CLIENT
SACAP
CASE STUDY // HIGHER EDUCATION
qMark for SACAP
An AI-assisted marking layer for richer, more consistent student feedback
SACAP partnered with Cerebral Circuit to explore how AI could support one of the most important and most time-intensive parts of the academic workflow: marking.
SECTOR
Higher education
USER
Educators
LAYER
AI-assisted marking
THE OPPORTUNITY
High-quality academic feedback is central to student learning, but producing it at scale is difficult.
Educators often work across large volumes of submissions, tight marking windows, detailed rubrics and institutional quality expectations.
The opportunity was to support markers where feedback is created—helping them move faster while improving clarity, consistency and developmental value.
THE SOLUTION
qMark was built as an educator-facing AI marking assistant.
Rather than replacing the marker, it helps educators turn shorthand notes into fuller developmental comments, check technical issues, align feedback to rubrics, and maintain SACAP's preferred tone and style.
Each qMark agent is assignment-specific, keeping support grounded in the relevant brief, rubric, learning outcomes and academic context.
HOW QMARK WORKS
01
Ground
Each agent is configured around a specific assignment, brief, rubric and learning outcomes.
02
Draft
Educators turn shorthand marking notes into fuller, developmental feedback.
03
Align
qMark helps check technical issues, rubric alignment, tone and feedback consistency.
04
Review
The educator remains in control of final judgement and the feedback delivered to students.
HOW IT WAS DELIVERED
1
Designed around the real marking workflow
qMark was shaped to sit alongside the existing grading process, giving educators AI support without forcing them into a separate workflow.
2
Built as assignment-specific agents
Rather than one generic academic chatbot, each agent was configured around a specific assignment, rubric and feedback context.
3
Rolled out with usage and insight tracking
The first rollout helped SACAP see how graders were using the tool, where usage clustered, and what patterns could inform academic quality support.
IMPACT & RESULTS
qMark gives SACAP a practical way to support educators during one of the most demanding parts of the academic cycle. It helps markers produce clearer, more consistent and more developmental feedback while keeping the educator in control of final judgement.
It also creates a new institutional insight layer, helping SACAP see patterns across marking activity, feedback quality and assessment practice.
qMark showed strong early signs of real workflow adoption. In its first full month of proper use, activity clustered around core marking periods rather than behaving like a novelty tool.
2,684
Messages in the first full month
59
Active graders
5
Assignment-specific agents live
THE TAKEAWAY
The most valuable AI tools in education will not always be student-facing. qMark shows how AI can strengthen the human side of learning by supporting the educators responsible for feedback, judgement and student development.
cerebralcircuit.ai
CASE STUDY // HIGHER EDUCATION