EduPlanner: LLM-Based Multiagent Systems for Customized and Intelligent Instructional Design

• Published in: IEEE transactions on learning technologies Vol. 18; pp. 416 - 427
• Main Authors: Zhang, Xueqiao, Zhang, Chao, Sun, Jianwen, Xiao, Jun, Yang, Yi, Luo, Yawei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2025
• Subjects: Artificial intelligence; Collaboration; Education; Educational technology; Instructional design; intelligent agent; large language models (LLMs); Mathematical models; Mathematics; Multi-agent systems; multiple agents; Optimization; smart education; Sugar; Training
• ISSN: 1939-1382; 2372-0050
• DOI: 10.1109/TLT.2025.3561332

Large language models (LLMs) have significantly advanced smart education in the artificial general intelligence era. A promising application lies in the automatic generalization of instructional design for curriculum and learning activities, focusing on two key aspects: 1) customized generation: generating niche-targeted teaching content based on students' varying learning abilities and states and 2) intelligent optimization: iteratively optimizing content based on feedback from learning effectiveness or test scores. Currently, a single large LLM cannot effectively manage the entire process, posing a challenge for designing intelligent teaching plans. To address these issues, we developed EduPlanner, an LLM-based multiagent system comprising an evaluator agent, an optimizer agent, and a question analyst, working in adversarial collaboration to generate customized and intelligent instructional design for curriculum and learning activities. Taking mathematics lessons as our example, EduPlanner employs a novel Skill-Tree structure to accurately model the background mathematics knowledge of student groups, personalizing instructional design for curriculum and learning activities according to students' knowledge levels and learning abilities. In addition, we introduce the CIDDP, an LLM-based 5-D evaluation module encompassing C larity, I ntegrity, D epth, P racticality, and P ertinence, to comprehensively assess mathematics lesson plan quality and bootstrap intelligent optimization. Experiments conducted on the GSM8K and Algebra datasets demonstrate that EduPlanner excels in evaluating and optimizing instructional design for curriculum and learning activities. Ablation studies further validate the significance and effectiveness of each component within the framework.