Lesson Robot: an AI Assisted Lesson Planning product

Background

Like most technology nerds, when ChatGPT came out, I could not wait to get my hands dirty and see what I could build with their API.

Having worked in ed tech for a while, I was already familiar with some of the problems teachers run into when using MyStorybook.com. In particular, I was curious if AI could help reduce the number of hours teachers spend on lesson planning, and if they would actually benefit from bouncing ideas off an AI buddy.

After playing with ChatGPT (v3) directly and seeing that it could produce decent ideas for lesson activities and plans, the next question was whether there was defensible demand for a standalone product that wraps this functionality.

The MVP

Having no plans for the weekend, I jumped in and built the the first prototype: an interactive flow that asks teachers what they’re teaching, generates activity ideas and then a full lesson plan, and then enables teachers to refine and then publish the results.

(Midjourney gave me a very fun robot helper mascot too!)

Results

The feedback I got from colleagues and teachers was generally positive, but the proof is in the pudding, so I built out subscription plans and payment processing and put it out into the world.

As a sidekick product to My Storybook, it has been mildly successful, but taking it to the next level would mean spending more time taking the insightful feedback I’ve gotten to tackle bigger problems that teachers typically have: integrating more deeply into their existing systems, pulling curriculum guidelines in directly, and helping them manage and share lesson plans with colleagues in their district.