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Intelligent tutoring systems and learning outcomes: A meta-analysis
Abstract
Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) are computer programs that model learners’ psychological states to provide individualized instruction. They have been developed for diverse subject areas (e.g., algebra, medicine, law, reading) to help learners acquire domain-specific, cognitive and metacognitive knowledge. A meta-analysis was conducted on research that compared the outcomes from students learning from ITS to those learning from non-ITS learning environments. The meta-analysis examined how effect sizes varied with type of ITS, type of comparison treatment received by learners, type of learning outcome, whether knowledge to be learned was procedural or declarative, and other factors. After a search of major bibliographic databases, 107 effect sizes involving 14,321 participants were extracted and analyzed. The use of ITS was associated with greater achievement in comparison with teacher-led, large-group instruction (g .42), non-ITS computer-based instruction (g .57), and textbooks or workbooks (g .35). There was no significant difference between learning from ITS and learning from individualized human tutoring (g –.11) or small-group instruction (g .05). Significant, positive mean effect sizes were found regardless of whether the ITS was used as the principal means of instruction, a supplement to teacher-led instruction, an integral component of teacher-led instruction, or an aid to homework. Significant, positive effect sizes were found at all levels of education, in almost all subject domains evaluated, and whether or not the ITS provided feedback or modeled student misconceptions. The claim that ITS are relatively effective tools for learning is consistent with our analysis of potential publication bias.
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“Every learner has unique learning contexts based on their prior knowledge about the topic, social background, economic well-being and emotional state [41].”
From Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd): a high-level academic and industry note 2021 (2022) · cites this paper as [41]
In the citing paper
“Despite being limited in terms of the domain that a particular intelligent tutoring system addresses, they have proven to be effective in providing relevant content to students, interacting with students [6] and improving students’ academic performance [18, 41].”
From Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd): a high-level academic and industry note 2021 (2022) · cites this paper as [41]
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“…machines intelligent, and intelligence is that quality that enables an entity to function appro - priately and with foresight in its environment (Ma et al., 2014 ), but for this study, it is essential to analyse AI in the context of education, so it is necessary to understand how it is defined…”
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“Ma et al. (2014) define ITS as being made up of four key components: (a) an interface that interacts with the learner by both receiving and delivering information, (b) a domain model that represents the knowledge the student is expected to learn, (c) a model that tracks and represents the learner’s…”
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“…66 over conventional instruction across 50 controlled evaluations (Kulik & Fletcher, 2016), and a separate meta-analysis reports g � 0 : 42 versus large-group teacher-led instruction, g � 0 : 57 versus non-ITS computer-based instruction, and g � 0 : 35 versus textbooks/workbooks (Ma et al., 2014).”
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“…when AI supports learning, it tends to do so through three mediators—first, more time on task and deliberate practice enabled by instant feedback (Ma et al. 2014; VanLehn 2011); second, cognitive offloading of lower level tasks so teacher and student attention can shift to higher order…”
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“Over several decades, ITS research has demonstrated the potential of such adaptive, feedback-driven environments to support individualized learning and improve student outcomes across diverse subjects (Ma et al., 2014).”
Artificial Intelligence in Schools
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“For example, adaptive learning systems use learner performance data to personalise instruction and have been shown to improve learning outcomes compared with nonadaptive approaches [18].”
Efectos del aprendizaje adaptativo en el rendimiento académico escolar
Mora-Álvarez, E. Z., Rea-López, S. M., Chico-Vera, M. T., Rea-Lopez, Z. E., & Saa-Litardo, J. L. (2026) · Revista Científica Ciencia y Método · doi:10.55813/gaea/rcym/v4/n2/187 · Cited by 2
“…el riesgo de adoptar soluciones tecnológicas costosas con expectativas infladas o, en sentido contrario, de descartar herramientas valiosas por evaluaciones mal alineadas con los objetivos de aprendizaje (Bernard et al., 2019; Kulik & Fletcher, 2016; Ma et al., 2014; Steenbergen-Hu & Cooper, 2013).”
InfluentialYulanda, N. I. P., Gestiardi, R., Subanji, S., Nusantara, T., & Setyosarı, P. (2026) · Learning Research and Practice · doi:10.1080/23735082.2026.2672411 · Cited by 3
Artificial Intelligence in Teaching and Learning Mathematics
Orhani, S. (2021) · Kosova Eğitim Araştırmaları Dergisi · doi:10.29228/kerjournal.54981 · Cited by 2
Artificial Intelligence in Education as a Means to Personalize Learning
Lacárcel, A. M. (2022) · Advances in electronic government, digital divide, and regional development book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-9609-8.ch016 · Cited by 2
Dirbtinis intelektas edukacijoje: integravimo galimybių teorinė analizė
Batuchina, A., Baziukė, D., Melnikova, J., Šmitienė, G., & Šakytė-Statnickė, G. (2022) · Regional Formation and Development Studies · doi:10.15181/rfds.v37i2.2418 · Cited by 3
Intelligent Tutor of Helicopter Flight Simulator
Lai, G.-J., Liang, Y., & Wang, X. (2023) · Atlantis Highlights in Computer Sciences/Atlantis highlights in computer sciences · doi:10.2991/978-94-6463-040-4_82 · Cited by 2
New Teaching And Learning Methods For The Post-Pandemic Time
Udriștioiu, M. T., Raykova, Z., Raganova, J., Yıldızhan, H., Stoyanova, D., Tsokov, G., Stoyanov, S., Hruska, M., Pfefferova, M. S., Petrışor, I., et al. (2023) · Akademisyen Kitabevi eBooks · doi:10.37609/akya.2497 · Cited by 2
(2023) · Issues in Information Systems · doi:10.48009/1_iis_2023_111 · Cited by 2
“Each learner’s psychological state is modeled by the ITS to provide individualized instruction and adaptive remediation (Ma, Adesope, Nesbit, & Liu, 2014).”
