Homework Helper: Providing Valuable Feedback on Math Mistakes

Sara R. Davis, Carli DeCapito, Eugene Nelson, Karun Sharma, Emily M. Hand

Abstract: Many parents feel uncomfortable helping their children with homework, with only 66% of parents consistently checking their child’s homework [22]. Because of this, many turn to math games and problem solvers as they have become widely available in recent years [12, 21]. Many of these applications rely on multiple choice or keyboard entry submission of answers, limiting their adoption. Auto graders and applications, such as PhotoMath, deprive students of the opportunity to correct their own mistakes, automatically generating a solution with no explanation [19]. This work introduces a novel homework assistant – Homework Helper (HWHelper) – that is capable of determining mathematical errors in order to provide meaningful feedback to students without solutions. In this paper, we focus on simple arithmetic calculations, specifically multi-digit addition, introducing 2D-Add, a new dataset of worked addition problems. We design a system that acts as a guided learning tool for students allowing them to learn from and correct their mistakes. HWHelper segments a sheet of math problems, identifies the student’s answer, performs arithmetic and pinpoints mistakes made, providing feedback to the student. HWHelper fills a significant gap in the current state-of-the-art for student math homework feedback.