The Premise
Learning is a process.
We finally measure it like one.
Koan is an LMS that records student thinking, not just what they submit. Traditional platforms grade submissions. Koan captures the entire thinking process, every revision and every pause, and turns it into proof of real learning.
Pilot programs open · Spring 2026 · UEMSB · Equitech Futures · GNPS
Every revision, pause, and breakthrough, preserved as evidence of thinking.
The Problem
Traditional LMS platforms measure outputs. In the AI era, that’s no longer enough.
When a student submits a polished essay, schools have no way of knowing if learning actually happened. The process of thinking, where real learning occurs, is invisible.
89of every 100 students
already use AI to complete assignments.
// Stanford Digital Education Survey, 2024
78of every 100 administrators
worry about AI and academic integrity.
// EdWeek Research Center
“Resisting and detecting AI is not the solution. Schools need AI-wise learning systems that empower education with technology. Technology has progressed, so should education.”
The Approach
An AI-wise LMS measuring learning process, not just results.
Koan flips the script on AI in education. Instead of trying to detect AI use after the fact, we make AI work for learning by making the thinking process visible and structured.
Schools using Koan can finally answer the question every administrator asks: “Did learning actually happen?” Aidan guides and captures student reasoning in real time, and the WorkHub records concrete workflow evidence from brief to reflection, so the teacher coaches from what actually happened.
What the WorkHub captures, as it happens
REVISIONS 0 · PAUSES 0
The Method
Three steps. One visible journey.
Students write with Aidan
Aidan asks Socratic questions tailored to the rubric. Students think, draft, and revise with a coach who never gives answers.
Every moment is captured
Revisions, pauses, breakthroughs, and reasoning shifts are recorded in real time. The invisible process becomes visible.
Teachers see the full journey
The WorkHub shows a complete thinking timeline. Teachers coach from evidence, not guesswork.
The Coach
Meet Aidan. A coach, not an answer machine.
Every student gets 1-on-1 coaching, every assignment. Aidan asks the question a great teacher would ask, then records the thinking that follows. Choose a student question to see how the conversation turns.
Aidan never gives the answer. That’s the point.
aidan: ▍
The Record
What the teacher sees.
The submitted essay, with its history still attached. Hover the marked passages to see the process evidence behind each one.
The Great Gatsby interrogates the cost of the American Dream, and who is allowed to wake from it. Fitzgerald builds a world where wanting is the only honest currency, and every character is paying in it.
Gatsby’s parties are staged for one absent guest, a “universe of ineffable gaudiness” built to be seen (Fitzgerald 98), which makes the dream a performance long before it is a hope.
Some readers insist the novel still believes in the dream, that Nick’s final lines are elegy rather than indictment. But an elegy is what the dream gets instead of a defense.
Student reflection · attached
“I started out summarizing the plot. The question about who pays for the dream made me argue something instead. That’s the version I’m submitting.”2 revisions · 1 pause · 1 reflection · evidence reviewed before grading
The Difference
Koan revises the old model in place.
The same edits students make to their drafts, applied to the LMS itself.
struck = the traditional model · underlined = with Koan
What gets graded
the final submission, however it was produced. the full arc: drafts, revisions, and reflection in one timeline.
AI in the classroom
detected and punished after the fact. guided during the work, through Aidan and the WorkHub.
What teachers see
little insight into revision quality or student effort. growth evidence they can review before grading.
What districts get
weak evidence for coaching conversations and reporting. school- and district-ready visibility into learning progress.
The Pilot
Spring 2026 cohort · accepting applications
Dear school leaders,
We’re partnering with a small number of forward-thinking schools and districts ready to lead in AI-age education. Not a product trial. A partnership. We design the pilot around your classrooms, your teachers, and your definition of learning.
If you believe your students’ thinking deserves to be seen, we would like to build that with you.
The Koan team
P.S. Every pilot includes bespoke implementation · dedicated support team · direct founder access · professional development · pilot pricing.
The Journal
From the Koan journal.
Thoughts on the future of education, AI in schools, and making learning visible. A new entry most days.
Latest entry · August 30, 2026 · 5 min read
The Two Hours Springfield Tried To Keep A Teacher In
On Thursday, August 20, WBUR reported that the Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership planned to launch, this September, a sixth-grade pilot at Kiley Prep Middle School using an adaptation of the Alpha School model. Roughly twenty-five students, out of a school of about three hundred, will spend the first two hours of every day on laptops with AI academic software. The afternoons will be given to project-based workshops aligned to Massachusetts state standards. Kiley made one adaptation to the model that Alpha's own schools do not. Where Alpha calls the adult in the room a guide, Kiley will keep a veteran teacher in the classroom during the AI portion of the day. The Springfield Education Association has said it will move to block the pilot. The pilot has already answered one question. A public school, at least this one, is not yet willing to have the two hours happen with no one in the room who can see what the software is doing to a child.
Read the essayThe Age Katy Wrote Into The FrameworkAug 29 · 5 min readThe Homework Denmark Sent Back To The RoomAug 28 · 5 min read