Towards a product for teaching formal algebra

This paper describes a research work whose objective is to help students to learn algebra with a computer. Firstly, we summarise the theoretical foundations and we describe a prototype devoted to the factoring problem. With this prototype, the student solves problems without making the calculations. The student can also observe the system solving a problem and providing explanations. Secondly, we summarise several experiments we carried out with students and we describe the results we got. Last, we present our new objective that consists of making a product that will be available for all students and teachers.