Frequently Asked Questions
Straightforward answers about what CL Learning Labs is, how it works, and why it exists.
What is CL Learning Labs?
CL Learning Labs builds Coach, a family of tools for teaching and learning. Coach for Writing brings student writing, feedback, and revision together. Coach for APs offers course-specific practice. In both, students do the thinking and teachers retain judgment.
How is this different from students just using ChatGPT?
Coach works within the assignment and the support a teacher permits. It can ask a useful question or help a student review a draft, but it does not insert generated prose into the student's writing. Teachers can see submitted work, feedback, revisions, and the process records available for that assignment.
Is this trying to ban AI?
No. The answer is not to ban AI or to pretend it does not exist. The answer is to create learning environments where AI is used within boundaries that protect student thinking. Teachers choose whether AI support is available for an assignment. Students choose when to use the permitted coaching. An assignment can also run without AI help.
How does this help teachers?
Read student writing, leave comments, continue a conversation, and give a grade in one workspace. Optional AI estimates and feedback ideas can support your review; you decide the grade and write the feedback students receive. Revisions and recorded writing history add context. Teachers use that evidence to decide what to discuss or teach next.
How does this help students?
Students have a clear place to find an assignment, write, read teacher feedback, and revise. Teachers can make writing tools available, including checklists, spelling and grammar support, and dictation where supported. Coach can offer questions about the student's own work. The ideas and writing remain the student's responsibility.
Who is Coach for?
Coach for Writing is teacher-led and designed for grades 6–12 and college. It supports literary analysis, reflections, stories, poetry, and other classroom writing. Teachers bring their own prompts and criteria.
Coach for APs includes:
- Coach for AP World History
- Coach for AP U.S. History
- Coach for AP U.S. Government and Politics
- Coach for AP Statistics
- Coach for AP English Language and Composition
Practice and tools vary by course. You can explore our AP coaches before creating an account. The tour is a read-only demonstration with illustrative records, not a live classroom. It contains no real student information.
Teachers can also start a 30-day free trial and use the classroom workspace with their students. That includes classes, assignments, Coach, and review tools. No card is required. There is no automatic charge.
Can Coach tell me whether a student used AI?
Coach gives you context, not a cheating verdict. Where the writing process was recorded, you can inspect pasted text and replay how the draft developed. Pasting may have a perfectly reasonable explanation, and typing is not proof of authorship. These records help you decide what to ask a student.
Does correctness alone show understanding?
No. One recorded right answer is limited evidence. CL Learning Labs preserves selected attempts, explanations, meaningful revisions, and scores from its workflows. Teachers decide what those records warrant examining next; the records are not a verdict about understanding, effort, intent, or ability.
Who is building this?
CL Learning Labs was created by Mark Cline Lucey after 26 years of teaching in Brooklyn and Vermont. He built it from questions that arose in his classrooms. Read Mark's story.
Can I contact you or learn more?
Yes. Reach out at support@cllearninglabs.com. You can also explore the Coach Engine and Philosophy pages for a deeper look at the platform and the ideas behind it.
Want to see how this works in practice?
Explore a fictional classroom in the Writing or AP tour. No account required.