“Show your work” is an instruction known to just about anyone who has gone to school.
With generative AI now capable of producing entire assignments, universities have good reason to revisit that old classroom principle. Asking students to explain their reasoning can help instructors establish what they’ve actually learned, but in a large university class, that’s easier said than done.
Suppose a university professor wanted to sit down with each of their 75 students and ask them a few questions about their latest assignment. If they were to dedicate 15 minutes per student, the exercise would take close to 20 hours, before accounting for preparation, scheduling, or grading. Melissa Morgan, co-founder and CEO of Toronto-based EdTech startup Coraltalk, believes technology could make these kinds of assessments achievable on a much larger scale.
“A detector estimates whether text may have been produced by AI,” Morgan said. “It cannot tell a professor whether the student understands the argument, could explain a decision, or would know what to do if the facts changed.”
Coraltalk is using conversational AI to bring oral examinations into the digital age. Instructors provide the platform with course materials, assignments, and grading criteria, which the software uses to question students about their work. As students respond, the AI asks follow-up questions to probe their understanding.
A new take on an old-school approach
Consider a business student who has submitted a class assignment recommending that a company expand into a new market. Coraltalk’s platform would ask the student to explain their recommendation and identify its underlying assumptions before introducing a new constraint to see how they respond.
Once the assessment is complete, instructors can review the conversation in video form, as well as the transcript and feedback aligned with their rubric. Importantly, the instructor retains the final say over grades. Coraltalk’s role is to handle the labour-intensive part of the assessment and make individualized questioning practical for professors who would otherwise have to conduct dozens of interviews themselves.
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Smita Bakshi, an investor in Coraltalk, said she took oral exams known as “vivas” during her university days. “That was possible with a class of 50, but is not possible today without the use of a technology like Coraltalk,” Bakshi said.
There are obvious technical complications that come with putting an AI system in charge of questioning students, particularly when the same technology has a well-documented tendency to hallucinate or misinterpret information. Oral exams can also disadvantage students whose language proficiency, confidence, or communication style affects their ability to answer questions aloud.
Coraltalk co-founder and CTO Adhikansh Mittal said developing the platform presented several technical challenges. One was latency, since conversations need to flow naturally between students and the AI system. Another was ensuring the privacy and security of student voice recordings and assessment data, which meant accounting for institutional requirements early in the platform’s development.
Mittal said it was also important to ensure questions draw on an instructor’s course materials, and that faculty can review results and make their own assessments.
“Those safeguards reduce risk, although no AI system can eliminate bias or hallucinations entirely, so ongoing evaluation and human oversight remain essential,” Mittal added.
Finding traction in the classroom
Coraltalk was founded in 2025 but has already found a receptive audience. The company says it has reached users in more than 60 countries without spending money on paid marketing.
Educators associated with institutions including York University and James Madison University are among those who have engaged with the platform. The company has also raised $768,000 CAD ($570,000 USD) in funding, and this year won the Higher Ed Shark Tank competition at New York’s EdTech Week.
Morgan attributed much of the early interest to professors recommending Coraltalk to colleagues, often out of frustration with the limitations of conventional assignments.
“They did not want another tool that accused students of cheating,” Morgan said. “They wanted something practical that worked with the courses they already teach.”
David Kwok is familiar with this need. Alongside his position as Director of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at York University’s YSpace, he teaches at the Schulich School of Business, where AI is changing the way students approach their coursework.
“While AI is a powerful tool, we need to ensure students continue developing the critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills essential to their future careers,” Kwok said, adding that he sees promise in Coraltalk’s focus on students’ ability to explain and apply their knowledge, skills that will remain relevant long after graduation.
International by necessity
Building Coraltalk has required the founders to work across several countries, and not entirely by choice. Morgan is Canadian, while Mittal is based in New Delhi, India. When Mittal was unable to obtain a visa to visit Canada, the duo began looking for other places where they could develop the company. Their travels have taken them to Vietnam, Indonesia, Malta, and Mexico.
“It has made us resourceful and given us an international perspective, although I wish it were easier for Canadian startups to collaborate in person with exceptional global talent,” Morgan added.
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Coraltalk participated in various YSpace programs, including the ELLA Women Accelerator, a program supporting women-led businesses. Through YSpace, the startup gained access to experienced entrepreneurs and support with fundraising and partnerships.
Marlina Ramchandran, ELLA Entrepreneurship Manager at YSpace, said Morgan’s ability to overcome obstacles is characteristic of the adaptability YSpace wants to cultivate among entrepreneurs in the program.
“From shifting primary markets due to visa restrictions to building a business in a completely new language, she has consistently adapted, overcome every barrier, and emerged stronger,” Ramchandran said.
Back to the business of learning
Coraltalk is now looking at how its technology might be incorporated into existing education platforms. The company has developed an integration with Canvas, a widely used learning management system, and is pursuing a broader strategy to embed its technology in third-party platforms.
“Schools and learning platforms already have workflows they rely on,” Mittal said. “An API can bring conversational assessment into those products without asking everyone to adopt a separate system.”
The startup’s longer-term ambitions include applications beyond higher education, including hospitality training, where employees could practice handling difficult customer interactions, and professional development programs focused on communication and decision-making skills. Language education is another potential market the company is watching.
In a 2025 survey by the York University Faculty Association, 60 percent of respondents reported spending more time dealing with academic integrity issues than they had five years earlier. With generative AI further complicating the assessment process, Morgan believes universities need a better way to establish what students actually understand.
“AI is changing what students can produce, and that makes human skills like reasoning, communication, judgment, and adaptability even more important,” Morgan said. “My hope is that we build a future where students are invited to demonstrate those skills, teachers have meaningful evidence of learning, and using AI does not automatically turn every learner into a suspect.”
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Featured image courtesy YSpace.