Our Mission at Collinear
Our perspective on AI, collaboration, and the future of teaching. Why we believe technology should amplify educators, never replace them.
Our Background
As teaching assistants at Yale, we know the pressure of juggling endless grading, feedback, and new assignments. The work is repetitive and can take over evenings and weekends. But it's also rewarding—every assignment is a chance to understand our students better and support their growth. Still, the workload can be overwhelming, making it hard to give every student the attention they deserve. That's the challenge we set out to solve with Collinear.
The Big Question: Where Does AI Fit?
AI is changing the world. Teachers everywhere are asking:
"How should I respond? Should I worry, ignore it, or find a way to make it work for me?"
After years of experience and reflection, we've found our answer.
What We've Learned About AI
First, what exactly is AI, and what role should it play in education?
What AI Does Well
AI is amazing at multitasking—it can handle dozens of things at once, while humans must go step by step
It can surprise us with creative ideas and novel approaches
AI treats every student equally—without fatigue, bias, or emotion affecting its analysis
It excels at pattern recognition across large datasets
What AI Can't Do
AI can't handle sensitive, complex situations that require human judgment or empathy
It never makes the final decision—just suggestions for you to review
It cannot understand the full context of a student's situation
It lacks the intuition to adapt teaching methods in real-time
What Humans Do Best
We make the tough decisions, adapt in the moment, and truly understand our students' needs
We bring warmth, empathy, and genuine care to our classrooms
We can read between the lines and understand unspoken struggles
We inspire and motivate in ways that go beyond academic content
But We Have Our Limits
We can only do so much at once—grading, making new assignments, reading feedback all take time
Like everyone, we get tired, and sometimes our judgment can be influenced by bias
We cannot process large amounts of information simultaneously
Our bandwidth for repetitive tasks is limited
Bringing Together the Best of Both Worlds
That's why we built Collinear: your collaborator and teaching partner. We designed Collinear so teachers and AI can work side by side, each doing what they do best.
Grading shouldn't take up your entire weekend.
With Collinear, our AI does what humans can't: it grades dozens of student assignments at the same time, parallelizing the entire process. Instead of grading one by one, you start with a 95% accurate draft for every submission, all at once.
Creating practice shouldn't eat up your evenings.
When students want more practice, teachers can only write one problem at a time. Collinear instantly generates a whole set of fresh, relevant problems in parallel. Your students get the variety and challenge they need, while you reclaim your time.
Understanding your class shouldn't require hours of reading feedback.
Humans read comments one at a time. Collinear reads every comment simultaneously, spotting trends and surfacing insights across your class in seconds. You see the big picture right away, so you can act quickly where it matters most.
Why Not Start from Scratch? A Doctor's Analogy
Some teachers feel that starting from scratch is the only way to truly understand students' work. But think of how doctors operate: they don't begin every diagnosis from zero—they start with test results and reports, focusing their expertise where it counts.
In the same way, Collinear streamlines the grading process by handling routine groundwork. You get a solid first draft for each assignment—review, adjust, and focus on the feedback and insights that matter most for your students.
Starting from a strong foundation lets you spend less time on repetitive work and more time helping each student succeed.
Going Forward
By keeping teachers at the center of every decision, we ensure that AI amplifies, rather than replaces, your unique expertise and care. We believe in a true partnership: a human-in-the-loop system where AI handles the repetitive groundwork, and teachers bring insight, judgment, and empathy. This co-evolution means more time and energy for what matters: empowering every student to succeed.
Our vision at Collinear is to transform grading from a burden into a streamlined, collaborative process where humans and AI work together, each playing to their strengths.
Sincerely,
David Chen
Researcher
Jonathan Fan
Reseacher
Kunwoo Min
Researcher