2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Students at large public universities, who often come from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and with varying levels of academic preparation, frequently struggle to track their coursework amidst other responsibilities. This challenge can lead to students falling behind, resulting in poor performance, course withdrawal, or failure, which in turn can exacerbate existing equity gaps in the classroom. To address this, we use iota, a cloud-based auto grade calculation, grade prediction and communication tool designed to provide students with real-time performance tracking and predictive grade analytics.

iota provides a clear view of each student’s current standing, along with both optimistic and realistic grade forecasts, creating a roadmap to help them achieve their desired course outcomes. This system empowers students by fostering self-awareness and promoting ownership of their learning. Concurrently, iota serves as an essential tool for instructors, enabling them to identify not only at-risk students for timely intervention but also common points of difficulty on specific assessments, thereby informing targeted instructional support. We deployed iota across multiple large lower- and upper-division courses, including programming, computer architecture, data structures, and algorithms, at several U.S. universities. Since its initial development and iterative enhancements over the past two years, iota has been adopted by more than 900 students.

In this paper, we present iota and analyze insights from student performance data, supplemented by students’ feedback that confirms the tool's utility in grade tracking and planning. This study further demonstrates how iota supports instructors in implementing evidence-based interventions and data-driven instructional design. By reducing grading complexity and automating performance analysis, the tool also enables educators to allocate more time to other constructive activities such as pedagogical innovation, mentorship, research, and academic service.