ClearMark

Streamline your academics with transparent & accessible grading!

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ClearMark

A Scalable Platform for Transparent & Accessible Academic Grading

Inspiration

ClearMark was inspired by two perspectives that often collide in academic environments:

  • As students, we experienced delayed grades, inconsistent marking rationales, and frequent disputes caused by inconsistent or undocumented grading criteria.
  • As TAs and instructors, we found that grading large volumes of submissions is repetitive, overwhelming, and difficult to keep consistent across markers and time.

These experiences revealed a systemic problem rather than an individual one. ClearMark was built to streamline and formalize grading expectations and embed them directly into the evaluation workflow to increase efficiency and consistency.

What It Does

ClearMark is an AI powered, role-based grading platform designed for instructors, teaching assistants and students.

Instructor & TA Features

  • Scan physical or digital assignments and grade them efficiently
  • Use AI-assisted grading aligned with instructor-defined rubrics
  • Secure login and account management
  • Create, view, and manage courses and assignments with due dates
  • Define questions with explicit grading guidelines
  • Add or remove TAs and students with permission control
  • View grades, feedback, and question breakdowns within the app or export as CSV files

AI-Assisted Grading

Assignments are evaluated against structured grading guidelines using generative AI, reducing repetitive marking while keeping instructors in control of final decisions.

Tech Stack

ClearMark was built as a full-stack, cloud-hosted application with scalability and accessibility in mind.

  • Frontend: Swift (iOS), VisionKit
  • Backend: Node.js, Express.js, REST API
  • Database: PostgreSQL (Neon DB)
  • Storage: Cloudflare R2
  • AI: Gemini API
  • Infrastructure: Render
  • Testing & Integration: Postman

Challenges We Ran Into

  • Designing a relational data schema that supports courses, assignments, roles, and grading rubrics without excessive dependencies
  • Managing permissions across students, TAs, and instructors
  • Learning Apple’s iOS UI/UX conventions while maintaining accessibility
  • Integrating AI in a way that enhances consistency without obscuring grading logic

Accomplishments We’re Proud Of

  • Seamless document scanning and submission processing
  • A clean, intuitive, and accessible iOS user experience
  • A scalable full-stack architecture connecting frontend, backend, storage, and AI
  • A design that prioritizes clarity, transparency, and usability

What We Learned

  • Practical UX/UI design principles for Apple iOS apps
  • How to design scalable and robust academic data schemas
  • Responsible integration of generative AI into human-centered workflows

What’s Next for ClearMark

  • A student-facing dashboard to track assignment status and feedback
  • Email notifications when grades are released
  • A web application for cross-platform access

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