Review Study on the Adaptive and Personalized Intelligent Tutoring Systems in E-learning
Hadbi, A. E., Hachem, E.-K., Bourray, H., Rziki, M. H., & Oubalahcen, H. (2024) · Lecture notes in networks and systems · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-54288-6_5 · Cited by 3
Pharmer, R. L. (2024) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-60609-0_13 · Cited by 2
Artificial Intelligence and Assessment Generators in Education: A Comprehensive Review
Boutyour, Y., Idrissi, A., & Uden, L. (2024) · Studies in computational intelligence · doi:10.1007/978-3-031-65038-3_21 · Cited by 3
Effective remediation programs for vulnerable students to overcome learning loss
Jacobs, M., Haelermans, C., & Meeter, M. (2025) · PLoS ONE · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0323352 · Cited by 2
“Research by Ma, Adesope [32] shows adaptive online programs improve achievement in math and reading, with effect sizes ranging from 0.36 to 0.57 SD compared to traditional instruction.”
InfluentialZuniga, J. I. T., Mejía-Hidalgo, E. F., Pomboza-Granizo, R. G., & Orozco, M. A. P. (2025) · Revista Científica Ciencia y Método · doi:10.55813/gaea/rcym/v3/n4/125 · Cited by 4
Jamil, H. M. (2026) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su18178736 · Cited by 2
Study of Effectiveness of Prior Knowledge for Smart Home Kit Installation
Hu, Y., Cook, D. J., & Taylor, M. E. (2020) · Sensors · doi:10.3390/s20216145 · Cited by 2
“However, a meta-analysis [20] indicates that most of the systems focus on higher education or K-12 populations.”
BackgroundErdemir, M., İngeç, Ş. K., & Karacı, A. (2016) · International Journal of Managing Public Sector Information and Communication Technologies · doi:10.5121/ijmpict.2016.7201 · Cited by 2
Joaquim, S., Bittencourt, I. I., Silva, R. D. A., & Ospina, P. (2018) · Anais do ... Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação/Anais do Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação · doi:10.5753/cbie.sbie.2018.1353 · Cited by 2
Marinescu-Muster, R. F., de Vries, S., & Vollenbroek, W. B. (2020) · Smart innovation, systems and technologies · doi:10.1007/978-981-15-7383-5_17 · Cited by 2
Antares: A Flexible Assessment Framework for Exploratory Immersive Environments
Maderer, J., & Gütl, C. (2020) · Intelligent systems reference library · doi:10.1007/978-981-15-9908-8_7 · Cited by 2
The Impact of Learning Software on Improving Reading Comprehension Skills
Azoulay, R., David, E., Avigal, M., & Hutzler, D. (2020) · International Journal of e-Education e-Business e-Management and e-Learning · doi:10.17706/ijeeee.2020.10.3.235-248 · Cited by 3
A Comparative Study of Learning Outcomes for Online Learning Platforms
St-Hilaire, F., Burns, N. P., Belfer, R., Shayan, M., Smofsky, A., Vu, D. D., Frau, A., Potochny, J., Faraji, F., Pavero, V., et al. (2021) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-78270-2_59 · Cited by 4
“Many studies have been conducted evaluating the impact of educational technology and online learning platforms on student learning outcomes [11,17,24,25] [31,40,42,43].”
BackgroundHsieh, R., Yamamura, K., Cho, S., & Sato, H. (2021) · IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality (AIVR) · doi:10.1109/aivr52153.2021.00059 · Cited by 2
Preservice Science Teachers’ Views of a Web-Based Intelligent Tutoring System
Akyüz, H. İ., & Erdemir, M. (2022) · International Journal of Technology in Education · doi:10.46328/ijte.233 · Cited by 2
Metadata
- Authors
- Ma, W., Adesope, O. O., Nesbit, J. C., & Liu, Q.
- Affiliations
- Simon Fraser University (CA)
- Washington State University (US)
- Venue
- Journal of Educational Psychology
- Published
- 2014-11
- Volume
- 106
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 901-918
- ISSN
- 0022-0663 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-2176
- OpenAlex
- W2117655204
- Cited by
- 840
- References
- 127
- Citations by year
- 2026: 179 · 2025: 132 · 2024: 99 · 2023: 65 · 2022: 67 · 2021: 69 · 2020: 70 · 2019: 41 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 36 · 2016: 22 · 2015: 17
- FWCI
- 24.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Educational Psychology (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada
- Washington State University
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Artificial Intelligence › Intelligent Tutoring Systems and Adaptive Learning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Innovative Teaching and Learning Methods
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Visual and Cognitive Learning Processes
- Keywords
- intelligent tutoring systems, learning outcomes, personalized learning, computer-assisted instruction, teacher-centered instruction, small group instruction, homework help, metacognitive knowledge, feedback, misconceptions, publication bias, effect size
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