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Overview
Home to over 53,000 students in Canada’s capital, the Ottawa Catholic School Board (OCSB) spans 90 schools across diverse urban and suburban communities, offering both English and French programming. OCSB leads as a recognized center of innovation, consistently finding new ways to meet the evolving needs of educators and students, while staying grounded in values.
As artificial intelligence rapidly entered classrooms, OCSB didn’t just ask if they should use it – they asked how to do it right. For a district this size, with a wide range of learner needs and multilingual environments, the opportunity was clear: AI could help every student access the curriculum and get the support they needed if implemented thoughtfully.
That’s what led them to Brisk Teaching. Its Brisk Boost feature – designed specifically for student use – stood out for helping teachers personalize instruction and giving students real-time support in a safe, structured environment.
The Opportunity: Prioritize Safe, Humane, and Ethical Use of AI
OCSB saw the rapid rise of AI not as a disruption, but as an opportunity to meet every learner where they are – in ways that respect their individuality, language, and pace.
With a diverse student population and a wide range of needs, AI offered the chance to personalize learning at scale, especially for multilingual learners, students who need extra practice, and those who benefit from more feedback in the moment.
At the same time, teachers and students were already experimenting with AI. OCSB knew the moment called for more than passive adoption. It was a chance to lead with intention.
“We were grappling with the elephant in the room that students and teachers are using AI. How do we humanely and ethically promote the use of this and teach students those skills? What does it mean to have a balanced approach to using technology?”
- Julian Daher, Coordinator of the Learning Technologies Department
OCSB’s AI Guiding Principles, which focus on ethical use, student protection, equity, and transparency, provided a foundation. What they needed next was a tool that could bring those values to life while fitting seamlessly into classroom workflows.
That’s what they found in Brisk.
The Solution: Equipping Teachers and Students for Thoughtful AI Use
OCSB explored a variety of AI tools to support teaching and learning. But when it came to a student-facing tool that aligned with their values, fit into daily workflows, and gained quick traction among teachers and students, Brisk stood out.
“We have a number of tools. But Brisk is the one that we know is embraced more widely."
- Geoff Edwards, Superintendent of the Learning Technologies Department
At the heart of that adoption is Brisk Boost, Brisk’s safe, AI-guided student activity experience. Boost allows teachers to instantly turn existing documents and curriculum into interactive, differentiated chat experiences for students.
This seamless fit into classroom routines helped OCSB bring its AI principles to life in real, everyday practice. Here’s what that looked like in action:
Seamless Rollout at Scale
Brisk fit naturally into the systems OCSB teachers were already using, like Google Workspace. Educators could create personalized, curriculum-aligned learning experiences using materials they already had across Google Docs, Forms, and more. No new platforms and no disruption to existing routines.
“The immediate value with Brisk was that it was an integrated experience in Google Workspace,” shares Julian Daher. “That value was essential in actually scaling this and seeing the benefits of it. The fact that it lays itself on top of the entire Google Suite was a huge selling feature. The ease of use and fact that it was really embedded into a natural and sustainable teacher workflow was just hugely beneficial for our teachers and staff across the system.”
Teachers didn’t need to recreate or reframe lessons. They could use Brisk with what they already had.
“Knowing that the educators were able to create these personalized experiences with curricular content that they already had, and then launching that within the Google environment was a seamless integration. The students were able to just get in and get started on work in an environment that was very natural to them and not something external."
- Julian Daher, Coordinator of the Learning Technologies Department
Just as importantly, Brisk offered the privacy protections and educator control OCSB required. With teacher-defined inputs and built-in safeguards on student interaction, Brisk created a “walled garden” that made responsible AI use not just possible, but scalable.
“Setting parameters on how the AI can function within that walled garden was another big selling feature we didn’t see in other AI tools that Brisk was just really ahead of the game with,” says Daher.
Because Brisk fit naturally into teacher workflows and aligned with OCSB’s Guiding Principles for Artificial Intelligence, the rollout scaled rapidly and authentically. Adoption spread classroom by classroom, driven by ease of use and built-in trust.
Curriculum Fidelity, Teacher Flexibility
With Brisk, OCSB didn’t have to choose between staying true to the Ontario curriculum and giving teachers room to personalize instruction. Brisk Boost allowed educators to start from what they already had – lesson plans, review documents, or curriculum expectations – and turn them into differentiated, AI-supported student activities in just a few clicks.
