that lead them to fall into the trap.” This recognizes the importance of thinking about the problem and how each student thinks. A human tutor helps students to develop strategies to avoid and recognize pitfalls in the way they solve problems in the future. It’s not just about getting the right answer, but about understanding why the students made a mistake and how to think differently next time. AI systems tend to focus on the solution rather than the problem, leading the students to not fully learning or understanding their mistakes. 

The author also says, “I like the analysis in that it is accurate and concise. But it’s an answer that a smart pupil would give; it’s not an explanation an experienced tutor would give. In other words, it explains its reasoning but makes no attempt to understand the typical thought processes of someone who would fall for A). It just spits out its logic.” This quote describes the difference between how a human tutor would provide a meaningful explanation, rather than an AI giving the right answer. The author describes AI as a smart student that knows the right answer but does not know how to describe it to another person. AI lacks the ability to connect with a student’s thinking and tailor explanations accordingly.

Reflection from a Student at Syracuse University:

    Response 2: I think that the classic human tutoring is the best and only way to learn because humans are more emotionally intelligent than AI. When I am getting frustrated on a problem, having another person slow down and help me with the problem is far better for learning than an AI. The AI goes through the analytical steps that it knows, but won’t explain more into each of those steps. It is also frustrating when I am trying to get help with a problem and the AI just gives me the answer. Of course this method is easy to get homework done, but it doesn’t help me learn the content.

    This student is highlighting the emotional and process for tutoring advantages of human tutors. She values the emotional intelligence that a human gives to learning when she is frustrated with a problem. The student also says that having a person who can sense their struggle and adjust the approach is significantly more helpful than an AI solving the problem quickly. AI lacks the flexibility and empathy students need when studying and often skips the deeper explanations students need to truly understand the material. She says that AI can promote  passive learning instead of truly understanding the topics.

Hybrid            

    The solution to whether it should be strictly human tutoring or AI tutoring may be not maximizing all the benefits. A hybrid might be able to provide the best of each option. In the article, The Future of Learning: AI Tutors or Human Instructors? Or Hybrid?, Sait Tuzel says, “In a group setting, participants were more focused on collaborating and learning from their peers rather than testing the capabilities of the AI tutor. This peer interaction created a conducive environment for cooperative learning, where the AI served as a facilitator rather than the sole authority.” This quote is saying that having a collaborative environment with AI interaction and human thought process can complement learning. When students worked together in group during this study, AI was used as a tool to support the collaborative learning and not relying on it as the main source for answers. The AI was used as a support system in this study group and the peer interaction drives the actual learning. As long as AI is enhancing educational areas, AI can continue to be beneficial to students.

“AI tutors can provide efficient, data-driven learning paths, while human instructors can focus on critical thinking, creativity, and emotional engagement.” This quote is showing how AI and human tutors have different strengths that can complement each other. AI is very efficient in analyzing performance and tailoring personalized learning paths using data. On the contrary, human tutors offer support by fostering skills like emotional understanding, creativity, and step-by-step complex reasoning. This further proves that a bended approach of AI and human tutor could benefit and aid learning and understanding.

Reflection from a Student at Syracuse University:

    Response 3: I think that both AI and human tutoring has its benefits. While AI like ChatGPT gives a very data-driven approach about the information that is given, I like tutoring from a person better because it allows me to be more creative with my thought processes and responses. While for calculus I like using AI because it gives me the steps that I need to solve a problem, for writing class, I would rather talk my ideas out with a person and not a computer.

    This student is giving a balanced perspective of using AI and human tutoring. The student specifically highlights the strengths of the AI ChatGPT, giving a very data approached way to explain problems. The student also highlights that human tutoring also him to be more creative with his responses. He states that the bend of both AI and human tutoring each has their own benefits.

    Response 4: I feel like both AI tutoring and human tutoring have their pros and cons. AI tutoring is mostly free while for human tutoring, most times you have to pay. However in the same sense, with human tutoring, usually the tutor knows the material well and is able to explain in a human-accessible way whilst with AI, it can be hard to understand. Both can get the material wrong however, with humans, that’s to be expected because human error is a very real and common thing. With AI, you don’t really expect it to be wrong.

    The student talks about both of the pros and cons of AI tutoring and human tutoring. She talks about how AI tutoring is a lot more affordable than human tutoring, which can get very expensive. Although, human tutoring tends to explain material in a more accessible way for students to understand. There is also the level of accuracy that each provides. While there is an understanding that human tutors can make mistake, there is also the idea that AI usually don’t make mistakes and it always right.

Conclusion

    AI tutoring and Human tutoring both have their pros and cons. Although there is no one solution. As long as AI is not dominating the educational spaces, AI can be used as a strong, effective tool to aid learning.