Rethinking assessments one classroom at a time with Prepy-AI

Could we train it to interact in a language that the students are most comfortable with, at their convenience?
Thoroughly engaged
Thoroughly engaged(Pic: Prepy-AI)
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In the 1980s, during the Personal Computer boom, Steve Jobs delivered a speech that sparked the imagination of what was possible in education through technology. He referenced Alexander the Great and the profound influence Aristotle, as his personal tutor, had on his life and history as a whole.

Jobs was convinced that in the future, a computer might be able to capture the essence of a great mind like Aristotle and provide every individual access to such phenomenal mentorship. Today, we are closer than ever to realising that dream.

In this spirit, we set out to answer that very question: How can we create an educational tool that provides every child withA their own “Aristotle” as they learn?

Answering this rather ambitious question required us to break it down into more achievable chunks. For instance, can we build it such that it pushes students to think broadly and deeply, reasoning alongside them?

Could we train it to interact in a language that the students are most comfortable with, at their convenience?

Perhaps, even allow it to foster critical thinking through Socratic dialogue?

And could we achieve all of this while inspiring educators and earning their trust by making it genuinely useful and not just in rhetoric?

The Role of Assessments

An effective learning loop begins with learning and closes with an opportunity to assess and reflect. Assessments play a crucial role in helping learners apply their knowledge, receive feedback, and reflect on their learning journey.

When done right, assessments challenge students to form, critique and evolve their worldviews. The most important objective of it all — invoking curiosity that will create a flywheel effect of perpetual learning.

For educators, the process of creating assessments, conducting them and evaluating them consistently can be cumbersome and demanding. It's more challenging in schools that are constrained by a lack of resources. In such cases, expecting educators to set higher goals, create holistic assessments, conduct them frequently, and evaluate them in a way that gives personal feedback to students becomes unrealistic, especially without the right tools or support.

The current reality of assessments

Traditionally, assessments are designed to evaluate students' understanding of a topic by requiring them to recall or memorise information and write it down. The questions or tasks tend to follow a one-size-fits-all approach, with little consideration for the varying learning levels of students.

“We have to study or memorise — sometimes a lot!”
“When I look at the question, I forget everything I prepared. I get so nervous.”

“When I can’t recall answers after preparing, it makes me sad.”

Due to large classroom sizes, feedback on assessments is typically limited to marks. At best, students receive brief comments such as “good,” “excellent,” or “can be better.” Occasionally, they might be fortunate to receive specific feedback on how to improve their response to a particular question. The answers/responses to the assessments are primarily evaluated based on how accurately or closely the students replicate the content from the textbook.

“I prepare well and write assessments well but when I see my marks I always feel I should have done well. Seeing marks makes me feel bad”

Rethinking assessments

When asked what they would change about assessments, students of Classes X, XI and XII at Yuwa School (a not-for-profit organisation and school based out of rural Jharkhand) responded:

“I would remove grades.”
“Can there be levelled questions?”
“Can exams be oral as well?”
“Can marks also be allotted for our effort (based on ability) and not just content?” “I want feedback with steps to improve.”

Prepy-AI: A Holistic, Inclusive and Personalised Approach to Assessments

Prepy-AI is one step towards a new direction for assessments.

Prepy is an AI-powered assessment tool that enables personalised learning by generating holistic questions, recording responses in multilingual languages(in oral and written formats) and providing tailored feedback.

Questions Designed to Build Skills and Values

Questions are designed using learning frameworks like Bloom’s taxonomy and Thinking Routines to connect topics or chapters to essential skills (reasoning, critical thinking, curiosity, forming opinions), values (such as equality, fairness, and justice), and mindsets (like problem-solving, growth and mindful mindsets). These questions encourage students to think critically and in real time by making connections to their surroundings and community.

Students have the choice to take up Multiple choice questions or go for long answer questions.

Examples of questions shared by Prepy-AI
Examples of questions shared by Prepy-AI(Pic: Prepy-AI)

Differentiated assessments

A range of questions — categorised as easy, medium, and hard — are available, allowing students to choose based on their learning needs and learning levels.

Feedback follows the glow-grow model, focusing on students’ development in skills, values, and content understanding.

What it can offer
What it can offer(Pic: Prepy-AI)

Personalised feedback on knowledge, skills and values

Feedback
Feedback(Pic: Prepy-AI)

Moving away from a marks-based feedback system, rubric-based feedback and reflection are facilitated to provide clear and actionable next steps. This practice fosters skill development, moving beyond rote learning and memorisation.

