Goblins
Goblins is a math tool that uses AI to give students one-on-one support as they work through problems. Students solve problems by talking, drawing, or typing, and the AI follows their work, asks them to explain their thinking, and gives a hint when they get stuck rather than giving the answer. Teachers can see how each student is thinking and where the class is making common mistakes.
What it looks like in action
What the students do:
Students independently work through math problems by typing, speaking, or drawing their work on an interactive whiteboard—on both non-touch and touch devices, like phones and tablets—where they can write directly over the problem. As they work, students can ask the AI for help in plain language—for a hint, a next step, or a reminder of a formula—and get a response in the moment. When the AI flags an error or asks them to explain a step, students walk through their reasoning. When they enter a final answer without showing their steps, they're asked to explain how they got there before moving on. Students can ask for help in a language other than English and have the AI work with them in their home language.
What the AI does:
The AI presents the teacher-assigned problems and follows each student's work as they type, speak, or draw it. When a student makes a mistake, it works backward from their steps to locate the error and prompts them with a question or surfaces a hint. If a student is stuck, it gets students to show their thinking and infers what they’re struggling with. The AI asks students to explain their reasoning, builds a short mini-lesson when a student has a deeper gap, and talks with them through an on-screen avatar—a preset character, or one built in their teacher's likeness from a photo and a short voice recording. Feedback is available in 40+ languages to support multilingual learners. The AI also generates information for the teacher: transcripts and replays of student work, error analysis for individuals and the class, and alerts when a student is struggling.
What the teacher does:
Teachers assign math problems, pulling from a bank of standards-aligned problems, building their own, or uploading problems made elsewhere. They determine how many problems students are expected to complete and the timeline, with assignments running from a handful of problems to a few hundred. From there, teachers can build different assignments for different students or groups in the same class, pulling in below- or above-grade problems on what students specifically need—review where students have gaps, extensions where they're ready. They can review the teacher dashboard to see where students are, plan reteaching, and decide who needs a check-in.
What the leaders do:
School and system leaders decide where/how it is used (e.g., in intervention blocks or in core instruction). Leaders can monitor completion data and student progress through the teacher dashboard.
Reach
100,000
Students
with paid accounts
—
Teachers
—
Schools
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School systems
Use
Recommended use
Ten problems/week
Actual use
TBD—pending data
Product dimensions
Subject
Math
Grade span
5–12
Curriculum alignment
Goblins has content support for Illustrative Math and Open Up Resources. For other curricula, content is tagged to state standards in a problem bank, and teachers also build or upload their own problems; the teacher supplies the curriculum connection.
Design scope
Specific instructional job
The way AI interacts with students
- Both students and AI asks questions
- Rubric-scored or written feedback (beyond right/wrong)
- AI gives feedback directly to students
Teacher guidance
Offers a range of uses (no specific teacher nudges)
Social vs. solo use
Solo by default — primarily independent, small groups possible
Teacher override
Teacher can override the AI scoring
Product adoption
Both—teacher-adopted and system-adopted
Dashboard scope
Teacher and leader dashboards available
Dosage recommendations
Provides dosage recommendations
Users' take on wins and limitations
There are clear trends in what users (i.e., teachers, students, instructional leaders) see as the wins and limitations of each product. For each trend below, we've included one illustrative quote from our user interviews.
Wins
Students work problems out by hand, drawing and writing their steps on the screen, while the AI responds in the moment. This gives students support while they are still thinking, rather than only after they submit an answer, and keeps the focus on their mathematical reasoning rather than just getting to the correct response.
"I love that it's allowing students to have that interaction with the AI while they’re mapping out their thought process and doing the math. The focus is on their thinking"
— Teacher, 8th Grade Math
Goblins gives teachers flexibility to build and tailor assignments based on what students or groups need. Teachers can weave in prior-grade skills and spiral review as part of current work, giving students targeted practice without publicly calling attention to unfinished learning.
"I can also do drop downs from 4th-grade standards, 5th-grade standards, 6th-grade standards and incorporate…spiral review seamlessly. Without having to sit in front of all my students and be, like, ‘listen, none of you know how to use integer operations.’"
— Teacher, 8th Grade Math
Goblins can interact with students in their home language, giving multilingual students a level of access and comfort that teachers may not be able to provide individually at the moment.
