There is nothing wrong with admitting we don't have all the answers. Humans are fabulously complex creatures, and we'd be lying (or stupid) if we tried to claim we had the best possible learning system (though we humbly suggest what we're building better than what's already out there). But that's not to say we can't eventually get there, through an active research program driven by data collected from our users. Here are just a few of the scientific questions you can help answer, just by being a King Tutorial User.
We already mentioned that the jury is still out on what testing formats produce the best results, but it seems to be the case this actually varies with the type of information that is being learned. By exposing our users to many testing formats (multiple choice, True/False, short answer), we might be able to detect a pattern. Questions about specific facts, for instance might best be presented in short answer format, whereas more logical/conceptual questions might best be presented in multiple choice or True/False format.
We know that it doesn't really matter what kind of testing schedule you use, as long as you spread it out over time (instead of doing all the testing in one session). But so far only expanding, contracting, and absolute schedules have been examined scientifically. We've got the crazy idea in our heads that in addition to being kind of fun, random quizzing might actually make for better learning, because it teaches the brain to be ready at all times. But of course, research is needed to prove this - research we can do right here from within the King Tutorial system.
It's been demonstrated that spaced learning is incredibly effective, but this raises a lot of other interesting questions. For instance, what would happen if the learning material was presented more than three times, or with a break longer than ten minutes? By examining patterns of user activity, we'll be able to obtain data that will help answer questions like these.
If you've signed up for the site, you might have noticed that we ask you a few things, like your age, your job, and your chronotype. Your chronotype is the time of day you're the most active and alert, and is usually divided into morning or afternoon. If you don't know your chronotype, that's okay, we may actually be able to determine it through your performance on the random quizzes (as well as when you choose to voluntarily study or be quizzed). By determining your chronotype, we can see how that interacts with things like quizing schedule and test format, to see if certain people benefit more from certain learning techniques than others.