Providing partial answers to users

1. A computing device comprising:

a processor;

a network interface coupled to the processor to enable communication over a network;

a storage device coupled to the processor;

a tutoring engine software stored in the storage device, wherein an execution of the software by the processor configures the computing device to perform acts comprising:

sending a question to a user device of a student over the network such that the question is provided on a user interface of the user device;

receiving a response to the question from the user device over the network;

upon determining that the response does not correspond to a known correct answer:

identifying a concept map, comprising using concept expansion on at least one of:

(i) the first question, (ii) the known correct answer, (iii) the student response, or (iv) the subject matter of the question;

determining, from the concept map, a cost function between the correct answer and the response;

upon determining that the cost function between the correct answer and the response is above a predetermined threshold, identifying the question to be the origin;

upon determining that the cost function between the correct answer and the response is at or below the predetermined threshold, identifying the response to be the origin;

determining a present academic proficiency of the student;

determining a difficulty boundary based on the academic proficiency of the student; and

providing a next question between the origin and the correct answer, based on the determined difficulty boundary of the student.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein determining the cost function between the correct answer and the response is based on a knowledge path on the concept map that has a lowest cost function between the correct answer and the response.

3. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein execution of the software by the processor further configures the computing device to perform acts comprising:

creating one or more knowledge paths between the origin and the correct answer; and

selecting a knowledge path from the one or more knowledge paths.

4. The computing device of claim 3 , wherein selecting the knowledge path comprises selecting a path from the one or more knowledge paths between the origin and the correct answer that has a lowest cost factor.

5. The computing device of claim 3 , wherein determining the present academic proficiency of the student comprises determining a cost function between the response to the correct answer on the selected knowledge path.

6. The computing device of claim 3 , wherein providing the next question based on the determined difficulty boundary of the student comprises:

determining a maximum cost factor from the origin, based on the determined academic proficiency; and

identifying a question from the selected knowledge path that is within the maximum cost factor.

7. The computing device of claim 3 , wherein execution of the software by the processor further configures the computing device to perform acts comprising, adaptively adjusting the difficulty boundary of a new question based on a predetermined number of correctly answered questions along the selected knowledge path.

8. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein determining the present academic proficiency of the student comprises retrieving the academic proficiency from a student profile database.

9. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein upon determining that the response to the question is not received from the user device within a predetermined time, identifying the question to be an origin and the known correct answer as the destination.

10. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium tangibly embodying a computer readable program code having computer readable instructions that, when executed, causes a computer device to carry out a method of providing an interactive tutoring, the method comprising:

sending a question to a user device of a student such that the question is provided on a user interface of the user device;

receiving a response to the question from the user device;

upon determining that the response does not correspond to a known correct answer:

identifying a concept map, comprising using concept expansion on at least one of: (i) the first question, (ii) the known correct answer, (iii) the student response, or (iv) the subject matter of the question;

determining, from the concept map, a cost function between the correct answer and the response;

upon determining that the cost function between the correct answer and the response is above a predetermined threshold, identifying the question to be the origin;

upon determining that the cost function between the correct answer and the response is at or below the predetermined threshold, identifying the response to be the origin;

determining a present academic proficiency of the student;

determining a difficulty boundary based on the academic proficiency of the student; and

providing a next question between the origin and the correct answer, based on the determined difficulty boundary of the student.

11. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein determining the cost function between the correct answer and the response is based on a knowledge path on the concept map that has a lowest cost function between the correct answer and the response.

12. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , further comprising:

creating one or more knowledge paths between the origin and the correct answer; and

selecting a knowledge path from the one or more knowledge paths.

13. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein selecting the knowledge path comprises selecting a path from the one or more knowledge paths between the origin and the correct answer that has a lowest cost factor.

14. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein determining the present academic proficiency of the student comprises determining a cost function between the response to the correct answer on the selected knowledge path.

15. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein providing the next question based on the determined difficulty boundary of the student comprises:

determining a maximum cost factor from the origin, based on the determined academic proficiency; and

identifying a question from the selected knowledge path that is within the maximum cost factor.

16. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 12 , further comprising, adaptively adjusting the difficulty boundary of a new question based on a predetermined number of correctly answered questions along the selected knowledge path.

17. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein determining the present academic proficiency of the student comprises retrieving the academic proficiency from a student profile database.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 10 , wherein upon determining that the response to the question is not received from the user device in within a predetermined time, identifying the question to be an origin and the known correct answer as the destination.