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edTech for communication education

Software that helps
educators evaluate communication.

Gradebook Technologies builds AI-powered evaluation tools.

We design software that gives communication instructors back their time, while keeping their expertise at the center of every assessment. SpeechGradebook is our flagship product.

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Minutes
To Grade, Not Hours
AI
Powered Evaluation
FERPA
Compliant & Secure
100%
Instructor in Control
Our Mission

Better feedback, less busywork.

Communication is one of the most important skills we teach — and one of the hardest to grade well. We build software that helps educators give faster, more consistent, and more meaningful feedback on how people speak, present, and connect.

Our Products

Purpose-built for the classroom.

Every product we make is designed hand-in-hand with the educators who use it.

Flagship Product

AI-powered speech evaluation.

SpeechGradebook helps communication instructors grade student speeches in minutes instead of hours — using custom rubrics, AI analysis, and a workflow that keeps the instructor in control.

  • Custom, instructor-defined rubrics
  • AI evaluation of delivery & content
  • Review, refine, and finalize feedback
  • FERPA-compliant & secure by design
Visit SpeechGradebook

Custom rubrics, AI-assisted scoring, instructor-approved feedback.

Our Approach

How we build software.

A few principles guide everything we ship.

Educators First

AI assists, but the instructor always has the final say. We augment expertise — we never replace it.

Privacy by Design

Student data is sensitive. FERPA compliance, consent management, and security are built in from the start.

Responsible AI

We apply modern AI thoughtfully and transparently, with humans reviewing and improving every result.

Communication Focus

We specialize in evaluating communication — speeches, presentations, and the skills that matter most.

Accessible & Inclusive

Our tools follow accessibility best practices so every educator and student can use them with confidence.

Built With Partners

We develop alongside real classrooms and institutions, refining our products with the people who use them.

Why Educators Trust Us

Built for trust from day one.

Credibility matters most where grading is subjective. Here's what we're built on.

Rooted in university research

Born from a project at the University of Tennessee and grounded in peer-reviewed dissertation research.

Built by a PhD educator

Designed by someone who has taught public speaking and studied how it's actually learned.

FERPA-compliant by design

Student privacy and data security are built in from the first line of code.

Now onboarding pilots

Partnering with a small group of communication programs ahead of a wider release.

“Your first pilot instructor's words will live here — a sentence or two about the time they reclaimed and the consistency their students gained.”
Pilot Instructor Communication Program · to be added
Placeholder — replace with a real pilot quote

Become an early pilot partner.

We're inviting a limited number of communication departments to shape SpeechGradebook before its wider release — with hands-on onboarding and a direct line to the founder.

Request a Pilot
Our Story

Built from a question worth asking.

Gradebook Technologies grew out of nearly a decade of inquiry into a stubborn problem in communication education — and a belief that better feedback makes better speakers.

2018

A problem worth solving

At the University of Tennessee, a group of communication instructors faced a growing challenge. As enrollment climbed, so did the number of students in the mandatory basic communication course. With twenty-plus students per section, five graded assignments each, and speeches averaging seven minutes, instructors were spending more than a full week of work every term simply grading speeches.

Their idea was straightforward but ambitious: software that could evaluate recordings of student speeches — saving instructors valuable time and getting students the feedback they needed before their next assignment. They called it SpeechGradebook.

2018–2022

The first attempt

As a PhD student, I was fortunate to join the project, bringing a background in course development to those early efforts. But this was before AI had entered the mainstream as something accessible and dependable. Without the technology to realize the vision, the work drew to a close in 2022.

The research

What the evidence showed

I spent the rest of graduate school studying learning outcomes in public speaking. Having taught the course for four years myself, I wasn't surprised when my dissertation research confirmed what experience had suggested: instructor characteristics meaningfully shape what students achieve in public speaking.

2026

The right moment

In 2026, I was asked to teach public speaking again. By then I was working in technical documentation and had been casually building an AI tool that could watch a demonstration video and produce procedural documentation, complete with extracted screenshots. As I prepared a Business and Professional Communication course, the leap wasn't far: could that same video-assessment approach evaluate speeches?

Today

SpeechGradebook, reborn

A question — "could I?" — quickly evolved into something functional. With the blessing of the original SpeechGradebook team, I built the program you see today. It shares none of the original's materials, but it carries its name and its spirit of inquiry.

This story embodies what the software stands for: that those who educate us help shape who we become, that learning is never finished, and that we should always aspire to improve.

Anna McClure, Ph.D. — Communication Studies Founder, Gradebook Technologies

Gradebook Technologies is a founder-led company. Every product is designed and built by an educator who has stood at the front of the room. That means decisions are made by someone who understands the work — and accountability sits in one place.

Vision

Consistency for the hardest things to grade.

Some of the most important assessments in education are also the most subjective and time-consuming. Gradebook Technologies builds software that standardizes and systematizes evaluation for performance-based communication.

Today

Higher-ed communication departments

We start where the need is sharpest: basic-course programs and communication departments grading high volumes of student speeches every term.

Next

Individual instructors in higher ed

Bringing the same evaluation tools to individual faculty across higher education who assign presentations and graded performances.

On the horizon

High school classrooms

Extending consistent, efficient communication assessment to high school instructors and programs.

Why now

Because the technology has finally caught up to the vision. Amid all the debate surrounding AI in education, Gradebook Technologies exists to show what responsible use looks like — AI applied beneficially, transparently, and with genuine respect for the data and resources it touches.

Request a Pilot

Let's talk.

Interested in a pilot, a demo, or a partnership? Tell us a little about your program and we'll be in touch.

speechgradebook@proton.me www.speechgradebook.com

We'll only use your details to respond. No spam, ever.

Ready to rethink communication grading?

See what Gradebook Technologies is building for educators.

Explore SpeechGradebook