Is it Better to Give Hints or Let Students Ask?

This study we compared giving hints proactively when students make errors to requiring students to task for a hint when they want one. We found that students learned reliably more with hints-on-demand than proactive hints. This effect was especially evident for students who tend to ask for a high number of hints.

Control

In this condition the only way to get the hints was to ask for them one at a time.

Experiment

In this condition when the wrong answer is typed in the box with the hint automatically opens.

Razzaq, L. & Heffernan, N. (2010). Hints: Is It Better to Give or Wait to be Asked? In Aleven, V., Kay, J & Mostow, J. (Eds) Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS2010) Part 1. Springer. Pages 349-358.