Improving student engagement is at the heart of effective teaching, yet meeting the needs of every learner can be challenging. LessonLoop, founded by Nona Ullman, is an AI-powered professional learning platform designed to help teachers capture and respond to student engagement in real time. The platform supports differentiated instruction, mitigates bias, and ensures lessons are inclusive, accessible, and culturally responsive. In this 5 Questions interview, Nona shares her experience developing AI tools that enhance engagement and create affirming classroom experiences for all students.
What is the nature of your work?
I lead LessonLoop, an AI-powered platform that captures student engagement through real-time formative assessments. Our goal is to help teachers understand how students are experiencing learning and provide evidence-based strategies to make instruction more engaging and accessible. The platform uses AI to analyze engagement, generate activities, and support teachers in differentiating lessons for students with diverse learning needs.
Why is this work important?
Engagement is central to learning, but many lessons leave students feeling disconnected or unsupported. LessonLoop is designed to address that. We built tools like a “blind spot checker” to help teachers understand bias, promote diverse perspectives, and create culturally affirming classroom experiences. The platform also helps teachers generate learner profiles and differentiated instruction plans so that every student, regardless of background or ability, can participate fully in every lesson.
What’s been the biggest surprise so far?
One of the biggest surprises has been realizing that we could only add tools to address accessibility and bias mitigation after the AI tools themselves are functional. At first, we focused on generating AI activities, and only after seeing the outputs did we realize we needed to embed our core values into them. I was also surprised by how critical relationships are to engagement. Students learn best when they feel seen, heard, and valued, and our tool supports teachers in facilitating this connection while supporting instruction.
Where do you see your work in five years?
We have learned how to help educators strengthen student engagement, but we also believe that students must be active partners in their own learning. Over the next five years, we want to focus on helping students understand what motivates them and supports their learning, so they can take greater ownership of their progress. For example, if students understand that cognitive struggle, while uncomfortable, is a symptom of learning, they may be less likely to avoid difficult tasks or turn to AI for help. We also hope to scale LessonLoop to bring our tool to more schools, enabling teachers to build stronger relationships with students while creating lessons that meet the needs of every learner.
What else should people know?
AI is a tool to amplify teaching, not replace it. Building tools that reflect values like inclusivity and student-centered engagement requires intentional design, testing, and ongoing refinement. When designed thoughtfully, AI can save teachers time, support more learners, and make classroom experiences more meaningful. But it takes deliberate effort to ensure the technology aligns with real educational values.
