Digital autonomous virtual educator DAVE

Abstract

Every student deserves an individualised learning experience that is tailored to their specific needs in order to help them reach their full potential. The current educational system generalises students, making them vulnerable to falling behind. Despite efforts to provide more individualised attention, teachers simply have too much on their plates. This thesis develops the Digital Autonomous Virtual Educator (DAVE) project which provides a personalised digital tutor to each student. The DAVE project utilises AI technologies to analyse student academic data, adapt academic material according to individual needs, and provide clear and detailed explanations in real-time. Through DAVE, round-the-clock personalised learning assistance is provided to students, ensuring accuracy and safety in the process. Through the integration of advanced automated prompt engineering, responses are personalised, focusing on the specific needs of each student. Additionally, by developing a novel, multi-stage verification approach named FORT Verification, harmful and incorrect content is filtered out before it is sent to users, allowing them to take confidence in the support they are receiving. The DAVE project demonstrates its efficacy through real-world testing evaluating the system's performance against commercial AI systems. Students utilising DAVE achieved improved results on mathematics worksheets by a margin of 32% while also reporting higher user satisfaction levels of 12%. Students emphasised DAVE's helpfulness, clear explanations, and personalised support. These results demonstrate the feasibility, benefits, and potential of effectively integrating AI into educational systems.