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Tailored learning

, by Bakken & Bæck
Image of a Norwegian text surrounded by pop up screens that show tips for how to write better, as well as general information about the text.

We live in a society where our thoughts are typed, and where knowing how to write is a huge advantage in all parts of life. However, expressing ourselves through text is a craft that takes time and effort to master. As the foundation of writing well is established in school, the start of this journey should be an engaging experience.

Teach each student

Norwegian schools approach digital learning very differently. Some offer digital devices, while others mainly focus on functional handwriting. Either way, there’s no streamlined system to keep track of criteria, assignments, deadlines, or feedback. Students are often left to figure out the teacher’s expectations, and the digital platforms don’t leave room for personalised assignments.

This should change. As all students are different, they deserve to be engaged and evaluated on their own terms — a 10 year old with dyslexia doesn’t necessarily need to have their spelling mistakes evaluated. And a 15 year old with great storytelling capabilities, but difficulties with grammar rules, has different needs.

That’s why learning should be personalised, which we kept in the back of our minds when teaming up with our clients KF (Kommuneforlaget) and NTB Arkitekst to create Skrible, a groundbreaking writing tool that enables customised learning.

Image of Norwegian text with a highlighted word in green, with suggested alternatives on the right side of the text.
In Skrible students have to make active choices. If a word is misspelled, the student has to choose the correct option based on suggestions from the machine.

Fast and fun learning

When designing and developing Skrible, we built a digital, personalised writing tool to make the workflow less tedious. With the help of machine learning, Skrible continuously evaluates the grammar and the syntax — providing immediate feedback for the student throughout the writing process.

Features for students:

○ Directly assigned tasks, creating a less time-consuming workflow as it removes the need to write assignments in a word processor, and downloading and uploading it again

○ Colour-coded and personalised evaluation criteria, making it easier for students to keep track of their assignments

○ Different reminders on the criteria and deadlines which students are evaluated by

○ Pointers and tips on how texts can be improved; this way, students can correct their own mistakes and learn from them before they get the teacher’s feedback

Skrible is a personalised writing tool that helps Norwegian students with everything from spellcheck to word-count, and provides them with real-time automated feedback, as well as individual feedback from the teacher.

Features for teachers:

○ Help to create assignments, with the option of pre-defining various evaluation criteria for each student

○ A large range of personalised evaluation criteria, such as spellcheck, length of sentences, punctuation, capitalisation and space between the words, in addition to constructing an introduction, body and conclusion, with paragraphs

○ A more customised review process, adjusting the educational output based on the student’s level and individual needs

By combining pedagogy, technology and language science, the teacher gets help with assembling, reviewing and evaluating assignments. This also gives the teacher more time to follow up on each individual student.

Skrible was developed for Norwegian teachers and students in elementary school, from fifth grade and up. It’s available on every digital device, keeping everything in one convenient place — a digital platform that students and teachers can log on to securely.

A list of appointments with students, with names and scheduled times attached.

A passion project

We are passionate about making accessible, user-friendly digital public services. In order to have truly inclusive public services, we need to provide children, adolescents and adults with digital products that they can fully understand and use.

That’s also why the project hit the right spot for us: we want to combine advanced technology with good UX, and create digital products with a positive impact on many people and their everyday lives. Many students find themselves in an ongoing home-school experiment, and the need for a digital, yet personalised, learning tool seems bigger than ever.