| Answer Type
|
Description
|
Fill-in Options
|
Fill-in Answers
|
Multiple Choice Options
|
Multiple Choice Answers
|
| Numeric
|
The student must type in the correct number
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”.
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
| Drop Down
|
The student must select the correct option from a drop-down menu. These are similar to multiple choice
|
All the drop down options, separated by “</p>,”
|
The correct dropdown option.
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
| Algebraic Expression
|
The student must type in the correct, short, algebraic expression, or a similar equivalent expression. E.g. if the answer is a^2+b^2 then b^2+a^2 would also be correct.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”.
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
| Ordering
|
The student must order some values in some order. Note the initial order of how these are presented to students is randomized.
|
The correct order of objects, separated by “,”.
|
The correct order of objects, separated by “,”.
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
| Exact Match
|
The student must type in exactly the correct answer. This could be a number, expression, point, list, etc.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”. Note that some answers, e.g. lists, require the whole text (1,2,3) and there is only a single answer.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”. Note that some answers, e.g. lists, require the whole text (1,2,3) and there is only a single answer.
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
| Exact Fraction
|
The student must type in exactly the correct fraction.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”.
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
| Numeric Expression
|
The student must type in a numeric expression. Note that simplification occurs, e.g. if the answer is 11^3, 1331 is also considered correct.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”.
|
The correct answer. If there are multiple correct answers they are separated by a “,”.
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
| Multiple Choice
|
The student must select the correct option.
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
A list of options, separated by ‘||’.
|
The correct option.
|
| Check all that apply
|
The student must select all correct option(s).
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
A list of options, separated by ‘||’.
|
The correct option(s), separated by ‘||’.
|
# Skills File
The skills file consists of
1) problem_id, linking to problems in the Problems file
2) skill_id, a unique identifier per skill
3) node_code, which identifies the ASSISTments Skill tag Illustrative Math code for the skill and
4) node_name, a description of the skill. In total there are 224 unique skills.
# Data Source
All data across each file are from [ASSISTments](https://new.assistments.org/), where students complete in-class work as well as homework and receive support and feedback from the platform. This work was done in conjunction with [Dr. Heffernan’s lab at WPI](https://www.neilheffernan.net/home). To ensure student privacy, our team attempted to remove all Personal Identifiable Information (PII). However, it is possible students could type PII into fill-in problems, which we aimed to detect and remove, but short of a manual review of 1.7 million interaction logs becomes infeasible. Accordingly, we ask that if people using this dataset come across PII to please contact us at [etrials@assistments.org](etrials@assistments.org) so it can be removed.
# License and Sharing Agreement
This dataset is licensed under CC-BY-NC-4.0. We require that this dataset is used for research and educational purposes following this
[Responsible Use Guidelines](https://www.etrialstestbed.org/mathnet57963-guidelines).
# Citation
If you use the **FoundationalASSIST** dataset in your research, please cite the following paper:
> Worden, E., Heffernan, C., Heffernan, N., & Sonkar, S. (2026). FoundationalASSIST: An Educational Dataset for Foundational Knowledge Tracing and Pedagogical Grounding of LLMs. *arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.00070*.
### BibTeX
```bibtex
@article{worden2026foundationalassist,
title={FoundationalASSIST: An Educational Dataset for Foundational Knowledge Tracing and Pedagogical Grounding of LLMs},
author={Worden, Eamon and Heffernan, Cristina and Heffernan, Neil and Sonkar, Shashank},
journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.00070},
year={2026}
}
```
### FAQs
Q: Where is the code that cleans the problem text?
A: This repository, in Code/clean_utils.py or cleantext.py, both are similar.
Q: How does discrete_score work?
A: Discrete score is 1 if the student solved the problem on their first try without requesting a hint (hint_count) or an explanation/seeing the answer (saw_answer).
Note this is recorded by ASSISTments. There are 433 rows where discrete_score = 1 despite saw_answer = True or hint_count > 0. In these instances, the student correctly solved the problem then requested hints/explanation/the answer anyways.
Q: Does the dataset track multiple attempts? (E.g. the student first incorrectly said 3, then incorrectly answered 6, then correctly answered 9)
A: No. We recognize it may be valuable to have this data. However, currently, answer_text (in Interactions.csv) is the first answer (right or wrong) the student submitted for the problem. Second/future attempts are not included in this dataset, but stay tuned.
Q: I ran