Saving 55 Minutes per Hour: How AI Improves Teacher Lessons and Student Learning

At Maryvit Education Center, focusing on innovative technology is a top priority to best equip teachers and prepare students for the future. So, when they looked for an artificial intelligence (AI) tool to bolster teaching and learning, they looked beyond the typical AI tools. Their focus was instead centered on AI technology that they could trust, was easy to use, and gave them control.

Maryvit Education Center operates four K-12 campuses with over 10,000 students in Pattaya, Thailand. As a forward-thinking institution, Maryvit has consistently sought innovative tools to enhance both teaching efficiency and student learning outcomes. One of its latest and most impactful technological adoptions has been PowerSchool PowerBuddy™ for Learning, an AI-powered assistant designed to support teachers and students.

Identifying the need: what goal should AI have?

Teachers at Maryvit Education Center faced increasing demands, such as balancing administrative tasks with lesson and activity planning and learning materials creation. As a result, they had less time to engage more deeply with students individually or as a class. The school needed an intelligent tool to assist teachers in creating high-quality learning materials while ensuring students received ongoing guidance beyond classroom hours.

They also needed an AI tool that integrated within their existing learning management system (LMS), so they wouldn’t have to learn multiple applications and didn’t have to toggle back and forth between screens and systems.

For students, an AI tool could help by providing continuous learning support, especially outside of class hours when teachers are unavailable.

Recognizing these challenges, Maryvit sought a secure, AI-powered solution to streamline teacher workloads while providing students with an intelligent, always-available learning assistant.

Why PowerSchool PowerBuddy?

PowerSchool PowerBuddy stood out as the ideal AI solution for Maryvit Education Center for several reasons:

Seamless integration:

PowerBuddy integrates directly with PowerSchool Schoology LMS, which the school already uses. This eliminates the need for teachers and students to learn a new system or switch between multiple platforms.

Trusted provider:

Maryvit had confidence in PowerSchool as an established provider of educational technology.

Simplified AI implementation:

Unlike general-purpose AI tools, PowerBuddy is built specifically for education, ensuring relevance, security, and ease of use.

Security and stability:

Built on Microsoft Azure OpenAI, PowerBuddy ensures a secure, safe, and stable AI learning environment, providing the right data for students to learn effectively.

“I was hesitant at first about using AI tools like ChatGPT in education,” says Dr. Steven Kitikiatisak, President of Maryvit Education Center. “But when I saw PowerBuddy’s teacher controls and integration within Schoology, I felt much more comfortable bringing AI into our schools.”

He adds, “PowerBuddy is a very powerful tool designed for students as a personalized AI assistant. It is tied into Schoology, so it’s not an add-on and it makes it easy to use. Implementation was simple. It also ensures students stay on track by redirecting them to relevant learning material if they go off course.”

PowerBuddy benefits teachers with more time

One of the most significant benefits of PowerBuddy has been the dramatic reduction in lesson creation time. Previously, teachers spent an average of one hour creating lesson activities and assignments. With PowerBuddy, that time has been cut to approximately five minutes.

“My initial experience with PowerBuddy was one of astonishment,” says Tippayaphorn Sungaid, a 5th-grade English teacher. “When teachers create exercises for children, the process typically takes around an hour. However, utilizing PowerBuddy can reduce this time to approximately five minutes.”

A survey conducted among over 100 teachers at Maryvit Education Center found that 98% of teachers reported significant time savings when using PowerBuddy to create learning materials.

Previously, teachers relied on existing information, internet searches, and additional time-consuming research to create assignments, and activities. But now, with PowerBuddy, they work with PowerBuddy’s prompts directly related to their topics to generate high-quality content aligned more consistently with curriculum standards, ensuring structured and effective lessons.

“It’s really easy for teachers now to make assignments and lessons, and I think the quality of content is better,” says Louis Alfred P. Fontelo, PowerSchool PowerBuddy Support. “When teachers have to search on the internet, they’re finding content that’s not as high quality as what they get with PowerBuddy, so it’s much better now than before.”

PowerBuddy also gives teachers more time for student engagement. With administrative burdens reduced, teachers can dedicate extra time to personalized instruction and student interaction.

Improving students’ access to help when they need it

Beyond benefiting teachers, PowerBuddy has enhanced the learning experience for students at Maryvit Education Center. With an AI-powered chatbot, students benefit from an always-available personalized assistant that supports their individual learning preferences. PowerBuddy helps students find answers to their questions, which gives them access to help whenever and wherever they need it.

“During class, if a student doesn’t understand the lesson, they can ask PowerBuddy later at home, allowing them to learn at their own pace. PowerBuddy provides students with continuous support even when a teacher is not near,” says Fontelo. “They don’t need to browse multiple sources or switch platforms. They can simply ask the chatbot for help.”

PowerBuddy helps improve opportunities for autonomous learning, fostering independence and confidence. Teachers can also use AI insights to see what students are asking, helping identify and address knowledge gaps.

“PowerBuddy enhances the happiness of both teachers and students by allowing children to learn independently, eliminating the wait for teacher explanations. This self-directed learning fosters a sense of pride in their discoveries,” says Sungaid.

The future of AI at Maryvit Education Center

Maryvit Education Center is still in the early stages of fully integrating PowerBuddy across all grade levels and campuses. The leadership team is actively working on increasing adoption by creating training materials and success stories to showcase the tool’s effectiveness.

Looking ahead, Maryvit aims to scale the use of PowerBuddy further, expanding AI-powered learning opportunities to younger students and exploring additional features that can further personalize education.

“AI is the future, and we don’t want anyone, especially our teachers and students, to miss this opportunity,” said Kitikiatisak. “PowerBuddy is helping us bring the future of education into our classrooms today.”

Maryvit Education Center’s experience demonstrates AI’s power to save time and enhance the overall quality of education. By partnering with a trusted, integrated, and secure AI solution like PowerSchool PowerBuddy, Maryvit has positioned itself at the forefront of educational innovation.

On partnering with PowerSchool, Kitikiatisak adds, “With many other products we’ve seen in the past, they offer you a product, and it is what it is. But PowerSchool is different; it is always improving and providing updates and things that benefit teachers and students. That’s why I trust Power School and all its products that we choose.”