About PunktPilot
From prototype to university application
PunktPilot did not start as a whiteboard product idea, but from a very concrete problem in university teaching.
What first only aimed to simplify my own grading process developed step by step into software that is now used in teaching and continues to be developed together with lecturers and student assistants.
How it started
From 100 submissions to the first prototype.
For almost two years I was a student assistant and math tutor myself. Week after week I had to go through up to 100 submissions PDF by PDF, grade them, and then upload them back to ILIAS.
The actual subject-matter work was only part of the job. Submissions had to be opened one by one, comments added, scores kept separately, and the finished PDFs assigned again correctly.
At some point that led to the thought:
There has to be a more efficient way.
So I started building a first prototype for my own grading routine. Load a ZIP, assign submissions automatically, grade PDFs, and manage scores in one place — at first only to simplify my own workflow.
PunktPilot becomes part of actual grading
Not just for me.
Even the first version did not stay a personal tool for long. Other student assistants on the grading team started using PunktPilot for their submissions.
That was the first time the software was used for what it had been built for: in the middle of real teaching, with real submissions, several graders, and regularly recurring grading rounds.
The small prototype increasingly became a real software project. The interface and workflows were reworked, features were added, and PunktPilot was developed for lasting use.
Further development was also supported by a KickStart founding stipend. Step by step, the original tool is becoming a standalone software product for university teaching.
Feedback becomes features
Developed where PunktPilot is used.
Many PunktPilot features did not come from a theoretical feature list, but directly from feedback during grading.
Reusable comments, automatic score calculation, central comment edits, or new import and export options came from concrete situations that lecturers and student assistants encountered in their daily work.
Meanwhile PunktPilot has also been used and tried at other universities beyond its original setting. Different courses, learning platforms, and grading workflows keep bringing new requirements that feed directly into development.
That approach is meant to stay: PunktPilot is not developed past the grading routine, but out of it.
Moodle
- Reusable comments
- Automatic score tracking
- Bulk-edit comments
- Export for print and LMS
The idea is still the same.
Grading time should go into subject-matter feedback — not into opening files, transferring scores, or switching between programs.
PunktPilot is meant to take exactly that work off lecturers and student assistants.
