Grade the process,
not just the product.
PowerNotes gives educators unparalleled visibility into how students research and write — and gives students the structure to do it well. From the first highlight to the final submission.
Integrates with your LMS
Every kind of educator. Every level of research.
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Higher education
College and university faculty
PowerNotes gives you visibility into how students are actually doing their research — not just what they turn in. Grade the process, not just the product, and assign with confidence that the work is genuinely theirs.
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Formative assessment built in See student progress at every stage — sources collected, annotations made, outline developed — before the final paper lands in your inbox.
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Academic rigor and integrity, demonstrated Every source, highlight, and note is timestamped. Students show their thinking — you don't have to guess at it.
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Works with Canvas, Moodle, and D2L No new platforms to manage. PowerNotes fits the workflow you already use.
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K–12
Middle school, high school, IB programs
Build the research habits students will carry through college and beyond — not just the skills to complete this assignment. PowerNotes teaches the process while students do the work, making the thinking visible at every step.
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Research skills that transfer Students learn to evaluate sources, organize evidence, and build arguments — skills that outlast any single assignment.
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IB Extended Essay and IA ready Structured annotation, source organization, and outline tools built for exactly the kind of sustained research IB requires.
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AI literacy from the start Students learn to use AI as a research tool grounded in real sources — not a shortcut that sidesteps thinking.
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Law schools
Legal research and writing courses
Give 1L and 2L students a structured workspace for the citation-heavy, argument-driven research that legal writing demands. Every case, statute, and annotation organized — and traceable back to its source.
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Formative assessment for legal writing Now a Bar Association requirement — PowerNotes makes it easy to implement, with visible progress at every stage of a memo or brief.
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ProQuest Congressional Database integrated Students annotate and organize directly from ProQuest — no copy-paste, no lost citations.
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Argument integrity, not just source access Students build from evidence they can trace — so the brief holds up, not just the Westlaw tab.
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Librarians & library directors
Academic libraries and resource centers
Students have the databases. They're just not using them. PowerNotes puts your licensed content — JSTOR, ProQuest, and more — directly inside the research workspace students already work in, so discovery happens where the work happens.
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Prove the value of your subscriptions Track which licensed sources students actually annotate and cite — not just what they click. Real data for your next renewal conversation.
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One login, every database Library proxy SSO means students access licensed content without friction — no VPN prompts, no separate portals.
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Stay central to the research process When PowerNotes is the workspace, your databases are the default source of credible content — not an afterthought.
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Give students a process.
See their thinking, not just their output.
Most assessment tools tell you what a student produced. PowerNotes shows you how they got there — through every loop, revision, and breakthrough along the way.
thesis
sources
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annotate
research
outline
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draft
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tracking
& highlights
view
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progress
tracked
Three things every educator needs.
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A framework that improves student work
Students who use PowerNotes build their research before they write. That means by the time they open a blank document, they have an organized outline, attached citations, and a clear argument. Less deciphering organizational chaos for you. More time on the substance of what they wrote.
Structured outline: content automatically organized as students research — no separate setup requiredBetter submissions: spend more time on meaningful assessment and less time reconstructing what students were trying to sayWorks everywhere: across web pages, PDFs, academic databases, and library resourcesPosition Paper OutlineLater School Start Times — PSYC 340ExportI. Introduction3 sourcesII. The Sleep Science7 sourcesIII. Academic Outcomes5 sourcesIV. Implementation Models4 sourcesV. Conclusion2 sources21 sources 48 annotations Ready to write -
Formative assessment, built into every assignment
PowerNotes gives you a window into student work as it happens — not just the final submission. See where students are struggling and give feedback when it can actually change the outcome, with a timestamped record of every step along the way.
