Frequently
Asked
Questions

Is there a free trial?

Yes. Start free with 3 creates and 3 grades, no card needed. Then unlock a 30-day free trial with everything included. Start your free 30-day trial.

Do I need to be particularly tech-savvy to use SmartEducator?

Not at all. SmartEducator is browser-based and designed to work the way educators already work. If you can upload a file and read an email, you can use the platform. Most educators are up and running within minutes of signing up.

Can I use SmartEducator as an individual educator, or does my whole school need to sign up?

SmartEducator works equally well for individual educators and whole schools – either can sign up and start benefiting immediately. As a solo user, simply select the tier that suits you, create your classes and get started. For schools and districts, onboarding can be set up to bring in your existing classes, rosters and staff directly. You can explore individual pricing here, or contact the team to discuss a school- or district-wide rollout.

How long does setup take for a school integrating at institutional level?

Setting up SmartEducator at school or institutional level is a straightforward process, and one we support at every step. Timelines vary depending on the size and complexity of your organization, so we'd always recommend getting in touch directly – our team will walk you through what to expect and make sure everything is in place before you go live.

Do I need an IT team to get started?

Not if you're signing up as an individual. Teachers, tutors, parents and homeschoolers can sign up, add their classes or students and start the same day – no IT involvement needed.

For schools, districts, colleges, universities and training providers integrating at institutional level, we can pull in class rosters, course enrollments, candidate records and assignments directly. Our team works with yours to set this up, so there's very little for your IT department to do.

Who is SmartEducator for?

Anyone who sets work or grades it. If you create questions, tasks, tests or exams – or assess the answers – SmartEducator is built for you, whatever the subject, level or setting. That includes:

• Schools – elementary, middle and high schools, public, private and charter schools, special education and alternative programs, and school districts
• Colleges and career education – community and technical colleges, career and technical education programs, apprenticeship providers, adult and continuing education
• Higher education – universities, departments, professors, lecturers, seminar leaders and graduate teaching assistants
• Professional training and certification – training providers, professional bodies, certification organizations, corporate learning and development teams, and regulated sectors such as financial services, legal and compliance, health and care, law enforcement and public sector, defense, and engineering and trades
• Individuals – teachers, substitute teachers, student teachers, tutors and tutoring companies, examiners and moderators, and parents and homeschoolers
• Everyone else who teaches – language schools, music and arts teachers, coaches and instructors, online course creators and test-prep providers

What types of assessment can SmartEducator grade?

Practically anything a learner can write, draw or say. Handwritten, typed or recorded, SmartEducator grades it against your rubric – or one it generates for you:

• Exams and tests – midterms and finals, practice tests, end-of-unit and end-of-topic tests, entrance exams, state test practice, AP and IB practice, career and technical certifications, college exams and professional certification exams
• Short and objective answers – multiple choice, true/false, matching, fill-in-the-blank, one-word and short answers, numerical answers, calculations and equations with work shown
• Extended writing – essays, extended responses, creative writing, source and text analysis, reports, reflective writing, research projects and dissertation chapters
• Projects and performance tasks – coursework, lab reports, investigations, projects, portfolios of evidence and assignment briefs
• Visual and image-based work – diagrams, labeled drawings, graphs and charts, annotated sources and maps, and photographed notebook or whiteboard work
• Oral and spoken assessment – presentations, oral exams and defenses, professional discussions, language speaking tests, debates and recorded spoken answers
• Everyday and formative work – homework, classwork, worksheets, quizzes, warm-ups, exit tickets, retrieval practice and knowledge checks
• Workplace and vocational assessment – case studies, scenario-based questions, competency and compliance knowledge checks, and written evidence for apprenticeships and professional standards

I'm not a teacher – can I still use SmartEducator?

Yes. You don't need a teaching credential or a classroom. Trainers, examiners, assessors, L&D teams, coaches, tutors and parents all use SmartEducator to create practice material and grade responses against clear criteria. If you can describe the task and what a good answer looks like, SmartEducator can help you set it and grade it.

