Providing partial answers to users

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.