- Not every student requires the same level of support.
- Universities are increasingly aware of the accessibility benefits that AI can provide when used responsibly.
- It is important that AI is not used to ‘do the work’ for students.
- Jamworks offers different levels of note taking and academic support.
- Jamworks can provide full lecture notes or coach students how to take better notes.
AI-powered tools present new and exciting solutions for universities to support students with disabilities. They also raise legitimate concerns.
With headlines about AI writing essays and completing assignments, many educators worry about where to draw the line between empowering support and compromising learning outcomes.
Yet, when implemented thoughtfully, AI-powered tools can transform the educational experience for students with disabilities without undermining academic standards.
Students who are using the technology describe it as “life changing”
– Caroline Newcomb, University of Denver
The Pros and cons of AI in education for accessibility
Universities and disability departments are becoming familiar with AI tools that overcome barriers to learning.
Transcription, summarisation and the generation of personalised study materials can make a huge difference to students. Especially those who struggle with cognitive overload while taking notes in class or organising their study materials.
Indeed, feedback from students with disabilities suggests these tools can be the difference between grade boundaries. Or even between dropping out and staying the course to complete their degree.
- 93% of students surveyed would recommend Jamworks to a friend
- 92% say Jamworks has helped improve their grades
However, educators hold legitimate concerns around the use of AI in Education. General purpose tools like ChatGPT can provide inaccurate responses and even complete assignments for students if not used responsibly.
And there are also fears that students could become reliant on AI systems to ‘do the work’ for them. This could negatively impact their learning and undermine academic integrity.
Maintaining academic integrity with AI tools
The key to maintaining academic integrity is to ensure that any AI tools provided to students are designed with learning in mind. They should aid the learning experience, not complete assignments for the student.
For example: the purpose of ChatGPT is to showcase all the different things that AI can do. It is not equipped with the appropriate scaffolding to support learning, nor the guardrails to prevent plagiarism.
The other important thing to consider is what level of support an individual student requires, as AI enhanced learning tools can provide significantly higher levels of support than were possible in the past.
Students have cried in my office because they are so happy and relieved. Many have said they never imagined something like this would be possible.
– Noah Cooperider, North Central College
This is amazing for students who require extensive support, as it can help them overcome learning challenges in new and inspiring ways.
However, it can be counterproductive to offer such high levels of support to students who would be better off developing their own learning skills.
Therefore it is really important to ensure every student receives the right level of support to aid their individual learning journey.
And this is something we have spent a lot of time working on at Jamworks with our new Enhanced Notes feature, which uses AI to improve the notes written by students in class. Ultimately, coaching students how to become better note takers.
What is Jamworks?
- Jamworks is a note taking and study platform that launched in 2020.
- It was approved by the Disabled Students Allowance (DSA) in 2022.
- Jamworks is provided by around 100 universities:
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- 40+ paying customers
- 60+ ongoing trials
- Jamworks is loved by tens of thousands of students worldwide.
- Enhanced Notes launches January 2025.
Jamworks is an all-in-one note taking toolkit. It records classes, transcribes what was said and then uses AI to make the information easier to understand.
Many universities use Jamworks as a cost-effective and more reliable replacement for peer note takers – as Jamworks’ Key Points feature provides expert lecture notes within five minutes of every class.
For students who write their own notes but need additional support, Jamworks’ Enhanced Notes feature is the perfect accommodation. It coaches students how to take effective notes by using AI to suggest improvements after class. ensuring the appropriate level of accuracy, detail and organisation.
Additionally, Jamworks generates audio highlights, interactive flashcards and AI personal tutors to answer questions about lectures and visual slides.
Jamworks made everything 100000x better. I understand classes and get through assignments so much easier.
– Emily Irwin, University of Denver
What are the different levels of note taking support provided by Jamworks?
When assigning Jamworks licenses to students, disability coordinators can choose between these three levels of note taking support:
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Full note taking support
Perfect for students requiring peer note takers.
