Empowering Private Tutoring by Chaining Large Language Models

Artificial intelligence has been applied in various aspects of online education to facilitate teaching and learning. However, few approaches have been made towards a complete AI-powered tutoring system. In this work, we explore the development of a full-fledged intelligent tutoring system based on large language models (LLMs). The proposed system ChatTutor, powered by state-of-the-art LLMs, is equipped with automatic course planning and adjusting, informative instruction, and adaptive quiz offering and evaluation. ChatTutor is decomposed into three inter-connected core processes: interaction, reflection, and reaction. Each process is implemented by chaining LLM-powered tools along with dynamically updated memory modules. To demonstrate the mechanism of each working module and the benefits of structured memory control and adaptive reflection, we conduct a wide range of analysis based on statistical results and user study. The analysis shows the designed processes boost system consistency and stability under long-term interaction and intentional disruptions, with up to 5% and 20% increase in performance respectively. Meanwhile, we also compare the system with scripts from real-world online learning platform and discuss the potential issues unique to LLM-based systems.