What if my type of work isn't listed?

SmartEducator is subject- and format-agnostic, so if your work can be uploaded as a file, photo, scan or audio recording and graded against criteria, it will very likely work. Start a free trial and try it with your own work, or get in touch and bring a sample – we'll show you how it's graded.

Is the platform suitable for elementary schools, or is it focused on middle school and above?

Yes, SmartEducator works well for elementary schools as well as middle and high schools. By default, SmartEducator calibrates its feedback and grading language to a high school level of reading and understanding, so for younger students, we'd recommend teachers make use of the platform's feedback style controls to adjust this. For example, adding an instruction such as "make this suitable for an 8-year-old reader" ensures feedback lands at the right level for younger students.

These instructions aren't limited to individual teachers, either: they can also be set at district or school level, so an elementary school can configure feedback tone and reading level consistently across every class and teacher from the outset.

Does SmartEducator work for community and technical colleges, including career and technical courses?

Yes. SmartEducator supports both academic and career and technical college courses. Upload your program rubric and every essay, piece of coursework or oral assessment is graded against it, criterion by criterion. Instructors can also create lesson plans, warm-up activities, quizzes and essay questions, with class context such as course level and individual learning needs applied automatically.

Can universities use SmartEducator?

Yes. SmartEducator helps professors and lecturers grade consistently across courses and sections – whether that's handwritten exam scripts, typed essays or recorded seminar presentations – against each course's own criteria. They can also create discussion questions, formative quizzes, essay questions and reading guides, with course level and learning outcomes applied automatically. Insights can be viewed by course, cohort or criterion.

Can SmartEducator be used for professional certifications and training?

Yes. SmartEducator supports organizations that run high-stakes written and oral exams – in sectors including financial services, accounting and tax, banking and insurance, legal and compliance, defense, law enforcement and the public sector, health and care, and engineering and trades.

Upload your rubric and every response is graded against your criteria, ready for your examiners to review before results are released. You can also create knowledge checks, case studies and practice exams around your syllabus, and track performance by cohort, paper and criterion.

I'm a tutor – how can SmartEducator help me?

Whether you teach one-on-one or small groups, from test prep to AP, SmartEducator lets you create practice tests and homework at the right level for each student, have their answers graded against your own rubric – including past-exam answer keys – before your next session, and track each student's progress over time.

I'm a parent or homeschooler – do I need a teaching background?

No. Create worksheets and quizzes pitched at your child's level, then photograph their work and upload it. SmartEducator grades it against a clear rubric – one it generates, one you write, or one you reuse – so you know exactly what to work on next. You can also connect the Google Classroom or Microsoft Teams account your child's school uses.

What subjects does SmartEducator support?

SmartEducator is completely subject-agnostic, meaning it handles any subject you teach. That includes sciences, mathematics, English, history, geography, world languages and more. It supports the full range of question types, too: multiple choice, true/false, short answer, long-form text, equations and image-based assignments. It also works across all state standards and grade levels.

Does SmartEducator work on any device?

Yes. It's fully browser-based, so no downloads or installations are required. It works on any internet-connected device: desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile. Getting started is straightforward, too: just sign up with an email address, verify via the link sent to your inbox and create a password. Single sign-on is available for Microsoft and Google users.

Which LMS platforms does SmartEducator integrate with?

SmartEducator integrates with Google Classroom, Canvas, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft OneNote and Moodle, and is compatible with 50+ learning platforms in total. Assignments go out through your LMS, and submissions, grades and feedback return to it automatically. If your school, college or organization uses a different platform, get in touch and we can talk through your options – or simply upload work directly.

Can SmartEducator read handwritten submissions?

Yes, and with the same accuracy as typed work. Handling handwritten submissions was a core reason SmartEducator was built, and our large language AI models are highly accurate at reading them. The rule of thumb is: if you can read it as a teacher, the platform can read it too. Upload photos, scans or document files and begin the grading process as normal. You retain full control to edit any extracted text before grading begins. Student errors – spelling, grammar or expression – are preserved as written, so work is graded as submitted, not corrected.