Jamworks’ Key Points feature provides full high quality lecture notes within five minutes of the class. -
Enhanced note taking support
Revolutionary method to coach students how to take better notes.
Jamworks’ innovative Enhanced Notes feature improves upon the notes written by students during class, promoting better note taking skills.
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Light note taking support
Assistance for students
Jamworks offers a simple way for students to add timestamped notes to lecture recordings or to mark highlights by simply selecting a button during class.
Prior to Jamworks, typical note taking solutions only offered the kind of light note taking support found in option 3.
It is clear that with the technology available to us in 2025, it is possible to do so much more to support students with their note taking and organisation of study materials.
“Compared to other note taking solutions – Jamworks is amazing. It addresses the majority of the issues that students face.”
– Keri Hayes, Jefferson College
While other note taking providers have started to experiment with some of our secondary AI-powered study features (quizzes, summaries, chat bots), we remain the innovators in the space.
Enhanced Notes is a totally new way of supporting students to overcome barriers to learning. It removes the stress of capturing everything in exquisite detail and empowers a harmonious balance of note taking, active listening and lecture participation.
We are currently in the process of rolling out this feature to a number of US disability departments as well as to a number of universities who are looking to provide it site wide to enable Universal Design for Learning (UDL).
What are the different levels of academic support provided by Jamworks?
In addition to Jamworks’ primary use case as a note taking support accommodation, educators and institutions that provide Jamworks licenses to their students can choose to turn on, or turn off, a number of other features designed for academic success:
JamQuiz
Interactive flashcards
A deck of question and answer flashcards that link back to relevant sections of every recording.
JamAI
Personal tutor
A personal tutor offering a variety of modes to answer questions and help students understand everything from their lectures.
Automatic Highlights
Audio chapters
A playlist of audio chapters with AI summarisation to quickly review important parts of their lectures.
JamVision
Personal tutor for lecture slides
A personal tutor specifically for answering questions about the visual content of lecture slides.
I have really liked using Jamworks. It’s a game changer that I wish I had sooner in my academic journey.
– Devin Lewis, University of Oregon
How does Jamworks maintain academic integrity for students?
Jamworks promotes independent learning while providing revolutionary new ways to support students.
Everything that we offer is designed to improve learning outcomes. Jamworks helps students understand and retain information, without ever completing any kind of essay or assignment.
Accurate & relevant outputs
The lecture transcript is the source of truth for all AI generated study materials. This ensures accuracy and minimises the risk of AI ‘hallucinating’ incorrect responses.
Cannot produce essays or assignments
Unlike other AI tools, Jamworks cannot be used to produce essays or assignments. However, it can be used to answer questions and get explanations about key lecture topics.
Different levels of support
Providers can choose to assign licenses enabling different levels of note taking and academic support tailored to individual student needs.
These guardrails ensure that students using Jamworks can benefit from AI to personalise their learning materials in a safe, responsible and ethical way. All the while, developing effective learning skills with just the right level of support appropriate to their individual needs.
Providing Jamworks to your students
- Jamworks is available to purchase as individual licenses or site wide to support UDL.
- Admin panel enables bulk student onboarding and usage analysis.
- Integrates with popular lecture capture and LMS (Panopto, Canvas, etc.)
- Your data is secure and never used to train any AI models – read more here.
- Enquire about a free trial at your institution.
The future of educational accessibility lies in finding the sweet spot between technological innovation and academic excellence. AI-powered tools like Jamworks provide scaffolding that allows students with disabilities to engage more fully with their education.
By offering flexible levels of support, from providing professional-grade notes to coaching students how to improve their note taking technique, Jamworks ensures that each student receives exactly the level of support they need – no more, no less.
This customised approach, combined with built-in guardrails against academic misconduct, ensures that universities and students can benefit from the power of AI without suffering any of the potential harms.
Get in touch here if you’d like to learn more about providing Jamworks to your students.
