GoGuardian Incorporates AI Features into Edulastic Platform

The education software company GoGuardian is adding artificial intelligence to its student assessment platform Edulastic to help instructors expedite the work of lesson planning and grading.

A recent news release said new AI-driven add-ons will include a question generator that automatically creates questions based on the teacher's preferences and curriculum, as well as a tool that suggests rubrics and grades for essay questions. In addition, the announcement said, teachers can use the question generator on Edulastic Video Quiz, a new feature for educators to turn YouTube videos and other media into assessments, lessons and assignments within the platform.

“Teachers face a number of challenges when it comes to assessment, including building differentiated standards-aligned questions, setting goals with students and determining students’ most impactful next steps,” Anirban Jhuri, general manager for assessments at GoGuardian, said in a public statement. “Through Edulastic AI, we aim to give teachers valuable time back in their days, automating portions of assessment creation and grading, and freeing them up to connect with students and analyze students’ learning outcomes.”

Citing data from the 2022 Merrimack College Teacher Survey breaking down instructors’ day-to-day work, the news release noted that teachers spend a median of about five hours weekly on lesson planning and an additional five hours on grading. The platform’s new features come as recent advances in generative AI have teachers turning to ed-tech tools for similar functions, such as ASSISTments, a homework feedback and progress-tracking tool developed by Worcester Polytechnic Institute researcher Neil Heffernan, and the online platform Coursera, which released new AI functions for lesson planning and grading in the spring.

The announcement noted that GoGuardian’s new add-ons aim to help instructors focus more of their time and effort on instructional strategy and tackling learning loss exacerbated by the pandemic. It added that the new AI features allow instructors to personalize and edit exam questions and lessons to cater to their students’ needs, which will enable the platform to generate more diverse question pools for future suggestions.

“Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about how AI can make my life easier as a teacher so I can focus more on meeting the needs of individual students,” Amy Ballard, a math teacher and instructional coach in South Carolina, said in a public statement. “I am able to generate questions quickly and easily, and get immediate feedback, which allows me to adjust as needed during class.”