Software rarely becomes confusing all at once. It happens one useful button at a time.
A platform adds a planner, then a resource library, then an assessment tool, then feedback, video and analytics. Before long, the dashboard contains everything a teacher needs, but finding the right starting point becomes a task of its own.
The latest Koncepts update changes that first screen from a directory of tools into a visual workspace. The launch post on LinkedIn describes it this way:
“Instead of opening to a sea of buttons, you now get an immersive workspace with familiar feature trailers and visual previews.”
That is the dashboard’s “Netflix moment.”
The comparison is not about turning teaching into entertainment. It is about helping teachers understand what is available before they commit to a click.
Why the Koncepts Dashboard Needed to Change
Koncepts supports the PYP, MYP and DP, with different tools and programme language for each one.
The MYP teacher area currently brings together fifteen tools. These include unit and lesson planning, the Class Tutor, Slide Decks, Video Lessons, assessments, rubrics, past papers, feedback and follow-up. The DP workspace lists ten tools built around HL and SL, markschemes, past papers, exams, EE and TOK. The PYP workspace lists eight tools shaped around each school’s Programme of Inquiry, central ideas and lines of inquiry.
That range creates a design challenge. A platform can add genuinely useful capabilities and still become harder to use when every feature receives the same visual weight.
Teachers also have little spare attention for unnecessary software friction. Across OECD education systems, TALIS 2024 found that 52 percent of teachers identified general administrative work as a source of stress. Forty percent reported excessive marking as a source of stress.
A dashboard cannot solve structural workload. It can, however, make the route to a useful tool clearer.
From a Button Grid to a Visual Workspace
The new dashboard uses three layers that serve different kinds of users.
A persistent left navigation gives experienced teachers direct access to tools grouped around planning, teaching and assessment. Someone looking for the Unit Planner or Feedback Writer can move straight to it.
A large feature panel gives one tool enough room to explain its purpose. In the launch image, that feature is Video Lessons. Teachers can see what it is for, begin creating a lesson or watch an explanation without first opening an unfamiliar screen.
Visual workspace cards then introduce other areas of the platform without forcing every feature to compete for attention at the top of the page.
This follows an established usability principle. Nielsen Norman Group advises designers to:
“Minimize the user's memory load by making elements, actions, and options visible.”
Recognition is easier than recall. Teachers should be able to recognise a destination from its label, preview and workflow group instead of remembering where every feature is located.
Clear visual hierarchy also tells the eye where to begin. Research based interface guidance recommends using scale, contrast and grouping to draw attention towards priority tasks. Left side vertical navigation can also make a larger set of options easier to scan in complex desktop applications.
Why Feature Trailers and Visual Previews Help
The Netflix comparison becomes more useful when we consider why streaming platforms use previews.
Netflix described video previews as a way to:
“give our users a deeper understanding of the content we have to offer”
A title tells someone what a feature is called. A preview can show what it does, what the experience looks like and why it may be relevant.
Koncepts applies that principle to product discovery.
The dashboard introduces Video Lessons before the teacher enters the tool. Inside the feature, teachers can search for a relevant YouTube video, add questions at selected timestamps, assign the lesson and review completion and student responses.
This is contextual onboarding. The explanation appears while the teacher is deciding what to use rather than inside a long product tour that must be remembered later.
Usability guidance supports keeping help available at the point of need and revealing additional detail only when the user asks for it.
Organised Around the Way IB Teachers Work
The important change is not only visual. It is the relationship between the tools.
Koncepts organises work around planning, teaching and assessment, then carries context from one stage into the next.
A teacher can build an MYP Unit Plan containing the Statement of Inquiry, global context, key and related concepts, ATL skills, criteria and tasks. Once the unit is active, its context can prefill lessons, assessments and feedback.
The MYP Lesson Planner can turn that same planning context into a handout, worksheet, Slide Deck, Video Lesson or assessment. Teachers do not have to enter the same Statement of Inquiry, concepts and criteria each time.
