Never Mark Again (unless you want to)

AI is not coming for your job.

It is going to make it awesome.

Here’s an example.

Kelly sends me an email. It is from Tilf.io. Spam I think. But, .io addresses are popular with the Tech Bros. Ok, I check out the website - careful not to click on the link - and find that it is designed to mark written work, either typed or hand written.

AI marking my students’ work. As well as me? Doesn’t it know who I am! Not a chance.

But I try it out anyway, with an answer from one of my guides. It has already been marked by a senior AQA examiner. Good luck, AI.

Spot on in the grading. And the advice is not just good, but much more specific than I would have time to write. It outlines a success and something to improve for each paragraph.

And the advice is good - focussing on the writer’s ideas, which is where most students fail to gain grades 7. I think the advice is more useful than that given by the examiner.

Then it summarises the strengths and weaknesses and gives a level. Yes, it is matched to the criteria of whatever exam board your students are sitting.

Well, a sample of one could be luck. So, I try again and again and again, till I get to double figures. The comments are still spot on.

The grading is spot on for grades 1-8, but it seems reluctant to award a 9. I think I can predict why.

So Kelly and I Google Meet. She is young - obviously - but has left TripAdvisor, Spotify and Crypto to set up her own company with a co-founder. She wants to sponsor a video. She wants to make me an affiliate.

This is pretty normal for a YouTuber. I say no to nearly everything. I won’t endorse anything that I don’t think is brilliant.

It is brilliant.

So, I say, ‘I’d like to invest. This is going to be a brilliant site for students and teachers’.

But no - Kelly doesn’t want to give away any of her profits until she has to. Damn. But she says it is funny that I mentioned teachers.

She launched the service specifically for teachers. Imagine uploading your KS4 marking, and getting an instant grading, and heaps of brilliant feedback for each student.

In the click of a mouse.

And teachers have been all over it. Ecstatic. So, Kelly approaches the schools and they say:

1. It’s fantastic, but we can’t let our teachers have weekends free of marking.

2. What will the parents say?

3. It feels like cheating.

But it isn’t cheating - you can mark as many as you like, if you don’t trust it. But you will only need to remark those given grade 8.

And the parents will see - thanks for the prompt feedback, my child actually knows what to do, and the work is recent enough for them to understand how to apply it.

And yeah, it feels like cheating. Like owning a car, being born in the West, getting on an aeroplane, penicillin. We’ve got advantages in life. Lean into them.

Here are all the ways it is better than you at marking:

1. It gives instant feedback.

2. None of the feedback is mark scheme jargon. It is easy for students to understand and action.

3. It is specific to every paragraph, so students can pick which bits to action.

4. You can set homework tasks where students mark their own work, and then improve it, before handing it in.

The site isn’t cheap - £10 a month.

But you get unlimited uploads, unlimited marking.

How much is your time worth?

Will it mark KS3 or primary school writing? Of course. You don’t have to give your students the level it is at if you don’t want to. That’s not why you are using Tilf.io.

You’re using it because it gives your students brilliant feedback they can understand. And they get it now, not after a week or two weighing down the boot of your car like guilt.

It is going to make your job awesome.

Students are already telling me it has started to award grade 9s. Kelly has already made sure that creative writing levels are reported separately for AO5 and AO6.

But you don’t have to wait for that. Try Tilf for free.