“When you’re using something like Brisk, you’re controlling the inputs, you’re linking up with true Ontario curriculum, and you’re iterating your lessons and units of study to personalize it to your classroom. It’s just so much better and more efficient than previous methods where maybe you’re buying a lesson or you’re sharing something another colleague might have given you. To give that control and ease of use – that’s where I see the greatest impact on the teacher level."
- Geoff Edwards, Superintendent of the Learning Technologies Department
Teachers echoed that it made adapting materials for different needs more feasible without adding planning time. With full control over content and customization, they could stay creative and responsive to students’ needs while honoring the curriculum.
Equity for Every Student
OCSB’s AI strategy prioritized equity from the start. Brisk Boost became an extension of the teacher’s voice, helping ensure every student could get the feedback and support they needed, regardless of when or where they were working.
“The concept of the 24/7 tutor is a huge equity thing. Not all families can afford tutoring and not all students can stay after school due to family responsibilities. To have a tool like Brisk Boost to help them get 'unstuck'; that's a big impact.”
- Geoff Edwards, Superintendent of the Learning Technologies Department
Access Beyond the Classroom
Teachers noticed students asking for access at home, not just during class, because Brisk Boost helped them better understand complex material and reinforced concepts families might not be able to support.
Ashley Scarcello, an English teacher at St. Francis Xavier High School says, “If students were working on a writing assignment at home, [Brisk] is accessible to them, which is huge, because if they're studying for their exams or if they're finishing an assignment, they don't have to wait to come to class to do this. They open up their Google Docs and Brisk is right there.”
Scarcello’s students also described newfound independence:
“Now that there’s Boost, I don’t have to wait for the teacher. It gives me some samples and helps me," says St. Francis Xavier student, Mustafa Al-Saeedan.
Fellow student Faris Al Rufaye adds, “It actually helps you improve and learn instead of just getting the answers.”
Classmate Connor Crete agrees: “[Boost] can be helpful because it makes you think on your own.”
Feedback That Drives Growth
Jessica McCart, an elementary teacher at St. Catherine School, says, “I am loving that I get to see the kids think critically as they're responding, and Boost is giving them prompts to help get more out of them. I'm able to check in on all of the students and not just one. That's the key for me. It's really difficult to go and sit with each child every day and get that immediate quick feedback on how they're doing. So these quick little Boost Activities are a fabulous way for me to check in on them.”
Grade 6 student Abigail McCarlie shares that Boost helps her get answers to her questions quicker. “It's a helpful learning program that helps you really understand what you did wrong in a question and what you did right.”
McCart continues, “Boost allows me to provide them feedback more frequently so they're not waiting for me, and they can continue working and use the feedback that's provided to help develop their ideas.”
“The quality of their work is getting better, because they're getting that feedback. I think that their work is a better product, and their growth with each skill is better and quicker than having to wait for that feedback."
- Nora Gallagher, elementary French teacher, St. Catherine School
Multilingual Support with Brisk Podcasts
Brisk Podcasts, another AI-powered tool used across OCSB, offered students a way to hear and follow along with course content. Teachers could create Podcasts based on the content they already had, and students could listen, re-listen, and engage. This impact was especially visible in multilingual and French immersion classrooms.
Nora Gallagher shares, “When you're a French teacher and you're talking in front of a class, it's always a single person that's talking. [With Podcasts], students can listen to a conversation, a back-and-forth, and that can never authentically happen that well in a classroom. It’s fabulous exposure for them to hear a conversation, just even the niceties of introductions and ending conversations, and vocabulary exposure.”
Gallagher’s Grade 6 student Aubrey Easton shares that she finds it helpful to listen to the Podcast and follow along with the script, which Brisk automatically generates and highlights for students as they’re listening. Gallagher adds, “It takes out the whole aspect of challenges with decoding text, so students can actually just listen to it and really enjoy that.”
Together, Brisk Boost and Brisk Podcasts extended learning beyond the classroom and gave one-on-one support – ensuring every student had access to the tools they needed to thrive.
Key takeaways
Rooted in strong guiding principles, OCSB found in Brisk a scalable path to deepen learning while preserving what mattered most: student safety, curriculum fidelity, and equity.
Brisk didn’t require new systems. It fit where learning was already happening, giving educators flexible tools to personalize instruction and students more ways to engage, practice, and grow.
Ottawa Catholic School Board stands as a model for what responsible, student-centered AI can make possible – for every student and teacher, every day.
Schedule a Demo: Explore how Brisk can help your district implement safe, effective, and scalable AI aligned with your goals for teaching and learning. Book a demo.
