The Melbourne Graduate School of Education had secured a grant to develop a mathematics assessment tool for primary schools. They had the academic research – question selection logic, weighting algorithms – but needed someone to turn that research into something teachers could actually use in classrooms.
The Challenge
The research was strong, but the scope was still evolving. With a fixed budget and fixed timeframe, the project needed clearly defined deliverables upfront rather than an open-ended research exercise.
The challenge was finding the right balance: delivering a Proof of Concept that demonstrated real value while keeping the project within budget, time and scope. Managing expectations and scope was as important as the technical work.
The Solution
Using Design Thinking methodology, intensive workshops with University of Melbourne researchers explored both the academic research and how teachers actually work in classrooms.
The approach combined hands-on development of basic system architecture with specialist developers for more technical elements. The Proof of Concept demonstrated how the system would work across three user levels:
For Students:
- Complete assessments appropriate to their year level
- Clear, age-appropriate interface
For Teachers:
- Administer one-on-one assessments
- View results mapped against curriculum standards
- Access teaching resources aligned with assessment outcomes
- Monitor individual and class progress over time
For School Coordinators:
- Track progress across multiple students and classes
- View aggregated results for strategic planning
The PoC focused on a single subject (mathematics) at one year level, providing a working prototype rather than just a concept document.
Technical Recommendations
The project concluded with a comprehensive Technical Recommendations report covering:
- System architecture and scalability requirements (virtualisation, containerisation)
- Accessibility and inclusive design (dark mode, reduced motion, touch accessibility)
- Identity and access management for school environments
- Privacy and confidentiality requirements for student data
- Data display considerations (including mathematical notation like fractions)
- Production system requirements for scaling across subjects and year levels
The report provided a clear roadmap for full implementation – infrastructure, security, accessibility and data privacy – everything a functional school-based system needs beyond the research logic.
The Outcome
The PoC successfully demonstrated how academic research could translate into a practical classroom tool. The prototype remains available and functional.
The project is pending further development due to funding challenges – a common reality in education sector work where grant funding doesn’t always extend to full implementation.
Despite not proceeding to full rollout, the project achieved its goal: proving the concept worked, providing a clear technical roadmap for future development, and giving education stakeholders something concrete to evaluate when funding becomes available.
Lessons Learned
Managing scope on research-driven projects requires different skills than traditional IT projects. Researchers are exploring and refining ideas; fixed-price contracts need clear deliverables. Finding the balance between supporting the academic vision and maintaining project boundaries was the real challenge here.
The waterfall approach proved right for the constraints. It forced clarity around what the PoC would and wouldn’t include, which kept the project on time and on budget while still delivering something genuinely useful.
Working in the education sector highlighted requirements that aren’t optional: student data privacy, accessibility for diverse learning needs and usability for time-poor teachers are fundamental, not afterthoughts.
