AI Development Educational Technology Assessment Tools Teacher Support
Department for Education

Client

Department for Education

Education Technology 2025 6 months

How Rubrical Gave Teachers Back Their Evenings

From hours of marking to 50% time savings: The AI platform that transforms geography assessment whilst keeping teachers in control

How Rubrical Gave Teachers Back Their Evenings
How Rubrical Gave Teachers Back Their Evenings with 50% Less Marking Time | OpenKit Case Study

The Bottom Line

Geography teachers were spending entire evenings marking instead of planning creative lessons or maintaining work-life balance. Rubrical solved it with AI-powered assessment that cuts marking time by 50% whilst providing 2.5x more detailed feedback. The result? Teachers get their evenings back and students receive better support.

50%

Less Marking Time

Hundreds of hours saved per term

2.5x

More Detailed Feedback

Quality improvement for students

95%

Teacher Satisfaction

Pilot programme success

Project Summary

Rubrical is an AI-powered assessment platform developed by OpenKit after being selected for the Department for Education's £1 million AI teacher tools funding. As one of 16 chosen organisations, we created Rubrical to help break down barriers to opportunity by giving teachers more time to focus on what matters most: teaching and supporting their students.

The platform seamlessly integrates with learning platforms and uses AI models trained on DfE's content store to generate curriculum-aligned rubrics and mark student work (including handwritten submissions) with 92% accuracy. Rubrical also provides detailed analytics on student performance and, most importantly, it keeps teachers in control whilst automating the repetitive aspects of assessment, saving at least 50% of marking time.

The Problem

The UK education system faced a critical challenge: teachers were drowning in marking. Geography teachers across the country were spending entire evenings assessing student work, leaving no time for lesson planning, professional development, or work-life balance. This wasn't just an inconvenience – it was driving teachers out of the profession.

The Department for Education recognised that over 40% of teachers were considering leaving due to excessive workload, with marking consistently ranking as the most time-consuming administrative task. The challenge was clear: find a way to maintain high-quality assessment whilst dramatically reducing the time burden on teachers.

The Critical Issues

Teachers Spending Hours Marking Every Evening: Geography teachers were drowning in marking, spending entire evenings assessing student work instead of planning creative lessons or maintaining work-life balance.
Inconsistent Feedback Quality When Tired: After long days teaching, the quality of feedback suffered. Tired teachers couldn't provide the detailed, personalised comments students needed to improve.
No Time for Professional Development: The marking burden left no time for lesson planning, professional development, or the high-value teaching activities that actually improve student outcomes.
40% of Teachers Considering Leaving: Excessive workload, with marking as the primary culprit, was driving teachers out of the profession, creating a sustainability crisis in education.

Our Solution: AI That Enhances Teaching

Working directly with the Department for Education, we developed a comprehensive AI assessment platform that maintains the highest educational standards whilst dramatically reducing marking time. Our approach focused on augmenting teacher capabilities rather than replacing professional judgement, creating a system that teachers could trust and students could benefit from.

How We Solved It

AI-Powered Marking That Saves 50% of Time

Intelligent assessment tools that provide marking suggestions whilst keeping teachers in control of the final judgements and feedback.

Consistent, High-Quality Feedback Generation

AI trained on DfE content store generates detailed, personalised feedback that maintains quality regardless of teacher fatigue levels.

Curriculum-Aligned Assessment Tools

Automatic rubric generation and assessment criteria that align with KS4 Geography curriculum standards and assessment objectives.

Project Objectives

The Department for Education set three clear objectives for our AI teacher tools initiative:

1. Break down barriers to opportunity

Enable teachers to spend more time with students by reducing marking burden, ensuring every child gets the support they need

2. Drive high and rising standards

Deliver consistent, high-quality feedback that helps students understand and improve their geography knowledge

3. Revolutionise teacher workload

Save at least 50% of time spent on formative assessment, allowing teachers to focus on inspiring lessons

What Rubrical Does

Rubrical handles the entire assessment workflow from start to finish. Teachers upload or sync assignments, the AI generates marking criteria, students submit work (typed or handwritten), and Rubrical provides intelligent marking suggestions that teachers can review and refine. The result? High-quality, personalised feedback delivered in a fraction of the time.

For Teachers

  • Cuts marking time by 50%
  • Generates detailed, personalised feedback
  • Creates curriculum-aligned rubrics instantly
  • Tracks class and student progress
  • Identifies learning gaps automatically
  • Integrates with existing tools

For Students

  • Receive detailed, actionable feedback faster
  • Understand strengths and weaknesses
  • Get personalised improvement suggestions
  • Access targeted follow-up exercises
  • Improve faster with consistent guidance

Seamless Integration

Works With Your Existing Tools

Rubrical integrates directly with Google Classroom and Microsoft Teams, meaning teachers don't need to change their workflow. Assignments sync automatically, grades flow back seamlessly, and students access everything through familiar platforms.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom

Import assignments, sync rosters, return grades automatically

Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Teams

Full integration with Teams for Education assignments

Direct Upload

Upload assessments directly for schools using other systems

Setting up takes less than 5 minutes. Teachers authorise the connection, select their classes, and they're ready to start saving time immediately.

Smart Assessment Creation

AI-Generated Rubrics in Seconds

Simply upload your assessment question and Rubrical instantly generates a comprehensive marking rubric aligned to UK Geography KS4 standards. Teachers can customise any aspect of the rubric to match their specific requirements. The system learns from these adjustments to improve future suggestions.

