OUR APPROACH
Our Approach at the National Tutoring Observatory (NTO)
At NTO, we take a collaborative and data-driven approach to advancing research and innovation in tutoring practices. We partner with a wide range of organizations, including tutoring providers and school districts, to gather comprehensive data from various sources—such as video and audio recordings, assessments, and chat logs. Additionally, we leverage open-access data from the Million Tutoring Moves Observatories Project, which aims to compile a groundbreaking repository of one million teacher-student interactions.
This unique dataset offers machine-readable insights into teacher practices, opening new possibilities for scientific research on teacher improvisation and informing the development of AI tutoring tools that can support both educators and students.
Using Open Source Tool Libraries and Open Engineering Models, we analyze this data ethically and rigorously, adhering to the highest standards across multiple research areas. Our findings are used to identify best practices and provide actionable recommendations. These insights are then shared with our partners—tutors, advisory boards, and other key stakeholders—through an ongoing feedback loop, ensuring continuous improvement and innovation in tutoring strategies.
Incubator Activities and Workshops
With support from an NSF MSRI Incubator award (NSF #2321499), we established a vibrant and collaborative community of researchers, technology developers, and practitioners. Below is a summary of our meeting materials. Please contact nat_tutoring_ob@cornell.edu to request access to the meeting recordings listed below.
2023:
November 2023 Project Open House, Slides here
December 2023 Meeting: Bring Your Own Data Meeting- with insights from Teacher Moments, PLUS, TeachFX, Saga, WGBH, and Inscribe@ASU:
Slides here
2024:
January 2024- Platform/Service Deep Dive- Carnegie Learning, Slides here
February 2024- PII and De-identification with Ryan Baker and Langdon Holmes, Slides here
March 2024- July Convening Planning, Slides here
April 2024- Databrary with Karen Adolph, Rick Gilmore, and Elizabeth Sheckler, Slides here
May 2024- Teacher Perspectives on Fair and Ethical AI, Slides here
July 2024- Partner Convening at Georgia Tech, Slides here
2025:
January 2025- Partner Launch Meeting, Slides here
April 2025- Tutor Move Taxonomies, Slides here
May 2025- NTO Engineering Pipelines, Slides here
June 2025- NTO Tech Demo, Slides here
July 2025- Data Agreements, Slides here
August 2025- Tech Infrastructure, Slides here
September 2025- Tutoring Move Annotator, Slides here
October 2025- Data Competitions, Slides here
(Recordings are available upon request)