About 20 schools in New Zealand offer one or more IB programmes; 93% of those students use Revision Village.<\/p>\n
Vaughan said the company was increasingly focused on using artificial intelligence to personalise learning and reduce teachers\u2019 administrative workloads.<\/p>\n
His focus on education technology was shaped by years growing Education Perfect, which reached more than one million users before being sold in a deal valuing the company at up to $455 million.<\/p>\n
Vaughan first connected with one of Education Perfect\u2019s co-founders, Craig Smith, while studying at the University of Otago.<\/p>\n
At the time, the company was known as Language Perfect, and Vaughan was developing his own financial literacy platform.<\/p>\n
He was invited to return and join the company after spending several years working on his own projects overseas.<\/p>\n
He agreed on the condition that he could help expand the platform beyond language learning.<\/p>\n
Vaughan has spent more than a decade building education technology platforms used by students around the world.<\/p>\n
Language Perfect evolved into Education Perfect, broadening its reach into other subjects through gamification, spaced repetition, and a focus on improving the user experience.<\/p>\n
Vaughan attributed the company\u2019s growth to listening closely to students and teachers and making constant improvements.<\/p>\n
Revision Village was acquired by Crimson Education in 2023 and Vaughan was shoulder-tapped by chief executive Jamie Beaton to become Revision Village\u2019s chief executive.<\/p>\n
The platform provides IB students with question banks, practice material, worked solutions and videos from experienced educators and examiners.<\/p>\n
Vaughan said the aim was to give students a way to work through the curriculum at their own pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really designed as a bespoke, one-stop sort of solution for an IB student.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company has developed its own AI marking tool, which has graded almost half a million questions and produced tens of thousands of hours of personalised feedback.<\/p>\n
For teachers, the aim is to reduce repetitive marking so they can spend more time supporting students who need extra help.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo teacher entered their profession to primarily deal with the plethora of administrative tasks demanding their time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very, very powerful in terms of closing the loop there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tim Vaughan helped grow Education Perfect before joining Revision Village.<\/p>\n
Vaughan said he was cautious about presenting AI as an uncomplicated win for education, and said it could risk removing too much of the struggle that drives learning.<\/p>\n
\u201cLearning is about kind of wrestling with ideas,\u201d he said. Hedescribed the \u201ccognitive friction\u201d needed to master something.<\/p>\n
The challenge was using AI to support learning rather than simply produce an outcome, he said.<\/p>\n
Vaughan said AI could make personalised education a reality, something the sector has long struggled to deliver at scale.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather than a one-size-fits-all kind of way of learning, it has to be dynamic, it has to be personalised, it has to be at the appropriate level for every single student.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s never actually been possible before.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vaughan said schools would need to rethink how they taught and assessed students as AI became more widespread. <\/p>\n
Banning the technology was unrealistic, he said, particularly as students entered workplaces where AI was increasingly embedded.<\/p>\n
Instead, schools would need clear guidelines around when AI could be used, with oral and practical assessments likely to play a greater role in learning.<\/p>\n
AI helped students build functioning robots during a recent Steam-Ed Tauranga workshop.<\/p>\n