Personal Assistant for Learning

• In classroom settings. (e.g., in discussion sections) Students there can be actively engaged in the tutorials, learning with the aid of prompt individual guidance and feedback provided by the PALs. (The human instructor is then available to provide additional help when the PALs are inadequate or to devote his or her human talents to discuss more sophisticated issues.)

• For homeworks.  Students can then do their homeworks while receiving prompt individual guidance and feedback, without the dangers of getting stuck or engaging in ineffective learning processes. (These advantages are not shared by ordinary written homeworks that are later handed in and then pehaps returned with some corrections.)

• For review.  PAL tutorials can help students to actively review what they have learned -- and to do such reviews at any time of their choice.

• For distance learning.  Since the PAL tutorials are designed to be self-contained without necessary reliance on human assistance, they can be used to help students learn when they are away from a campus or not attending regular classes.