"One of the options in the software is having it talk to students in their language. I see them get so much more invested because it feels safe and comfortable for them. And that's not something that teachers can individually differentiate for them.”
— AP, Curriculum & Instruction
Limitations
Goblins has multiple modes (e.g., Infinite mode and Assignment mode) which allows teachers to vary and customize assignments, but not all modes adjust the problems themselves to match each student as they progress through the problems. As a result, some students may lose buy-in when the work feels too easy, too hard, or mismatched to their level.
"It [the teacher-assigned mode] is not responsive to students. You lose their buy-in because they're like, this problem's below me. This one's too above me."
— Teacher, 8th Grade Math
Goblins can sit alongside instruction as a separate activity rather than being fully woven into how teachers plan, teach, and respond to student thinking.
“Goblins still feels somewhat separate from day-to-day teacher practice and it’s not tied to the core instruction. There may be student gains after using Goblins, but it’s hard to tell whether those gains come from the product design, the way teachers are using it, or simply increased practice opportunities.”
— AP, Curriculum & Instruction
Goblins can redirect and flag disengagement, but teachers still need to monitor whether students are productively doing the work.
"Some of my students opt out. They found it more entertaining to, like, argue with AI than actually do [the work]... I have two students that just wanted to get out of the work so bad that they'd rather pick a fight with it."
— Teacher, 8th Grade Math
Our instructional take
Instructional wins
- Goblins allows students to demonstrate their thinking and responds to that thinking with ease and speed. When students engage with it productively, it can meaningfully increase the volume of practice and feedback they get on their math thinking.
- The flexibility of the product—with uses across core instruction, homework, intervention block uses—allows Goblins to support a range of gaps or needs in a math program.
Instructional limitations
- Some students dislike either the solo set up or the interaction quality and tone, which can lead to uneven engagement.
- Though Goblins has some curriculum partnerships, there are many ways it can pull out of the core curriculum and become a disconnected instructional element, leading students to experience disconnected math learning (i.e., not using the same language or schema for instruction as they experience in their core math learning).
- Goblins is used in a broad range of ways. They have introduced some nudges to help teachers know what they can do while students are using Goblins, but these features are new and not yet part of a clear implementation model, which may lead to a broad range of outcomes.
Implementation considerations
- Goblins shares the standard school-based implementation considerations: scheduling (within the class schedule and the scope and sequence for instruction), teacher and leader training, tech set up, and expectations for use.
- Goblins is so flexible that leaders need to be clear about where and how Goblins fits into the instructional program and what parts of the curriculum Goblins should not replace.
- Because Goblins does not prompt particular teacher moves, leaders will need to define what teachers should do while students use it and make sure all instructional leaders hold that same vision.
- Leaders should consider how Goblins data should be used during PLC and planning time.
- Leaders need to think through guidance about when Goblins should be used in groups or pairs and when it should be used solo.
Evidence of Impact
Available evidence
Published
In an ESSA Tier 2 study funded by Accelerate, the University Maryland, concluded that students in the treatment group achieved 0.237 SD greater growth than control, roughly the difference between an average teacher and a top-tier teacher. They also concluded that there is a “strong positive relationship between Goblins usage level and math achievement, where the strongest effects are observed among the highest-use groups,” 0.31 SD and 0.69 SD for students who solved 10–19 and 20+ problems per week respectively. Hispanic students, ELLs, and students with IEPs all showed additional growth, as much as .191 SD.
From the developer
From
Goblins
The following was written by the team at Goblins and has been edited for clarity and tone by Instruction Partners.
Goblins is increasingly helping teachers use their class time with even more leverage via real-time insights. These will let teachers easily form small groups and intervene with individual students on-the-fly while other students are engaged in learning. Insights will also help after class, making it easier for teachers to track student and class-level misconceptions and then take the best next instructional actions more effortlessly than ever.
Goblins is also investing in administrator-facing tools that help school systems track student ability, notice their biggest weaknesses and opportunities, and intervene, as well as project outcomes on state exams and see exactly how Goblins is helping their students reach those outcomes.
Product website: https://goblinsapp.com/
Hear from the developer
Instruction Partners' CEO Emily Freitag spoke with Sawyer Altman, from Goblins to understand what problems they're trying to solve, how the tool works, and what they're still figuring out.