Impact of Prepy at Yuwa School

Students at Yuwa first interacted with Prepy in Sadri — their local dialect. Being able to translate and transcribe into English instantly left them amazed and in wonder. In some sense, their reactions to the tool became the first sign that we were heading in the right direction.

It also got them to be curious about what the tool did and how it can help them with learning. Their curiosity led them to use it more, and be engaged when a teacher was not available for a subject hour. This engagement and adoption gave the educators the promise and conviction that Prepy can be intentionally built into their routines and curriculum.

“I was super excited about using the Prepy Al because when I started talking in English I got answers and when I spoke in Hindi, I got an answer. Later on, I had an excitement about my own language. Is it recognised all over the world or if the world doesn't recognise a language does AI recognise it? I asked Prepy AI about my local language “Tor ka nam hekav?” and it translated into English “What is your name?” I got excited because it translated my local language into English. I was over the moon that my language was recognised. I was shocked to know that the Sadri language does have a recognition and I was super excited. In excitement, I told my whole village about my experience and I told everybody that our Sadri language is being recognised by Preppy AI

- Demanti, Class XII, Yuwa School.

For educators, the possibility of a tool that can take in any pdf, break it into chapters, and within two clicks to create and conduct holistic assessments was promising. It gave back personalised, nuanced feedback, framed sensitively, making it a strong enough case to try it.

“My first experience with Prepy was quite fascinating, realising how it can support teachers to conduct differentiated assessments was truly eye-opening. Introducing the platform to our students was a game changer, they began using it to assess themselves directly. A feature that enabled students to record their answers in their local language increased the accessibility to the platform even more. The platform not only generates new questions each time but also provides excellent feedback to each response. Reading the feedback given to the responses, I knew this is revolutionary as it felt like the feedback was provided by a wise and empathetic teacher.

-Vivek Nath, Former Head Teacher, Yuwa School

How Yuwa School uses Prepy

The first version of Prepy generated MCQs, allowing students to test their knowledge and helping them recall topics as they prepared for exams. As the version evolved with more features, Prepy was used by students as a tool to self-learn.

Before Prepy, self-learning for the students meant trying to comprehend the text, asking questions to the teacher, or researching their queries online. Despite self-learning, their direction and getting to their objectives were dependent on a teacher.

With Prepy, students could easily direct themselves and meet the objectives of the chapter they were self-learning by inculcating the instant feedback they received.

Students choose to use the computer lab to work on Prepy at any point during school hours. They would use the PDF of that particular subject to complete their learning cycle by taking assessments and receiving spontaneous feedback through Prepy.

Students could even access Prepy when they were at home through their mobile phones

A student response and Prepy’s feedback
A student response and Prepy’s feedback(Pic: Prepy-AI)

Assessments that foster curiosity and critical thinking

What if teachers were unburdened from creating or evaluating assessments?

What if they could use a tool to facilitate holistic and inclusive assessments, allowing them to focus more on mentoring and coaching students?

The aspiration is to continue answering these questions through a tool—empowering teachers to become champions, collaborators, and advocates for its impact.

Prepy can now generate holistic questions from any PDF, accept answers in many Indian languages, and give back personalised and sensitive feedback. We are also working towards automatically suggesting specific learning material based on the student's answers to a question/topic.

Our vision is to make the tool accessible to more schools and educational institutions, engaging deeply with educators and students. We are committed to enhancing the tool based on real-world feedback, ensuring it continues to meet the diverse needs of students and classrooms across India.

We believe the tool holds the potential to empower both students and educators, inspiring schools to embrace it as a medium for creating a transformative learning experience.

Want to join us in this vision of redefining assessments?

Sign up for a pilot now!

Sruthi Dharuman and Vedhaviyas Gopalakrishnan
Sruthi Dharuman and Vedhaviyas Gopalakrishnan (Pic: Prepy-AI)

(Sruthi Dharuman currently serves as Principal with Yuwa, India. Yuwa is a non-profit organisation that enables girls in rural Jharkhand to take their futures into their own hands.

Vedhaviyas Gopalakrishnan is a Co-founder and the CEO at Adra Product Studio. Adra is a software product consulting and development firm that works with early-stage startups, acting as a co-founding product team for the startups on demand. Views expressed are their own.)

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