SIAIS

A self-improving tutor

Teaching that learns from how it taught.

The problem

Most tutoring systems are monoliths.

Tutoring logic, the learner model, content, and governance all tangle in one codebase — so nothing can improve without risking everything.

The core idea

Separate the concerns. Route every write.

SIAIS is a pedagogical orchestrator between learners and the apps that teach them — deciding which strategy to deploy when, and what to learn from each interaction.

The central abstraction · five conditions, one file each

C1Memory · LRS
C3API Gateway
C2Parameters
C5Governor

Every write to the parameters goes through the gateway, which logs to memory and consults the governor. There is no other path — the one invariant behind safety, audit, and reproducibility. (C4, the pedagogy engine, reads but cannot bypass it.)

How it works · one class swap, L0 → L3

L0Fixed sequence — the baseline
L1Difficulty rule on a mastery proxy
L2Bayesian Knowledge Tracing → rules
L3LinUCB contextual bandit — explore & exploit

From "simple" to "master" by swapping one policy class in factory.js. Same library, same gateway, same memory.

Why you can trust it

It cannot loosen its own gate.

The Governor reviews every self-modification. Three layers — teleology, identity, governance — are deliberately human-only, and the gate's mode is fixed at boot, not a runtime knob.

Counted from the source tree

5
core conditions
4
policy levels
11
architecture layers
15
xAPI verbs
45
surface methods
13
activity types
5/100
ITS agents built
0
browser localStorage

Three apps · one vocabulary

Present. Assess. Converse.

KE · 15 content methods SATA · 15 assessment formats VHS-SPL · 15 dialogue methods xAPI 1.0.3 · the shared contract

Improve pedagogy before a real learner arrives

59

1,953,125 composable learner profiles — nine trait dimensions, five levels each. Compose a student, role-play them through a topic, analyze the gaps, let an LLM author a governed improvement.

What changes

A tutor that gets better — under audit.

Reproducible for researchers, testable for teachers, adaptive for learners, interoperable for integrators. Every improvement is versioned, logged, and gated.

Self-Improving Adaptive Instructional System

SIAIS v0.2.0

Research software from the Department of Applied Social Sciences · The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

That's SIAIS in two minutes.

Dive into the details, or open the app.

0:00 / 2:00