Activity log: timestamped record of every source, highlight, annotation, and note. Share-ready for feedback or integrity review.Project Timer: understand true time-on-task. Spot students who are struggling before the deadline, not after.Real-time feedback: review work in progress, annotate alongside students, and give guidance when it can actually change the outcome.LMS integration: access PowerNotes through Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, or D2L Brightspace — no new login, no separate workflow.Activity LogShared with instructor4h 32m on taskSource saved — Pediatrics, Vol. 141Today, 2:14 PMHighlight added — annotation added to section IIIToday, 2:19 PMInstructor comment — Great source. Can you tie this to your thesis more directly?Today, 3:02 PMOutline updated — Section IV expanded with 2 new sub-pointsToday, 3:18 PMCanvas · Moodle · Blackboard · D2L Brightspace -
Academic rigor and integrity you can demonstrate, not just claim
PowerNotes doesn't detect AI — it documents the learning process, which is more useful, more defensible, and fairer to every student. Detection tools get it wrong, especially for students writing in their second language. PowerNotes builds evidence of genuine engagement instead.
Insight™ compares a student's research process to their final submission and generates an evidence-based score. A low score flags a project for review. A high score is evidence of genuine engagement. Both are grounded in data, not suspicion.
Full research history: view every source, highlight, and annotation behind any submissionAI context: understand how AI was used — and in what context — not just whether it appearedFair to every student: process documentation protects students from false flags — especially those writing in a second languageAccountability by design: students who know their process is visible are less likely to shortcut itInsight™ is available on the Institutional plan. See pricing →
Insight™Genuine engagementResearch depth HighCitation diversity ExcellentAnnotation quality StrongAI usage Contextual
No more clumsy bibliographies.
As students capture content, PowerNotes automatically tracks source information and attaches it to every highlight and note. With a few clicks, that source information becomes a formatted citation.
Carskadon, M. A. (2011). Sleep in adolescents: The perfect storm. Pediatric Clinics of North America, 58(3), 637–647.
Hafner, M., Stepanek, M., & Troxel, W. M. (2017). Later school start times in the US: An economic analysis. RAND Corporation.
Owens, J. A., Belon, K., & Moss, P. (2010). Impact of delaying school start time on adolescent sleep. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 164(7), 608–614.
Make your library
impossible to ignore.
When students search the web, PowerNotes can surface your library's database results alongside Google — in the same interface, at the same moment. No context switching. No separate login. No "I didn't know we had that database."
Library integrations available on the Institutional plan. Talk to our team →
When students organize their research, AI actually works.
PowerNotes doesn't restrict AI — it structures the environment in which students use it. Students can connect their PowerNotes workspace to Claude and ChatGPT, grounding every AI conversation in their own annotated sources. The result is AI-assisted work that's traceable, contextual, and genuinely theirs.
This is what responsible AI integration looks like in practice — not a policy, not a detector, but a documented workflow.
Shape research skills that outlast the assignment
PowerNotes builds the research skills students will use for the rest of their academic and professional lives.
to PhD.
What other educators are saying.
"Part of the worry about how students might use a tool like ChatGPT is rooted in an apparently pervasive belief that students would much rather cheat than do the work. I still believe students want to learn, but this means giving them something worth doing."
"If you can create an atmosphere where students are invested in learning, they are not going to reach for a workaround. They are not going to plagiarize. They are not going to copy, they are not going to dodge the work. But the work has to be worth doing on some level, beyond getting the grade."
"While AI may be able to provide quick and easy answers to questions, it does not build critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which are essential for academic and lifelong success."
"Navigating a new world with ChatGPT may be challenging in some ways, but it also may provide faculty with opportunities to make their classrooms more inclusive and further improve student writing. If we view ChatGPT as a tool, rather than a threat, maybe (just maybe) a future world with ChatGPT will be a world with more 'good' writers."
"Educators would do well to find a way not only to live with the technology but also to incorporate it into our pedagogies. Training students to become good critical readers and effective editors is an ambitious goal, one that will require a major shift for many of us, but it also is a challenge we would do well to embrace sooner rather than later."
See PowerNotes
in a real classroom.
Book a free demo and we'll walk you through how educators are using PowerNotes to improve research quality, support academic integrity, and integrate AI responsibly.
Book a demo — it's freeAlready at a partner institution? Log in with your school credentials →