Can SmartEducator grade oral assessments and presentations?

Yes. Record or upload spoken answers, presentations and professional discussions – as audio files such as .m4a – and SmartEducator grades them against the same criteria as written work. That covers student presentations in high school and college, recorded seminar presentations at university, and oral exams for professional certifications. As with all grading, you review and edit everything before results are released.

Can I use my own rubric or answer key?

Yes. Upload your rubric, answer key, course criteria or a past exam's scoring guide – or write your own – and every answer is graded against it, criterion by criterion. Each criterion gets its own score and feedback, so you can see exactly where points were gained or lost.

What if I don't have an answer key or rubric to upload?

No problem! SmartEducator will generate one for you. The platform analyzes the assignment and creates the most appropriate framework: a skills-based rubric with success criteria for complex or extended tasks, or an answer key with a points scheme for shorter, more factual ones. Rubrics and answer keys can also be aligned to relevant state standards and assessment objectives. You can review and edit everything before grading begins to make sure it's exactly what you need.

Can I grade a whole set of paper scripts at once?

Yes. Scan paper scripts in bulk – a full class set, a midterm or a cohort's exam papers – and upload them together alongside any typed or audio submissions. SmartEducator reads and grades each one, ready for you to review, edit and release.

Can I edit grades and feedback before they reach students?

Absolutely, and this is fundamental to how the platform works. Every grade, rubric criterion and piece of feedback is fully editable before anything leaves the platform. Nothing reaches a student without your review and approval. Editing a grade automatically triggers a regrade to keep everything consistent, also.

How does SmartEducator handle different state standards?

The platform recognizes major US state standards and assessment objectives, applying them automatically when relevant. You can also specify the relevant standards at the class or assignment level.

Can SmartEducator handle skills-based or creative subjects where grading is more interpretive?

Yes. SmartEducator is built to grade both fixed-answer questions and open-ended, interpretive work – from single right-or-wrong answers in math to extended creative writing and skills-based assignments in subjects like English.

SmartEducator adapts based on the given subject, matching its approach to the one best suited to grading the task at hand.

For work graded against a leveled rubric, SmartEducator runs a "final pass": the complete submission is read as a whole and graded against each criterion in turn, rather than judged line by line in isolation. This keeps the full context of the work in view, so SmartEducator weighs overall coherence and quality alongside each specific criterion much as a human grader would.

And because interpretive grading always calls for professional judgment, teachers keep the final say: SmartEducator does the groundwork, but every grade and comment can be reviewed and adjusted before it reaches a student.

What kinds of resources can I create?

Describe your topic and audience, and SmartEducator generates standards-aligned resources in minutes – complete with questions, cover sheets, exemplars and rubrics. Resource types include lesson plans, warm-up activities, quizzes, classwork, homework, essay questions, practice tests, review activities, discussion questions, reading guides, knowledge checks and case studies, or anything custom you need.

Can I pitch resources at different levels?

Yes. Choose a challenge level – Foundation, Core or Stretch – and set the number of points, the time allowed and the number of questions. Class or student context, such as grade level, subject, state standards and individual learning needs, is applied automatically, and resources can be adapted for English language learners.

How do I get resources to my students?

Review and edit everything first, then publish straight to your class, course section or cohort through your connected LMS, download a print-ready PDF for the classroom or exam room, or export to Word.

How accurate is the AI detection tool?

Very accurate. SmartEducator's detector is trained specifically on the frontier models from the major AI labs – including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google – allowing it to identify not just that AI was used, but which model produced the content. Detection runs paragraph by paragraph and provides a confidence rating per section, giving educators clear, specific information rather than a blanket verdict. Like any detection tool, it works best as a guide for the teacher rather than a definitive conclusion – and it's actively updated as new AI models are released.

Does the AI-detection result affect a student's grade or appear in their feedback?

Neither. AI detection results are visible to the teacher only. They don't influence the grade, don't appear in student feedback and students don't need to be logged into SmartEducator for detection to work. What you do with the information is entirely your call – including nothing, if AI use is permitted or encouraged in your classroom.

