A.I. math-tutoring at a fraction of the cost of a traditional tutor

Frequently Asked Questions

1. 1. How do I get my kids set up on Grokkoli?
   Start by creating a family account with your email address. Once completed, you can add a profile for every learner. That way your family will be on a single account, and you'll be able to log your kids into the service yourself if need be.
2. 2. How will Grokkoli know what to teach my kids? Do I need to select what my kids should learn on Grokkoli?
   Grokkoli actually takes care of this for you. It quickly assesses what your child has already mastered, what skills they are currently learning, and what should come next. It does this by tracking the consistency and speed of every answer, building a complex model of how well every child has mastered the web of skills and concepts required for higher level math. And because it maps out conceptual dependencies (i.e. what the building blocks are for a given type of question), it knows in what order to teach new concepts.
3. 3. What kind of work will my kids do? Is there a weekly schedule or specific curriculum kids need to get through?
   Grokkoli moves learners along at an optimal pace for them, rather than trying to race them through the curriculum or to hold them back. When you set up learning profiles for your kids on Grokkoli, you set a target number of math-sessions per week for them (we recommend at least 3 sessions per week, and no more than 10). How much time you want your kids to spend (and how quickly you want them to progress) is entirely up to you and your family. So far, that fastest we've seen a learner progress through the math curriculum managed to complete all of grade 2 in just 6 weeks ➔ they were completing an average of 5.5 learning-sessions per week, averaging ~20 minutes per session. Regardless, you can rest assured that the program will always keep them moving forward, learning what they need to in order to succeed at higher level math in the future.
4. 4. What kind of reading level do kids need in order to answer questions on Grokkoli?
   Reading isn't required to answer questions on Grokkoli ➔ only an ability to follow objects on a screen.
   
   All questions on Grokkoli are supported by a voice feature that is synchronized with light animations signaling which part of the question appearing on the screen is being read out loud. (This has the added benefit of helping learners associate hearing a math-symbol spoken out loud with its visual representation on the screen, and several parents have told us they believe Grokkoli is helping their kids get better at reading math-questions.)
5. 5. Is Grokkoli suitable for special-needs learners?
   Yes. Numerous special-needs learners are using Grokkoli to significantly accelerate their math learning, and we've even seen it work for children dealing with multiple concurrent difficulties. Almost ¾ of all learners on Grokkoli report having at least one learning-difference, and almost ½ of all learners report a combination of 2 or more learning-differences. Depending on the severity of these challenges, parents may find it beneficial to offer a bit more support to their child while using Grokkoli, especially if assistance with focus is needed. In most cases however, this level of involvement is not necessary. Learn more about how Grokkoli can be particularly beneficial for kids with special needs.
6. 6. What is required of a parent? Will I still need to teach my kids on the side?
   Grokkoli knows how to troubleshoot a learner's challenges, and knows what topic a learner is ready for, so the vast majority of learners can work with Grokkoli by themselves.
   
   Grokkoli also provides session recaps, as either a summary (that lets you know their achievements and where they've been challenged), or a detailed recap of all questions asked and answers given. Thus everything is available for a parent or teacher to quickly review a learner's progress. As such, a parent or teacher can be involved as much or as little as they want to be.
   
   That said, there are a few main things parents or teachers can do:

   • Help your kids get started on Grokkoli and continue encouraging and supporting them as they learn
   • Avoid giving them the answers to questions they get wrong (light hints are fine, but remember they are the ones that need to do the learning - and discovering the answer for themselves is key to building confidence and forming lasting memories)
   • And maybe most importantly, make time for Grokkoli in your child's busy week. As an automated tutor, it doesn't matter when that time is, or how often it changes at the last minute. But just like any endeavor, it is important to do it regularly.
7. 7. How many questions does Grokkoli have?
   The number of unique math-questions is too high to count. More importantly, it's well beyond the limits of what any person would ever answer (they'd be masters long before they ran out of questions). Math-questions are generated spontaneously from the "question blue-prints" (or "question factories") of our learning-objectives, rather than pulled from a static list. For example, “adding single-digit whole numbers” can generate the question 2 + 4 and 6 + 6 and 5 + 3 and so on, generating 81 unique questions. This jumps to 8100 for "adding double-digit whole numbers", and 808,201 for “adding positive rational numbers to 3 decimals”.
   
