Penpoints for private tutors
Discover why and how Penpoints can improve your literacy impact
and increase your revenue.
What is Penpoints?
A “phygital” mobile app combining pen&paper with camera to help children practice spelling and handwriting independently.
(read more)
Use for tutors?
Students using Penpoints between or during tutoring sessions practice more and make better use of tutoring time.
(read more)
How to get started?
Invite parents to enroll their children under your tutor account…
and improve your service and revenue!
(read more)
What is Penpoints?
Penpoints is a “phygital” app letting children practice handwriting of wordlists without adult supervision.
As illustrated in this demo video, each exercise follows those steps:
- WRITE
child writes on paper the words dictated by the app - SNAP
child sends a picture of handwritten words to our AI-teacher - LEARN
child receives results highlighting spelling mistakes or poor letter formation - RE-TRY
child can fix mistakes and retry until reaching perfection
While adults (parents, tutor, teacher, special need educators,…) don’t need to be present, they can review the results and assign exercises.
Why should tutors use Penpoints?
Tutors can use Penpoints to complement their tutoring activities, improving the literacy of their students (hence the satisfaction of the parents) while generating incremental revenue.
Once features are ready, tutors will have the possibility to choose between:
– using Penpoints for free, assigning 1 exercise per week to each student
– earning a 25% “tutor” commission on revenue generated from Premium features or subscriptions paid by the students associated with your tutor profile
(+ a 10% “sponsor” commission on revenue from users who registered from your tutor-sponsored link but did not associate with your tutor profile)
How does it work for a tutor?
Below are the key steps and features…
- create a tutor account
- test the tool
- invite parents
- manage activity
- settings & payouts
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CREATE A TUTOR ACCOUNT
Install the app and select “tutor” before creating your account.
TEST THE TOOL
Before recommending Penpoints, it is recommended to test the tool to understand how the “physical” experience will help your students practice and improve between or during tutoring sessions.
INVITE PARENTS
Once you created and configured your account, you will access a toolkit to invite parents to install the app and enroll their child under your tutor profile.
Beyond parents of your students, you will also have the possibility to promote Penpoints on your own “marketing” channels (Instagram, groups,…) to spread the word and earn an affiliate commission from the users registered thanks to you !
MANAGE ACTIVITY
From your tutor dashboard, you will be able to manage the weekly activity of your students:
– get an overview of weekly assignment for all students
+ automatically notify late students
– access a student page to review recently submitted exercises (to discuss during session if needed) and assign next exercises
+ provide personalized feedback if you want
MANAGE SETTINGS & PAYOUTS
Keep track of earned commissions and adjust your settings and preferences…
Videos
short explainer (40”)
longer demo (3′)
Install the app
Waiting for the tutor-specific features to be introduced, you should already install the current “parent only” app to assess how Penpoints could help you support your students.
Sharing your feedback will help us make the tool more useful for you and your students!
Frequent Questions From Tutors
What is PenPoints?
PenPoints is a “physical” mobile app helping children aged 6 to 12 improve their spelling and handwriting skills. Using age-appropriate lists of words, it combines handwriting with spelling practice and provides instant feedback through Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
Who is PenPoints for?
PenPoints is ideal for children aged 6–12 who are learning to spell and write at any stage of primary school and potentially beyond.
It’s also a helpful tool for parents and educators looking to enhance spelling and handwriting practice at home or in the classroom.
How does PenPoints work?
Children practice spelling words by writing – with a pen, on paper – the lists of words dictated by the app.
After sending a picture of handwritten words to our AI teacher, child receives instant score and feedback to improve both spelling and penmanship.
What kinds of words are included in the app?
PenPoints includes grade-level-appropriate word lists, homophones, sight words, and words categorized by difficulty.
To enrich those pre-defined lists, parents, teachers and tutors can create and share custom lists.
Can children correct their mistakes before getting feedback?
Yes! PenPoints encourages self-correction, allowing children to review their work before receiving AI-generated feedback, fostering metacognition and independent learning.
What devices is PenPoints compatible with?
The app is available on iOS and Android devices and is optimized for both smartphones and tablets.
It will ask for the permission to use the camera to send the picture of handwritten words to our AI teacher.
An Internet connection is necessary to use the app.
How accurate is the OCR technology?
PenPoints uses advanced OCR technology designed to recognize children’s handwriting with high accuracy.
For best results:
- ensure your child crops the photo to only contain handwritten words
- use 1 row per word, on a new sheet of paper (and repeat word on same row when fixing a mistake during re-try)
- encourage your child to “clean” his handwriting before taking the picture (dots on i, no space between letter, no line breaks,…)
Is PenPoints free to use?
For now, Penpoints is totally free to use.
During Q1 2025, we will introduce a Freemium model where parents will have the opportunity to pay to unlock exercises or advanced features.
We will also introduce features for teachers and tutors, we should be free to assign 1 exercise per week.
Your feedback matters!
We need your help to help your children!
Feel free to message us to share bugs, suggestions, encouragements or opportunities 🙂
