The starting point: a teacher’s doubt

Sanne, a Communication lecturer, received a message from her institution: “Starting next semester, teachers will provide essay feedback with AI.”

Her first reaction was doubt.
“If AI decides what is ‘good,’ won’t I mostly get predictable, AI-like answers? Won’t my students lose their own voice in the process?”

That concern is understandable. Many AI tools are designed to standardize answers. But Eduface works very differently. We do not take over assessment, but instead help teachers provide better and deeper feedback together with the teacher. Feedback that sparks creativity, instead of suppressing it.

Misconception vs. reality

Misconception
“AI replaces the teacher and forces students into a single mold.”

The reality with Eduface
✅ The teacher always remains responsible. Eduface does not grade and does not take over final evaluation.
✅ Feedback is Socratic: students receive questions that invite reflection and new perspectives.
✅ Feedback is tailored to the course and the teacher’s assessment criteria, not to generic standards.

How Eduface stimulates creativity

Where traditional feedback often stops at “Add a source” or “Make this paragraph shorter”, Eduface asks questions such as:

• “Which unexpected counterargument could sharpen your main thesis?”

• “Can you view this argument from another domain, for example art, sports or technology?”

• “Where does your personal experience clash with the literature, and what does that reveal?”

This way, original ideas emerge and students dare to take more risks in their thinking and writing.

Scientific backing

This is not only our belief, but is also supported by research:

• Suggestive feedback stimulates creativity. In a STEAM education study, students who received suggestion-based feedback, meaning constructive ideas and next steps, produced significantly more creative work than those who only received surface-level corrections (Shen et al., 2021).

• Automated feedback can sustainably strengthen originality. Recent research found that students who received real-time feedback on originality developed more creative ideas, and this effect persisted even after the feedback ended (De Chantal et al., 2024).

👉 This principle lies at the core of Eduface: not generic checklists, but questions and suggestions that challenge students to deepen their thinking and expand their creativity.

Mini-case: from flat to surprising

When Sanne read one of her student’s essays, she immediately thought: solid, but predictable. The topic, hybrid working, was well chosen and the structure was strong. Yet something was missing. The essay stayed stuck in generalities, sources were neatly but narrowly used, and the student’s own voice was hardly audible.

Normally, Sanne’s feedback would have been: “Add more depth” or “Choose a more concrete example.” But she also knew these kinds of comments often remained superficial. The student received instructions, but not the right spark to truly become creative.

This time, she decided to enrich the feedback with Eduface. To her surprise, instead of a list of corrections, she saw Socratic questionsthe kind she herself would have asked:

• “Which sector is radically different from IT? What happens if you examine hybrid working there?”

• “Which assumption are you making implicitly here? Can you make it explicit?”

• “How would you connect your personal experience to this theory?”

The student reworked the essay and came back weeks later with a fully rewritten version. It now contrasted IT with the healthcare sector, integrated the student’s personal experiences with the literature, and concluded with a small proposal for further research.

For Sanne, this was an eye-opener:
“Where I would normally just call for ‘more depth,’ Eduface helped my student discover genuinely new perspectives. The result was not only better supported, but also surprisingly creative. This is exactly the kind of guidance I want for my students.”

What Eduface does not do (and why that protects creativity)

❌ No automatic grading, marks remain with the teacher.
❌ No uniform templates, the tool does not provide ‘correct answers’.
❌ No AI-like final texts, Eduface asks questions, but students always write themselves.