Meet InScribe: An intelligent Q&A platform leveraging the power of community & AI for Higher Ed

by Guest Blogger | May 6, 2019 | Accelerator Feature, Blog |

Meet Katy Kappler, Ana Hernandez, and Matt Self, Co-Founders of Inscribe. Inscribe, is an intelligent Q&A platform that leverages the power of community and artificial intelligence to connect learners to the answers, resources, and individuals they need to succeed in school and beyond.

Katy, Ana, and Matt will take part in the LearnLaunch Breakthrough Accelerator, a 5-week intensive program at the LearnLaunch Campus in Boston. Read on to learn about Inscribe’s journey, where they’re headed, and why they chose LearnLaunch.

*Written by Katy Kappler, Co-Founder & CEO of InScribe

What traction do you have so far?

InScribe has been adopted by 15 organizations across the United States including Arizona State University, Indiana University, Pearson, and Wiley Education Services.

Since 2017, we’ve helped more than 70k individuals find answers to their questions.

InScribe has helped improve student completion rates 20% while decreasing associated support costs by 40%.

What is the story and inspiration behind starting InScribe?

Our founders were early employees of eCollege – the LMS of choice for many fully online programs in the late ’90s and early 2000s. This work put us at the forefront of digital learning – and we believe strongly in the power of technology to help democratize access to knowledge and to improve affordability for post-secondary learners. At the same time, we saw first hand the challenges online students face connecting with their programs and peers, and how institutions struggle to extend critical support services to these “non-traditional” learners. This experience inspired us to create a system that could connect students – at any time and from anywhere – for meaningful conversations that would have a truly positive impact on their ability to succeed in school.

What is the unmet market need or challenge that InScribe is addressing?

Students depend on expert advice to succeed – from advisors, educators, tutors, and peers. However, accessing support today is inefficient and complicated. It relies on overcrowded inboxes, complicated websites, and hard to schedule meetings. Students end up waiting hours or days for help, and experts find themselves answering the same question over and over. Institutions can’t keep up, and they don’t have the budget to hire more experts to fill the gap.

How does your company solve the proposed problem?

InScribe offers institutions a new model for student support – helping increase the efficiency and effectiveness of support, without the need to hire additional resources.

InScribe works by creating communities of students and experts within an institution. These communities integrate alongside existing content and curriculum, so they are easily accessible where students are already learning. Now, when a student has a question, they turn to their InScribe community for help. Experts and peers can answer, and these highly valuable interactions are tagged and saved in a searchable repository so each generation of students benefits from the conversations that came before.

InScribe’s Q&A communities are supported by a layer of artificial intelligence that monitors conversations and proactively escalates topics and individuals that are in need of more direct, one on one intervention. Ultimately, students get access to answers quickly, and experts save precious time for those learners that need the most.

Why are you the team to solve the problem?

Our combined leadership team has more than 100 years of experience working in the education and technology fields. We were at the forefront of the online education movement and are inspired by the opportunities and challenges institutions face in an increasingly digitally-based learning environment. Our reputations and experience allow us to be deeply connected into institutions and technology partners who are driving innovation and are eager to demonstrate a meaningful digital delivery model for students and educators.

Why are you participating in the LearnLaunch Accelerator? Why did you choose this program?

We’ve been connected to the LearnLaunch community for many years (albeit from a distance). We have been continually impressed by the leadership of the LearnLaunch organization and its commitment to help grow companies in this space. We also appreciate that selling into the education market presents unique challenges and opportunities. We love the idea of being mentored and supported by a team with deep knowledge, experience, and connections in this complex industry!