What's Old Is New: Improved Learning from Small-Group Tutorials
The ubiquity of Large Language Models poses a challenge to student learning in homework-based college courses, where access to easy homework answers devalues the intended productive struggle. To address this concern, we propose Oxbridge-style weekly tutorials, where students present homework problems without notes in a small group with an instructor or TA. We conducted a randomized experiment in an introductory probability class to evaluate the effectiveness of tutorials, finding a significant positive effect of tutorial enrollment on exam grades. We discuss the implementation, challenges, and opportunities in this style of course design.
Authors
- Dennis L. Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0116-2004)
- John C. Duchi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0045-7185)
- Will Hartog
Publication Details
- Journal
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Published
- 2026-10-29
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2610.39538
- Primary Topic
- Statistics Education and Methodologies
- Type
- preprint