Features
Everything Qalami does
Qalami marks handwritten writing against your rubric and leaves every decision to you. Around that are the tools for getting papers in, reporting back to pupils and families, and working as a school.
Marking
Handwritten essays in Arabic or English, marked against your rubric. Nothing counts until you approve it.
Your rubric
Upload a rubric as a Word file, a PDF or a photo and the criteria are filled in for you, or start from a template. You can change it later, and marks made before the change are kept.
A rubric from your task
Write the task and Qalami drafts a rubric for it, once per assignment. Change it as you like before you mark.
The reason for every score
Each score comes with a quote from the pupil's writing. Confidence is lower where the handwriting was hard to read, so you know which papers to check first.
You approve every mark
Change any score before it counts. Changes are logged, and the rubric check shows when you keep moving one criterion the same way.
Feedback in your words
Click any sentence the AI drafted to rewrite it where it stands, or remove a point, before the student sees it. Quotes from the student's work stay as written. The AI's wording is kept, so you can put it back.
Marking that carries on
Score a whole class and close the page or lock your phone. Three papers are marked at a time, and the list fills in as they finish.
Mark overnight
Leave a pile of papers to be marked while you are away. Most are done within a few hours, and you get an email when they are.
Copied work flagged
When two papers in an assignment share much of their wording, both are flagged with a link to the other, so you can check them before approving.
How strictly to mark
Choose lenient, standard or strict marking for each assignment.
Anonymous marking
Hide pupils' names until you approve their paper.
Your grade scale
Show marks as a percentage, A to F, IB 1 to 7, the Kuwait Ministry of Education bands, or a scale you set.
Your own comments
Add a comment to any paper, and keep the ones you use often in a comment bank.
Review from the keyboard
Accept a score, adjust it and open the next paper without reaching for the mouse.
Quick mark
Mark a paper straight away and file it under a class afterwards.
Getting papers in
Upload a pile of scans, use your phone, or let pupils send their own work.
Scans, photos and files
Upload photos, PDFs and Word files, several pages per pupil and in any order. Photos named page1, page2 or Sophia1, Sophia2 and so on are joined into one paper.
From Google Drive or OneDrive
Choose a rubric or pupils' work straight from Google Drive or OneDrive, without downloading it first. Google Docs come in as Word files.
Upload from your phone
Scan the QR code on the assignment page and photograph the papers with your phone. They appear on your computer as they arrive.
Cover sheets
Print a cover sheet with a QR code for each pupil. Upload the whole class as one file and each paper is filed under the right name.
One scan for the whole class
Scan a class set as one file and say how many pages each paper has, or use cover sheets. Files named after pupils are matched to them.
Student upload links
Share a link or QR code and pupils upload their own work. Each pupil can send once, and a name that is not on your class list waits for you to add it.
Class lists
Paste names, import an Excel or CSV file, or send pupils a link to type their own names.
Reports
See where a class stands and what to teach next.
Class report
Every pupil against every criterion in one table, with the spread of marks and the criteria worth teaching again.
A sample class report
Before marking your own class, see a class report for an invented class of twelve: the spread of marks, what each criterion shows, the heatmap and the groups.
Support groups
Pupils grouped by the criterion they most need to work on.
Whole-class feedback sheet
One page of common strengths and mistakes to go through with the class, with no names or marks on it.
Progress over time
Each pupil's marks across the term, a practice list of their repeated mistakes, and whether they met their last target.
First and second drafts
Mark a redraft as the second draft of an earlier assignment and see what changed.
Other classes
Classes that did the same task on the same rubric, side by side.
Missing work
Set a due date and see who has not handed in. Late work can be flagged.
Pupils and families
Feedback pupils can act on, and reports families can read.
Reports for families
Send a family a link to their child's report, in English or Arabic. The link stops working after 90 days.
Family links for a whole class
Make a link for every approved report in one press, then send each on WhatsApp or copy the whole list.
Share on WhatsApp
Send a family's report link or your class's upload link straight to WhatsApp.
Print every report
Print the whole class's reports at once, each with a QR code to its family link if you want one.
Parent-evening sheets
A page for each pupil to take to parents' evening.
Portfolio
All of a pupil's reports in one printout.
Success-criteria checklist
The rubric as a checklist pupils tick before they hand in.
Reflection slips
A slip for each pupil with their strength and their target, to cut out and hand back.
End-of-term comments
Drafts of report-card comments built from each pupil's marks, for you to edit.
For departments and schools
Share the work, and check that marking is consistent.
School library
Share rubrics and comments with colleagues in your school.
Moderation
The school admin checks a sample of each teacher's approved marks.
Second marking
A colleague marks a sample of your papers without seeing your marks, and you compare the two.
Exemplar bank
Share passages from approved work as examples, without the pupil's name.
Usage report
Pages marked and hours saved, for each teacher and each month.
A fair share for each teacher
The school's admin can set how many pages each teacher may use in a month, so one teacher cannot use up the pages the others share.
Hand over the admin role
The school's admin can pass the role to a colleague, for example a head of department, or before leaving.
Private notes and support log
Notes on a pupil that only you see, and a record of the extra help you have given.
Your school's teachers
See who teaches in your school and how to reach them, each with the picture they chose.
Staying organized
Know what is waiting and when it is due.
Needs you
Your dashboard lists papers to review, papers not yet marked and papers without a name.
Search and calendar
Find any class, assignment or pupil, and see assignments by due date.
Terms and old classes
Set your school's terms, archive last year's classes and move pupils between classes.
Email, if you want it
An email when a batch of papers is marked, and a summary at the start of each week. Both are off until you turn them on.
A guided tour
A short walkthrough of your first class and assignment, which you can skip.
Arabic and English
The whole site works in Arabic and in English.
Your data
Take everything with you, and know when it is deleted.
Export everything
Download a class, an assignment or a pupil as a ZIP file.
Marks for your gradebook
Approved marks as a file for PowerSchool, Excel or any spreadsheet.
Kept in Frankfurt
Pupils' work and marks are stored in Frankfurt, Germany.
Deleted on a schedule
Photos of pupils' work are deleted 90 days after you approve the paper. Marks, feedback and reports are deleted 3 years after the assignment was made.