Managing Director of OxfordAQA

“At OxfordAQA, our commitment is simple: to make international exams work better for everyone. These enhancements are a direct response to what schools have told us they need. By releasing results earlier, expanding exam series, and providing greater flexibility for the International EPQ, we are helping schools tailor assessment to their teaching programmes and giving students more opportunities to succeed.”

We are pleased to announce the launch of the first in a series of artificial intelligence (AI) tools, designed to help teachers save time, personalize learning, and navigate some of the biggest challenges faced in the classroom. 

The tool, Plan Assist, has been developed in partnership with leading global edtech provider Avallain, combining our pedagogical expertise with advanced AI technology.

With resource generation at its core, Plan Assist works to help teachers to create custom materials, such as lesson plans, glossaries, flashcards, and much more. When generating questions and answers through Avallain’s technology, it leverages trusted OUP content in the prompts to produce high-quality, curriculum-aligned outputs. By simplifying the planning process, it helps to save time for teachers while delivering results tailored ​​​for​ them and their students. 

Ensuring value through teacher-led testing

The technology that powers Plan Assist has already been recognized in major edtech awards, including BETT and the Learning Technology Awards.

Ahead of launch, we carried out a rigorous research and testing programme involving external subject matter experts, pilot trials with UK and international teachers, and extensive testing across four languages and multiple regions. This ensured the tool is robust, reliable, and provided real value for diverse classrooms, with participating teachers reporting ​that ​the tool provides “a range of resources to support a teacher successfully in the classroom with ideas, content, and activities” and praising “its ability to instantly rewrite the same content for different audiences”.

Teacher voices driving more effective support

To reflect the realities of classroom life, we gathered feedback from our global teacher network to provide insights into the pressures they are currently facing and what they need from digital platforms to work more efficiently.

Across the responses, three challenges were highlighted in particular: 

• not having enough time and feeling over-stretched (74%) 
• mental health and wellbeing (55%) 
• budget restrictions (54%) 

Alongside these pressures, teachers also outlined what an effective digital platform must offer to truly support their work. Teachers said they needed: 

• The ability to download, adapt, and print ready‑made teaching and planning resources (56%) 
• Tools to support front‑of‑class teaching using high‑quality presentations (54%) 
• Functionality to monitor and report on student progress (52%) 
• AI features to help create lesson plans and teaching resources (50%) 

They also emphasized the importance of: 

• Immediate, actionable feedback for learners 
• Auto‑marking and data tracking 
• Exam board or subject specificity 
• Student interactivity and engagement features 

These insights provided a clear picture of the challenges teachers face and the digital capabilities they value most, shaping the focus of our support to ensure all products and services make a real difference.

Fiona Fortes

International Product Director in our Education division

“Teachers everywhere are being asked to do more with less time. By combining OUP’s trusted content with responsible, innovative AI capabilities, we are giving teachers practical tools that make a real difference in the classroom. At OUP, our focus has always been to lead with learning and ensure that technology is there to support teachers. Our key principles remain at the heart of everything we do – creating resources that have real purpose and a human in the loop, while prioritizing quality content and pedagogy and safe, ethical use.

As we continue to innovate, we look for opportunities where technology can deliver meaningful, positive change within education, when developed responsibly and in collaboration with our global teaching community.”

Monika Morawska, COO at Avallain, said: 

“Building on our expertise in digital content creation technology and the rich feedback of the 60,000 highly engaged educators actively using our existing AI toolset TeacherMatic, we are delighted to bring proven, practical, and ethical AI features to more teachers through Plan Assist. Our collaboration with OUP has been one of shared goals and values: putting humans, educational outcomes, and creative, impactful content first.” 

Plan Assist will be available on Kerboodle, our online learning platform which supports teachers to save time and engage students with a range of resources. It will continue rolling out to courses in 2026.

You can find out more about Plan Assist here.

We have been named a finalist for two 2026 EPIC Awards, presented by the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP). 

Oxford Law Pro, our knowledge resource for legal professionals and researchers, has been nominated for consideration in two categories: Hosting Platform Features and Branding.

The Hosting Platform Features category highlights technical innovations that improve how scholarly content is hosted, accessed, and experienced, while the Branding category recognizes outstanding efforts to build and maintain a strong brand identity in scholarly publishing.

About the platform

Launched less that one year ago, Oxford Law Pro brings together more than 9,000 journal articles and over 600 award-winning, peer-reviewed books from our portfolio of authoritative and timely legal analysis, all on our Oxford Academic platform. 

Oxford Law Pro is powered by a conversational AI research assistant, developed with Silverchair, making legal research more efficient without compromising on accuracy. Unlike generic AI search tools, Oxford Law Pro employs retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) frameworks specifically tuned for legal content, ensuring responses are grounded exclusively in OUP’s authoritative materials.

The platform equips legal professionals with tools that match the realities of modern practice, and by reducing time spent on initial source identification, the AI assistant allows them to allocate more time to substantive analysis, strategic thinking, and client service.

The branding

For many years, we have served the academic market with legal research materials, developing a reputation for publishing the highest quality research from globally respected authors. Oxford Law Pro delivers this content in a way that’s designed for legal professionals’ needs. Backed by our research and workshops, a process supported by legal technology expert Jenifer Swallow, we developed product branding and messaging to both reflect our established reputation and resonate with practitioners who may not have encountered OUP before.

Mirkka Jokelainen, Product Portfolio Manager, said: 

“These nominations recognize and reward the combined efforts of colleagues working with Oxford Law Pro over time. It reflects strong execution underpinned by clear direction, a deep understanding of our users and customers, and the ability to carry that insight through to high-quality delivery enriched by OUP expertise at every step.”

The EPIC Awards celebrate teams and individuals in the publishing, information technology, and communications sectors for their significant contributions to scholarly communication through innovation, creativity, and dedication. Winners of the 2026 EPIC Awards will be announced on 28 May. 

You can find out more about Oxford Law Pro here.