   So it may be more useful to think in terms of learning-objectives covered by Grokkoli. At present, we have 235 learning-objectives spanning K-5.
8. 8. How do you keep kids engaged? Is this another math game?
   No, Grokkoli doesn't rely on heavy gamification or any other extrinsic motivator to coax kids into doing math ➔ here's why:

   • We want kids to understand and remember their math - not that they got to defeat the evil rabbit at the end of the multiplication tunnel.
   • Long term learning-recall and scholastic performance are not significantly improved by heavily gamified learning apps.
   • There's a risk of confusing edutainment for real learning when thinking about where kids are spending time. (Nothing wrong with video games so long as they are played in moderation, and these heavily gamified learning apps should count towards your kid's video game time, not their learning time.)

   Luckily, math itself can be experienced as a kind of game if kids encounter just the right amount of challenge and recognize their own legitimate progress. Despite a simple interface with no flashing lights or gimmicks, we've had kids as young as 7 answer over 300 questions in a single day.
   
   We believe this is thanks to our:

   • Wide variety of visual question formats
     (draws the attention of learners + helps them form strong connections between the abstract math-symbols appearing in questions, and the concrete objects they can represent in the real world)
   • Frequent variation-training
     (keeps things interesting, where learners never quite know what's coming next + helps them commit what they're learning to long-term memory)
   • Speeding up & slowing down wherever needed
     (fast-forwards learners through the skills they've clearly mastered, while helping them figure out why they got a question wrong and how to get it right the next time, so that they always experience just the right amount of challenge and never become blocked)
   • Text-to-voice on all questions
     (synchronized with light animations of the elements appearing on the screen - particularly helpful for young learners & those experiencing learning-challenges such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, and ADHD)
   • Rich progress feedback
     (such as displaying the total number of correct answers a learner has accumulated in their learning-session)
   • A simple, one-question-at-a-time interface
     (reduces cognitive fatigue, and ensures learners never get discouraged by long worksheets featuring the same kind of question being repeated over and over)
9. 9. How is Grokkoli able to do all this?
   Grokkoli is powered by our proprietary AI system, and does NOT use generative AI (such as Midjourney or ChatGPT). As such, it isn't prone to "hallucinations", and it doesn't do all the thinking for the learner. Instead, Grokkoli continually assesses the most pedagogically relevant next question or learning activity for each learner given the entirety of their answer-history, emphasizing a "receptive" approach over a "generative" one.
10. 10. Why do you need my credit-card information?
    We ask for your credit card information (or other payment method) to verify your identity and ensure an adult is involved in all learning-plan creations on Grokkoli. We also want to make sure that we comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar regulations in other jurisdictions. You will not be charged for anything during your 7-day free trial.
11. 11. Can I change my learning-plan or cancel at any time?
    You can change your learning-plan level at any time, and the change will take effect at the start of the next billing cycle.
12. 12. What happens if I cancel my learning-plan mid-billing cycle?
    Your child will continue to have access to Grokkoli until the end of the cycle. You can cancel anytime during the 7-day trial period without incurring any charges.
13. 13. How does your 3-month learning-challenge work? What are the exact terms of the reimbursement, and how will you determine how much progress a learner has made over that time-period?
    The learning-challenge is quite simple ➔ commit to regular learning-sessions on Grokkoli, and if you don't see rapid progress in just 3 months, we will reimburse you.
    
    Unlike other services offering similar kinds of guarantees but with a long list of requirements, we only require that your child use Grokkoli for minimum of 60 minutes per week. We recommend 4-5 sessions lasting between ~15 minutes each spread out through the week to maximize learning (and our fastest learner yet completed all of Grade 2 in just 6 weeks by doing 5-6 sessions per week, each lasting ~20 minutes).
    
    As for determining how far your child has progressed, Grokkoli's math-content is aligned to US common core standards, so our calculations will be based on where they end up in the curriculum compared to where they started off. (For example, a learner might start off roughly 25% of the way through the grade 2 curriculum, and end up 50% of the way through the curriculum for grade 3 ➔ this would represent 1¼ grade-levels of advancement). Grokkoli doesn't advance learners unless they demonstrate clear mastery of skills already covered, so their progress on Grokkoli is an excellent indicator of the gains they've made.
    
    Regarding children with special needs: Children with all variety of challenges (dyslexia, dyscalculia, ADHD, level-2 autism, and more) are using Grokkoli to significantly accelerate their math learning. While most progress similarly to their peers (learning 3-4x faster than regular schooling), we anticipate this may be challenging for some to sustain, particularly for those whose challenges are severe. Nevertheless, we will continue to honnor this guarantee, regardless of the level of difficulty a child faces.
14. 14. Why the name Grokkoli?
    It's a combination of the word "grok" (coined by American writer Robert A. Heinlein in his science fiction novel "Stranger in a Strange Land", meaning to fully understand something in its totality) and "broccoli" (a super-healthy cruciferous vegetable that's exceedingly good for you). Kids seem to love it :)
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