Can I use SmartEducator just for grading, without using Create or Accelerate?

Of course. You can enter the platform at whichever point suits you, and its functionality is designed to work in isolation or as an end-to-end solution. If you have your own assignments and rubrics or answer keys, upload them directly and go straight to grading. Use the parts that work for you and add more when you're ready.

How does the Accelerate Insights dashboard build up over time?

Every graded assignment feeds the dashboard automatically. The more assignments you grade through SmartEducator, the richer the picture becomes – tracking individual student progress, class trends and performance patterns over a rolling 12-week window. There's no separate setup required; it builds in the background as you use the platform.

How far back does the Insights data go? Can it be used effectively from mid-year?

You can start using Accelerate (our insights and progress-tracking feature) at any point in the school year. It begins building data from the moment students' work starts being graded through SmartEducator, so a school joining in January will start seeing meaningful trends from January's assignments onwards.

Because Accelerate reflects work actually graded on the platform, there's no need to upload or back-date any earlier assignments to "catch up" your data – simply start grading through SmartEducator and your progress tracking begins straight away, growing richer with every submission from that point on.

Can school leaders see data across classes and cohorts?

Yes. School and district leaders get a live view across classes and cohorts, and insights can be viewed by class, subject, grade level, course, cohort or criterion. Accelerate highlights topics to revisit and suggests next steps – such as creating a warm-up activity or knowledge check on a weaker area – in one click.

What is the Chat function on the dashboard?

The chat assistant is a contextual tool built into specific areas of the platform – file uploads, content creation and the Insights dashboard. It's designed to help with particular tasks: refining content you've just created, guiding you through the submission process or drilling into your class data. It sits in the background rather than front and center so you can use it where it adds value and ignore it where it doesn't. Think of it as a virtual assistant.

How does SmartEducator handle student data?

Data protection is built into the foundation of SmartEducator's design. We operate audit-logged access controls, region-aware cookie consent, dedicated tooling for handling data subject requests and our infrastructure runs on Azure with encryption in transit and at rest. We're continuing to invest in this area as we grow, including strengthening how student data is handled by our AI processing pipeline.

We're happy to provide more detailed data-handling documentation to schools and districts on request.

What security certifications does SmartEducator hold?

SmartEducator holds ISO/IEC 27001, the internationally recognized standard for information security management systems, and Cyber Essentials Plus – the highest tier of the UK government-backed certification, independently verified by a technical audit. The same protections apply to student and candidate data, whether you're a school, college, university, training provider or individual. See all our certifications and accreditations.

Is there a contract or minimum commitment?

No long-term contract is required. Start free with 3 creates and 3 grades, no card needed. Then unlock a 30-day free trial with everything included. You choose the plan that suits you – whether that's an individual educator account or a school-wide solution.

Is there a pricing option for schools or districts?

Yes – SmartEducator's Schools plan is available for institutions of all sizes, from individual schools to entire districts. Pricing is tailored to your organization's needs, so there's no fixed published rate. Get in touch with the team and we'll put together a proposal that works for you.

Is there pricing for colleges, universities and training providers?

Yes. Colleges, university departments and professional training organizations each have an annual plan, which includes grading of handwritten, typed and oral answers, use of your own rubric, and integration with Google Classroom, Canvas, Microsoft Teams and Microsoft OneNote. Talk to us and we'll put together a proposal for your organization.

What are the pricing options?

SmartEducator offers three individual tiers, each designed to match where you are in your teaching practice:

• Create | Includes AI resource creation, grading and feedback tools, with 50 generations and 90 scripts graded per month
• Grade | Our most popular tier – with 200 generations and 360 scripts graded per month, as well as full grading and feedback suite
• Accelerate | 500 generations and unlimited* scripts graded per month, plus the full Accelerate Insights dashboard

All plans are available on monthly or yearly billing. See current prices, full plan details and feature comparisons on our Pricing page.

*Subject to fair use.