PSYC300Tutor

About

The PSYC300Tutor project is designed to support Psychology majors at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF) that are taking a bottleneck Research Methods and Statistics (PSYC 300) course. By developing a custom intelligent tutoring system (“PSYC300Tutor”) that provides adaptive and personalized feedback to students, the project supports student training in key research skills (e.g., statistical analysis, APA 7th style writing). This type of support is intended to encourage students’ persistence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), which would benefit from the skills and diversity that CSUF psychology students have to offer. 

PSYC300Tutor uses two open-source chatbot-style tutoring platforms:

• OpenTutor: Provides interactive guidance on statistical concepts (e.g., repeated-measures ANOVA, two-way ANOVA).

• Artificial Intelligence for Brainstorming and Editing (ABE): Analyzes students’ writing and provides personalized feedback for improvement (e.g., improves APA-style reporting, interpretation of results).
  
  

Key goals for the project include:

• Develop customized PSYC300Tutor lessons targeting the most difficult course topics

• Provide scalable, high-quality learning support in research skills for large numbers of students

• Strengthen students’ interest and persistence in STEM/STEM-adjacent career pathways 

Support

This project is supported by the California State University, Fullerton Office of Research and Sponsored Projects (ORSP) through its Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity (RSCA) mechanism (2025-2026).

Team

Principal Investigator

Yuko Okado, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Psychology

California State University, Fullerton

Research Assistant

Natalie Dirks

Undergraduate Student, Psychology

California State University, Fullerton