TeachFX reports on the lesson. Pencil Spaces coaches you through it.

TeachFX is an excellent post-lesson report. Pencil Spaces is a full AI coach inside the live online classroom — real time and after.

Built into the room where teaching already happens, the coach reads the whole session — talk, the work on the board, documents, chat, and engagement — and gives feedback while the lesson is live, not just after it.

10M+ sessions taught

Real-time + post-session coaching

COPPA · FERPA · HIPAA · SOC 2 · GDPR

Last updated June 2026

Inside the classroom

Pencil Spaces

A full AI coach native to the live lesson: real-time signals during class and rubric-based scoring after, with playback of the exact moments.

On top of the classroom

TeachFX

A research-backed AI coaching layer that records class audio and emails a post-lesson report on talk-time, questioning, and wait time.

The short answer

TeachFX is a coaching layer; Pencil Spaces is the classroom with the coach built in. TeachFX records your class audio and emails a post-lesson report on teacher-vs-student talk, questioning, and wait time — and it does that well, in any room, including in person. Pencil Spaces is a full AI coach that lives inside the live lesson: it reads talk plus the work on the whiteboard, the documents, the chat, and engagement, and it coaches both in real time and after.

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Real time and after. Live engagement signals during class, full rubric scoring once it ends.

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Sees the whole lesson. Not just audio: the board, the work, the chat, the engagement.

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Native, not bolted on. No separate recorder, app, or voice sample to set up.

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Four rubric dimensions. Engagement, content accuracy, instructional clarity, talk-time balance.

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Works in person too. The same coach covers face-to-face sessions, not just online.

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Built for education. COPPA, FERPA, HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR, inside one teaching platform.

Buyer education

The honest difference

Give TeachFX its due: it pioneered AI feedback on classroom talk, it is research-backed, and it is deliberately teacher-private. It turns a recording of the room into a clear read on talk-time, questioning, and wait time.

But that read only ever lands after class — and only from a transcript.

Pencil Spaces is a full coach. It works live and after: it flags engagement while you can still act, then scores the whole session once it ends. And it studies far more than the words — the whiteboard, the chat, the work, the entire room — on a rubric you customize to how your team teaches. Tutors and coaches love it because it finally reflects the real lesson, not a transcript of it.

TeachFX reads the transcript, after class. Pencil Spaces reads the whole room, while you teach.

Side by side

Pencil Spaces vs TeachFX, by the questions buyers ask

Checked straight. Where TeachFX leads, it is marked plainly — and a dash means the capability is not part of that product's job, not that it is broken.

Your question

Room + coach

Pencil Spaces

Coaching layer

TeachFX

The basics

Does it give feedback on my teaching?

Yes. A built-in AI Coach scores every session.

Yes. This is exactly what TeachFX does.

Is it research-backed?

Yes, with a rubric you customize to your own instructional model.

Yes — published research with Harvard and Stanford.

Is it built specifically for online teaching?

A purpose-built virtual classroom.

Setting-agnostic; not specific to online teaching.

AI coaching & feedback

Do I get a post-lesson report?

Yes.

Yes, emailed after class.

Do I get real-time feedback I can act on mid-lesson?

Yes. Live engagement and attention signals while class runs.

Feedback is delivered after the lesson.

Does it measure talk-time balance?

Yes.

Yes — its core specialty.

Questioning and wait-time metrics?

Yes.

Yes, deep and validated.

Does it see beyond audio (the work, the board, the chat)?

Yes. The whole lesson, not just talk.

Audio only.

Does it score content accuracy and instructional clarity?

Yes, alongside engagement and talk-time.

Focused on discourse metrics.

The teaching environment

Is the coaching native, or a separate tool to run?

Native. Nothing to add.

Download the app, record a class, set a voice sample.

Does it work in in-person classrooms?

Yes. The coach covers in-person sessions too, not just online.

Yes — it records the room.

Does it overlay any platform I already use?

It is the platform.

Yes, it rides on top of any setting.

AI for teaching

AI lesson planning?

Yes, with Sparky, in seconds.

Not part of its job.

AI grading and feedback on student work?

Yes.

Not part of its job.

AI question generation?

Yes.

Not part of its job.

Comparison reflects publicly available information about TeachFX as of June 2026 (FAQ, How It Works, and product pages) and is intended as buyer education. TeachFX is a research-backed AI coaching tool; Pencil Spaces is a virtual classroom with a built-in AI coach.

Played straight

When to use each

TeachFX is a focused, well-built tool, and there are a couple of cases where its narrow approach is the simpler choice. Here is the split.

Choose Pencil Spaces when

You coach across all your teaching — online classrooms and in-person sessions alike

You want coaching in real time and after the lesson, not only a report

You want the coach to read the whole lesson — the board, the chat, the work — not just the talk

You want a rubric you customize, inside one platform: classroom, coach, scheduling, and compliance

Choose TeachFX when

You want a lightweight, audio-only talk tracker bolted onto tools you already use

You want one narrow metric — talk-time — and nothing else attached

Who it is for

Built for teams serious about coaching quality

High-impact tutoring

Consistent coaching quality across many tutors, with rubric trends leaders can track, inside the room where sessions already run.

Online tutoring

Raise the floor on session quality at scale — live engagement signals plus post-session scoring, with no extra recorder for tutors to manage.

Virtual schools

One platform for live classes, AI coaching, scheduling, and a full COPPA, FERPA, HIPAA, SOC 2, and GDPR compliance stack.

Teacher development

Coach the whole lesson, not just the talk — with playback of the exact moments and a rubric customized to your instructional model.

Voices

What coaching in the room sounds like

자리 표시자

Replace with a real quote from a tutoring lead about catching disengagement live, before the lesson was over.

자리 표시자

Replace with a real quote from an instructional coach about reviewing the full session with playback, not just an audio transcript.

The proof

10M+

sessions taught on Pencil Spaces — the classroom the coach runs inside

2x

coaching phases covered: real time during the lesson and rubric scoring after

4

rubric dimensions scored: engagement, content accuracy, clarity, talk-time

0

extra recorders, apps, or voice samples to bolt on — the coach is native

Coaching that is already in the room.

See a full AI coach that reads the whole lesson and works in real time as well as after — on your branding and your domain.

Built for online teaching, and trusted by tutoring teams, schools, and districts.

FAQ

Pencil Spaces vs TeachFX: common questions

What is the difference between Pencil Spaces and TeachFX?

Does Pencil Spaces coach in real time, or only after the lesson?

Can TeachFX coach inside a virtual classroom?

Does Pencil Spaces only measure talk-time like TeachFX?

Is TeachFX better for in-person classrooms?

Is teacher feedback private in Pencil Spaces?

Is Pencil Spaces a TeachFX alternative?

TeachFX reports
on the lesson. Pencil Spaces coaches you through it.

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