About

Assessment should show what people can do.

EdSphere turns written work into practical tasks that students can evidence. We want that to be the normal way to assess, not the exception. Here is why.

What we believe Pilot it with us

Our vision

Proof of what students can do.

Every grade a student earns should point to something they actually did: captured as they did it, explained in their own words, and checked by a qualified person.

We want setting a practical task to be as easy as setting an essay is today, in every subject, from business and law to engineering and medicine.

What we believe

Five beliefs, and the evidence for them.

Each one shapes what we build, and each comes with its source.

1
Written work no longer proves learning.
AI can now produce credible answers to almost any written assignment, from essays to problem sets and code. Most students use it every week, and most faculty report more cheating. A finished essay can’t show who did the thinking.
Source:MIT, 2026 (opens in a new tab)Lumina Foundation and Gallup, 2026 (opens in a new tab)AAC&U and Elon University, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
2
Detection alone isn’t enough.
Detection tools can raise useful questions, but they can’t confirm who did the work, and a false flag can harm an honest student. The lasting answer is to redesign assessment so it shows the learning directly.
Source:TEQSA (Australia), 2025 (opens in a new tab)Vanderbilt University, 2023 (opens in a new tab)
3
Practical work shows what students can do.
Trustworthy judgements need more than one kind of evidence, including how students work, not only what they hand in. Practical tasks, explaining decisions out loud, and conversations about the work make learning visible in a way an essay can’t.
Source:TEQSA (Australia), 2023 (opens in a new tab)MIT, 2026 (opens in a new tab)UC Berkeley, Center for Studies in Higher Education, 2026 (opens in a new tab)
4
Doing the thinking is what builds it.
Early research suggests that when AI does the writing, students engage less and remember less of their own work. Practical tasks keep students doing the thinking, which is how they learn.
Source:MIT Media Lab, 2025 (opens in a new tab)
5
Practical assessment has to be quick to run.
Watching every student, asking follow-up questions, and writing it all down can take close to an hour per student. EdSphere handles the organising, so instructors spend their time on the judgement.

Sources

Each link opens the original.

How we build

Six promises.

The rules we hold ourselves to.

People make the decisions.
The AI drafts and asks questions. A qualified person decides every grade, and the software makes sure of it.
Replace work, don’t add it.
The practical task replaces the written assignment. It doesn’t come on top of it.
Fit into a busy week.
Setting up a task means editing a proposal. Marking a student is one page with two choices per criterion.
Meet students where they are.
A phone browser and a private link. No app, no account, no IT ticket.
Check our own claims.
The times on this site are estimates. Our pilots measure the real numbers against each instructor’s current way of marking.
Protect student work.
Private storage, location removed from photos, and student work used only for the assessment it was captured for.

Where we’re heading

Start small, then grow.

Each step has to work before we take the next.

01
One course.
Start with one practical assignment and one instructor. Measure two things: how long it takes, and whether a second marker agrees with the grades.
02
A whole program.
Show evidence for every outcome a program promises, across all its courses, ready for review and accreditation.
03
Beyond the university.
Records of what people can actually do, useful to the employers and professions they go on to. A long way off, but we design for it now.

Try it on one assignment.

If you teach or assess and think assessment needs to change, we’d like to hear from you. Pilots are free.

See what a pilot involves See the product

Proof of what students can do.

Five beliefs, and the evidence for them.

Written work no longer proves learning.

Detection alone isn’t enough.

Practical work shows what students can do.

Doing the thinking is what builds it.

Practical assessment has to be quick to run.

Sources

Six promises.

Start small, then grow.

Try it on one assignment.