AI Is Always There. Learners Still Get Stuck Alone

Originally written in Traditional Chinese: 課程最值錢的，不是影片，是有人陪你卡關

In August, University of Toronto economists published a two-year experiment: students in 18 Tennessee middle schools could practice math with Khanmigo, an AI tutor.

96% tried it at least once. But the median student messaged it on only a third of the days they practiced, and in only 17% of the sessions where they made a mistake.

The authors' conclusion: "The binding constraint appears to be engagement."

The AI tutor is there 24 hours a day. The child is still alone, stuck.

I saw the same in my course's student group. One learner wrote that she watched the live sessions and did the work, but when stuck, she didn't know how to ask, so she skipped it. The more she skipped, the less complete her work became. She wasn't lazy. She was simply alone.

Then came something I never planned. James, a learner in Taipei with 45 years in accounting and his own business center, said in the group: I will host a study session. He provided the space, gathered people and set the schedule, without taking a cent from me. His reason: many classmates did the work but got stuck with no one to ask.

People came from law, banking, HR, nursing, startups, teaching and parenting. A second and third session followed. Learners in Hsinchu started their own, and someone in Taichung offered to organize one.

James, thank you. After 45 years in your own profession, you opened your own space so others would not stay stuck alone. I truly admire you.

These groups grew from the learners themselves. I do not sell them. But they show what is scarce now. Content is everywhere. What is rare is a person beside you at the moment you get stuck.

In 1984, Benjamin Bloom reported that one-to-one tutoring put students about two standard deviations above a regular classroom. Later research found the effect is smaller, but the direction has held. AI can answer questions. It will not notice that you cannot even form the question.

Try this, whatever you are learning.

  1. Find a learning partner.
  2. Meet once a week.
  3. Each person shares one thing: "Where I got stuck this week." No need to solve it. Saying it out loud loosens half the knots.

The learner who used to skip the hard parts joined a session too. She wrote that some of her stuck places finally connected.

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