Assessment follows the same logic. The MYP Assessment Generator brings questions, a rubric and a markscheme into one flow. Teachers can review and edit each part before assigning it. Results can then support criterion based comments through the Feedback Writer.
This is the difference between a dashboard and a collection of shortcuts.
A shortcut opens a tool. A connected workspace preserves the reason the teacher opened it.
Why the Programme Selector Matters
The programme selector is more than a filter because PYP, MYP and DP do not share one planning and assessment model.
The PYP is inquiry based and transdisciplinary. Each school collaboratively develops its Programme of Inquiry, so the Koncepts PYP workspace begins with the school’s own central ideas and lines of inquiry.
The MYP uses subject group objectives and assessment criteria. Its workspace needs to understand criteria A to D, strands, command terms, global contexts and achievement levels. The IB confirms that MYP teachers assess prescribed objectives using the criteria for each subject group and programme year.
The DP combines six subject groups with the DP core and uses both internal and external assessment. Its teaching tools need HL and SL context, paper structures, markschemes, past papers, the Extended Essay and Theory of Knowledge.
An Assessment Generator should therefore behave differently in each programme.
In PYP, assessment is framed around evidence of understanding within an inquiry. In MYP, it must align with criteria and achievement levels. In DP, it needs to account for course standards, command terms, papers and markschemes.
Keeping the selected programme visible helps teachers know which context is currently active.
One Workspace Can Reduce Avoidable Switching
A normal teacher workflow may involve a planner, calendar, slide tool, video platform, question bank, assessment system and feedback record.
Moving repeatedly between them is not only inconvenient. It can interrupt attention.
Task switching research finds that people are usually slower and more error prone immediately after changing tasks. Sophie Leroy’s research on attention residue found that:
“people need to stop thinking about one task in order to fully transition their attention”
One platform cannot remove every interruption from a school day.
It can reduce avoidable switching between disconnected systems. It can also reduce the need to enter the same unit, subject or assessment information several times.
That is the larger value of this dashboard update. It makes the connection between planning, teaching, assessment and follow-up easier to see.
A Better Dashboard Still Needs Teacher Judgement
A more visual home screen does not improve teaching by itself.
The value still depends on subject accuracy, programme alignment, editable outputs and teacher review.
Koncepts keeps those decisions with the educator. PYP resources can be edited, reordered and approved before students see them. MYP lesson phases, activities and timings remain editable. Assessment questions, rubrics and markschemes are drafts that teachers can rewrite or regenerate before assignment.
The dashboard reduces the effort of finding and understanding a tool. It does not remove the professional decision about whether and how that tool should be used.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is new in the Koncepts dashboard?
The home screen now uses a visual workspace with a feature spotlight, previews, workspace cards and persistent left navigation. The aim is to support direct access for experienced users while making less familiar features easier to discover.
Is the dashboard only for MYP teachers?
No. Koncepts provides separate teacher experiences for PYP, MYP and DP. The announcement image shows the MYP view, while the platform supports the wider IB continuum.
What does Video Lessons do?
Teachers can search for a YouTube video, add questions at selected timestamps, assign it to a class and review who watched and how students responded.
Are Koncepts teacher tools free?
Koncepts states that its core toolkit is free for individual IB teachers. School plans are available separately.
A Better Front Door to the IB Workflow
The Koncepts homepage carries a simple line:
“The IB was never about facts, it's about concepts.”
A teacher dashboard should reflect that idea.
It should show how a unit becomes a lesson, how a lesson becomes a resource, how a resource becomes an assessment and how assessment evidence informs the next teaching decision.
The new Koncepts dashboard gives teachers a clearer place to begin, familiar routes when they know what they need and enough context to discover tools they may not have used before.
As the launch post puts it:
“Open. Explore. Teach.”
Explore the Koncepts platform for IB teachers, or go directly to the PYP teacher workspace, MYP teacher workspace or DP teacher workspace.
Sources and Further Reading
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