---
title: "Papers and technical notes | DuckyHelper"
url: "https://duckyhelper.com/research/papers/"
description: "DuckyHelper's white papers: how the tutor is designed from learning science, drawing on the learner's screen, and hints before answers. PDF and HTML."
updated: "2026-10-09"
---

Papers

# Papers and technical notes

These are DuckyHelper's own white papers and notes. They explain how the tutor is designed and which published research each design choice comes from. They are white papers from MingLLM, Inc., the company that makes DuckyHelper: not peer reviewed, and they report no experiments or results of our own.

White paper · DH-WP-2026-01 · 10 pages

## Built to Teach

How ten findings about how people learn, from Bloom's two sigma result to the risks of unguarded AI help, each became a teaching rule or a tool in DuckyHelper's tutor, and where the principles pull against each other.

[Read the paper](https://duckyhelper.com/research/papers/built-to-teach/)

White paper · DH-WP-2026-02 · 6 pages

## Showing, not telling

Why DuckyHelper's Mac app gives its tutor a pen and a pointer on the learner's real screen, how it decides where a mark goes, what Eddy does instead in the app's Eddy tab, and the privacy limits on both.

[Read the paper](https://duckyhelper.com/research/papers/showing-not-telling/)

White paper · DH-WP-2026-03 · 6 pages

## Hints before answers

What the evidence says about AI help that hands over answers, and the guardrails in DuckyHelper's tutor: a hint ladder that leaves the answer for last, feedback that marks where without fixing, and what the guardrails cannot do.

[Read the paper](https://duckyhelper.com/research/papers/hints-before-answers/)

## The annotated bibliography

Every paper in the library, 100+ of them, with its full citation and our one-line note, in one PDF.

[Download the bibliography (PDF)](https://duckyhelper.com/ducky-pages/pages/papers/duckyhelper-annotated-bibliography.pdf)

What these are

White papers, not peer reviewed. They describe design and cite published research. They contain no study of DuckyHelper and no numbers of our own.

## Frequently asked questions

### Are these papers peer reviewed?

No. They are white papers written by the team at MingLLM, Inc., which makes DuckyHelper. They describe the design and cite peer-reviewed research, but they have not been through peer review themselves.

### Who wrote them?

The DuckyHelper team at MingLLM, Inc., the company that makes DuckyHelper. They are written in plain words for parents, teachers and researchers, and every finding links to its source.

### Can I cite them?

Yes. Each paper page has a citation block. Please cite them as white papers from MingLLM, Inc., and cite the original research for any finding they mention.

## Keep reading

### The learning-science library: 100+ papers

100+ real learning-science papers behind DuckyHelper, sorted by principle, each with a citation, a link to the publisher and a one-line summary.

### A model built to teach

DuckyHelper's tutor is trained on 1,000,000+ tutoring examples and inspired by 100+ learning-science papers: a tutor, not an answer machine.

### How people learn: 12 principles

Twelve learning-science principles behind DuckyHelper, from one-on-one tutoring to spacing, each with the research and the tutor behaviour it drives.

## Ready to learn

DuckyHelper is ready on your Mac. Learn with Eddy on its blackboard, or with Ducky right on your screen.

[Download for Mac](https://duckyhelper.com/download/)

[See what it does](https://duckyhelper.com/features/)

The Mac app needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 Sonoma or later. There is no Chromebook, Windows or web version right now.