Next generation search technology unlocks learning for Bramble users

@bramble_io – A new generation of specialised education search engine that allows students to learn from their learning long after a tuition session is delivered has been launched by Bramble, the live online tuition platform.

Bramble Smart Search is a development of the platform’s existing highly effective search engine and promises users faster and more accurate searches that will help them to quickly find what they are looking for from their own personal learning library.

As well as providing a made-for-education platform for one-to-one and small group tuition, Bramble builds a personal learning library for each learner, using AI to automatically transcribe speech and multimedia resources from every recorded tuition session and then accurately sort those sessions into subjects, topics and sub-topics, giving each learner fingertip access to everything they have ever been taught on the Bramble platform. Smart Search is designed to make this process quicker and more precise.

Bramble’s Chief Technology Officer and co-founder Dan Houldsworth said: “This development forms the backbone of our long-term vision of encouraging thousands of Bramble users to make the most of the platform’s capabilities, not only using it ‘in the moment’ for live tuition sessions but also exploring their personal learning library – and learning from their learning.”

Fast, pinpoint searches of this personal learning library is made possible because Smart Search technology reduces the search ‘signal to noise’ ratio even further, ranking search suggestions according to an analysis of the number of times a concept has been covered by the learner. Once that search term is confirmed, Smart Search’s nested suggestions display concepts that were discussed alongside the search term, helping learners make connections to related concepts and topics.

Dan Houldsworth added: “During the pandemic we’ve seen that live online tuition can be equal to, or even better than, in-person tuition. That’s great, but we think that the experience can offer even more to learners. They should be able to revisit their own learning, whether it is two days or six months later, and find what they are looking for instantly. Smart Search, combined with other Bramble technologies, gives learners the powerful tools they need to make this possible.”

Usage of the Bramble live online tutoring platform surged from 100,000 hours in April 2020 to nearly 1.5 million hours today as tutors, tuition organisations and schools across the world adopted the platform to support learning throughout the pandemic disruption.

The Bramble platform is also used by a number of tuition providers involved in the Government’s National Tutoring Programme.