AI Rubric Generation

The AI understands:

  • Assessment objectives (AO1, AO2, AO3, AO4)
  • Mark allocations and grade boundaries
  • Command words and their requirements
  • Topic-specific marking criteria

AI-Powered Marking

Handles Any Type of Student Work

Rubrical's advanced technology processes both typed and handwritten submissions with remarkable accuracy.

Handwriting Recognition

Handwriting Recognition

Our OCR technology accurately digitises handwritten responses, handling various writing styles and even messy handwriting. Teachers can review the digitised text alongside the original.

AI Marking Interface

Intelligent Mark Suggestions

The AI analyses responses against the rubric, suggesting marks with detailed reasoning. Teachers review and adjust with simple clicks or voice commands.

How AI Marking Works:

  1. AI analyses student response against rubric criteria
  2. Suggests marks for each assessment objective with reasoning
  3. Teacher reviews suggestions and makes adjustments
  4. System learns from teacher corrections for future accuracy
  5. Final marks and feedback are confirmed by teacher

Trained on DfE's content store, Rubrical achieves 92% marking accuracy - compared to just 67% for generic AI tools.

Personalised Feedback System

Beyond Marking: Meaningful Feedback

Rubrical generates detailed, personalised feedback for each student that goes beyond generic comments. The system identifies strengths, targets improvements, and provides actionable next steps.

Personalised Feedback Generation

Identifies Strengths

  • Highlights what students did well
  • References specific examples from their work
  • Encourages continued excellence
  • Links to curriculum objectives achieved

Targets Improvements

  • Pinpoints specific areas for development
  • Provides actionable next steps
  • Suggests follow-up exercises
  • Identifies key misconceptions for revision

Teacher Notes Integration

Teachers can add personal notes about students (e.g., "struggling with map skills", "excellent at evaluation") which the AI incorporates into future feedback, making it increasingly personalised and relevant over time.

Teacher notes for a student

Powerful Analytics Dashboard

The analytics dashboard provides a comprehensive view of your class's performance across all assessments. See progress over time, identify consistent strengths and weaknesses, and make data-driven decisions about where to focus your teaching.

Analytics Dashboard Overview

Assessment Progress Tracking

Monitor how your class performs across multiple assessments over time. See improvement trends and identify when interventions are working.

Track progress throughout the term

Class-Wide Strengths Analysis

Instantly identify what your class excels at across all assessments. Understand which geography topics and skills are well-embedded.

Celebrate and build on success

Key Weaknesses & Focus Areas

Pinpoint specific areas where your class needs additional support. The dashboard highlights consistent gaps across assessments.

Target teaching where it matters

Student Filtering & Insights

Filter students by performance categories to provide differentiated support. See individual progress within the class context.

Personalised intervention planning

Assessment Analytics Include:

Performance Overview

  • Class average progress
  • Performance distribution
  • Assessment comparisons
  • Progress trends over time

Strengths & Weaknesses

  • Topic performance analysis
  • Skill area breakdowns
  • Common misconceptions
  • Areas of excellence

Actionable Insights

  • Focus areas highlighted
  • Student filtering options
  • Intervention planning
  • Teaching priorities

Teacher-Centric Features

Every feature in Rubrical is designed with teachers in mind, ensuring the platform enhances rather than replaces professional judgement.

Maintain Control

AI suggests, you decide. Every mark and comment can be reviewed and adjusted.

Quick Actions

Voice commands, keyboard shortcuts, and batch operations speed up workflow.

Print for Offline Use

Print feedback and rubrics for offline review or student handouts.

Secure & Compliant

GDPR compliant, ISO 27001 certified, with full data control.

The Journey

Rubrical's story began when OpenKit was selected as one of 16 organisations for the Department for Education's groundbreaking £1 million AI teacher tools programme in January 2025. This initiative, part of the government's Plan for Change, aimed to harness AI to break down barriers to opportunity and revolutionise education.

We spent months working with over 20 geography teachers to understand their assessment challenges. These conversations revealed that teachers were spending up to 15 hours per week on marking.

Development Timeline:

  • Phase 1: Extensive teacher consultations and workflow analysis
  • Phase 2: Prototype development with teacher advisory board
  • Phase 3: AI model training using DfE's content store for 92% accuracy
  • Phase 4: Pilot programme with geography departments
  • Phase 5: Full launch - ready for all geography teachers

Throughout development, teachers guided every decision. Their feedback shaped features like the review interface, the analytics dashboard, and the feedback generation system. Using our KILN evaluation framework, we systematically evaluated AI models to find the best performers for OCR, rubric generation, and marking tasks.

By training our AI on the DfE's world-leading content store of curriculum guidance and anonymised pupil work, we achieved the 92% accuracy rate that makes Rubrical a trusted classroom tool.

Results and Impact

50%+

Time saved on marking

100's

Hours saved per term

95%

Teacher satisfaction

2.5x

More detailed feedback

Why This Matters for Your School

Rubrical's transformation shows what's possible when AI is designed specifically for education. We didn't just build another marking tool – we created a system that genuinely enhances the teaching profession whilst maintaining the highest standards of educational assessment.

If your school is struggling with teacher workload, wants to improve feedback quality, or needs to ensure consistent assessment standards, Rubrical could transform your approach to geography education.

Ready to give your teachers their evenings back?

Rubrical is now available for all UK geography teachers, backed by the Department for Education's AI initiative. Experience the difference that purpose-built educational AI can make.


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