From Study App to Enterprise Platform: The Builders Powering Sharpen Advantage

Higher education is undergoing a profound transformation as AI reshapes how students learn, instructors teach, and institutions operate. With much of today’s AI use happening outside of institutional systems, campuses face heightened concerns around risk, workload, and the reliability of academic content. Built as a mobile‑first, vetted study app, McGraw Hill’s Sharpen has quickly expanded into a portfolio to meet these challenges.

Sharpen Advantage extends that foundation into a campuswide, AI-powered academic support solution that uses vetted content, learning intelligence, and real-time insight to help institutions identify at-risk learners early, personalize reinforcement at scale, and support improved outcomes responsibly. Designed by expert teams committed to transparency and academic integrity, it equips instructors, support staff, and administrators with the tools they need to intervene earlier and more effectively.

In this spotlight, we ask Kat Hemsing, Senior Director of Sharpen, and Matthew Swinand, Vice President of Platform for McGraw Hill Higher Education, how Sharpen Advantage is redefining learning and setting a new standard for responsible AI in higher education.

What uniquely separates Sharpen Advantage’s AI approach, and why does it matter for institutions right now?

Kat: Sharpen Advantage stands apart because it’s a purpose‑built, AI system designed to support student learning at scale. Our machine learning engines identify knowledge and engagement gaps, proactively flag students who may be struggling in the course, and recommend targeted study activities to help address gaps in understanding. Sharpen also layers in GenAI capabilities to support students with Socratic-style learning and educators with seamless content personalization.

Students and faculty trust Sharpen because of its curriculum‑aligned content. That trust, combined with transparent guardrails and clear attribution, gives administrators confidence that what they’re offering their students and faculty is both powerful and responsible.  Sharpen Advantage gives institutions the insight they need to intervene early and the power to create and deliver academic support in the format students love most, right on their mobile devices.

How does Sharpen Advantage reflect McGraw Hill’s approach to responsible AI?

Matthew: AI in Sharpen Advantage is built around one principle: technology should support learning, not shortcut it. The platform is designed to help institutions deliver academically aligned support that surfaces learning gaps and enables more effective studying. Data privacy is non-negotiable: campus data is never used to train external models and institutions receive clear disclosures about how AI is used and how data is handled. This transparent, responsible-by-design approach helps to deploy AI confidently and at scale.

How does Sharpen Advantage enhance the teaching and learning experience for instructors and administrators?

Matthew: Sharpen Advantage gives instructors a smarter and more responsible way to support student learning. Instructors curate activities aligned to their courses and deliver them through a mobile-first experience built for how students actually study. Real-time insights surface engagement gaps and early risk indicators, enabling proactive intervention.

At the institutional level, administrators get clear visibility into usage and engagement trends across the student population, supporting earlier intervention and more targeted support—an approach designed to help improve student outcomes over time, including reducing course completion risk as usage scales.

What early feedback or results are you seeing from students and institutions?

Kat: Early feedback has been extremely encouraging. We’re seeing strong performance gains: learners using Sharpen demonstrate higher exam scores, better course grades, and a 76% recommendation rate. Students who interact with our AI-powered Ask Sharpen feature complete twice as many study activities as non-users and choose to engage with vetted Sharpen content four times more than the AI-generated activities, reinforcing how much they rely on academically aligned support. Institutions piloting Sharpen Advantage have appreciated the student performance data and love how easy it is to customize the study experience across courses or cohorts.

Where is Sharpen Advantage headed next?

Kat: We’re continuing to evolve Sharpen Advantage into a unified institutional layer that combines trusted content, longitudinal data, advanced analytics, and instructional workflows to support academic student success. Our roadmap includes expanding our content offerings, strengthening the Creator experience, and enhancing Radar’s insights for more timely, actionable remediation. Our goal is to ensure every student can access trusted, AI-powered learning experiences, no matter their course or starting point.