Features

Everything you need to document learning, build portfolios, and make education visible — for educators, parents, and families.

Educator Quick Start Guide

Running a microschool, co-op, or learning community? Start here for Pod setup, adding families, privacy controls, and educator-specific features.

How Prism Works

Prism is built around a simple but profound cycle and practice:

Observe — Be present with what's happening. Notice the process, not just the product: the conversations, the problem-solving, the persistence, the joy. Then capture it. A photo, a scan of their work, a link to something they created. This is your raw material — the moment as it happened.
Reflect — Now write what you noticed. Not a summary of the activity, but what mattered about it. What did you see this child working through? What surprised you? What would be invisible to someone who wasn't there? This is where a snapshot becomes a portfolio entry, and where Prism's Learning Signals have the most to work with.
Expand — Prism surfaces Learning Signals from your entries, identifying subjects, skills, interests, and developmental domains. Over time, these signals and your reflections aggregate into clear patterns and valuable insights. Prism builds intelligent resources: transcripts, learning stories, goal analyses, and personalized suggestions for each learner.

The richer your descriptions, the more useful Prism's tools become. A couple of sentences are fine for a quick entry; a paragraph or two that captures nuance and context will generate the best results.

Core Features

Creating Portfolio Entries

This is the most common action in Prism. Everything else builds on it. Click the + New button from anywhere in Prism. You'll choose an artifact type, select which learners the entry is for, write a reflection, and generate Learning Signals.

Educator note: You'll see a search bar for all learners in your Pod, plus recently tagged learners and any Learner Groups you've created. You can also assign a Portfolio Category if your Pod uses them.

Artifact Types

Every portfolio entry starts with an artifact: the raw material that represents what happened. Prism supports four types.

Image — The most common artifact type. Upload one or more photos from your device or from Prism's media folder. If you're on mobile, you can snap a photo directly from the app. When you generate Learning Signals, the first image is sent alongside your written reflection for analysis. This means Prism can identify learning even from a brief description, because it can see what's happening in the photo.

PDF — Upload a PDF as your artifact. This is especially useful for documenting online learning. If your child takes a course through an online platform, you can usually download a PDF that describes the course outline, completion certificate, or syllabus. Upload that PDF, write a reflection about the experience, and Prism will extract Learning Signals from both the PDF content and your description.

Link — Use a URL as your artifact. This works well for YouTube videos, websites, or anything online you want to reference. YouTube links render a playable video preview directly inside the portfolio entry. Learning Signals cannot analyze the content of a link or video directly. Write a detailed reflection describing what the linked content covers to get useful signal data.

Text Only — Sometimes the most important learning didn't start with an intention to learn. It emerged from a conversation, an observation, or a moment that doesn't have a photo attached to it. A text-only entry lets you document these moments with a title, an optional subtitle, and your written reflection.

Selecting Learners

Every entry is tagged to one or more learners. If you're a parent, you'll see your children listed and can select one or several. If a moment involves multiple kids, tag them all.

Educator note: You'll see a search bar for all Pod learners, plus your Learner Groups for quick tagging of recurring groups.

Writing Your Reflection

The reflection is where the observation becomes something meaningful. This isn't a log entry. It's your chance to describe what you noticed: what the child was working through, what surprised you, what context someone else would need to understand why this moment mattered.

A couple of sentences will generate basic Learning Signals. A paragraph or two with specific details about the process, the conversations, and the context will generate significantly richer data and better downstream resources like transcripts, learning stories, and portfolio exports.

Learning Signals

On the Expand tab, click Find Learning Signals. Prism analyzes your reflection, the artifact (if it's an image or PDF), and the learner's age to surface structured metadata across four categories:

Subject Areas — art, mathematics, science, etc.
Skills & Competencies — problem-solving, fine motor control, collaboration, etc.
Learning Domains — cognitive, creative, physical, social-emotional
Interests — Pokémon, game design, piano, etc.

Each signal includes a context snippet explaining why it was identified. You can review them, remove any that don't fit, and accept the rest. You can also skip Learning Signals entirely and add them later, or create an entry without them.

Getting Photos In

If you prefer to snap photos throughout the day on your phone and write your entries later on a computer, upload photos to the media folder from the mobile app. They'll be available when you create a portfolio entry on the web/desktop app by choosing "From Prism Media" as your source.

Getting Photos Off

In your portfolio view, any entry with photos has a three-dot menu where you can click Add to Media. From the media folder, select one or more photos and click Download. A single photo downloads as a high-quality image; multiple photos download as a zip file.

This is especially useful for parents in a Pod. When educators create entries with photos of your child, you can save those photos to your device through the media folder.

Image Analysis and Privacy

By default, Prism sends the first image of a portfolio entry to be analyzed alongside your reflection when generating Learning Signals. This produces significantly better results because the model can see what's happening in the photo.

Prism uses Anthropic's API for this analysis. Information sent through the API is stored for a maximum of 30 days for error and debugging purposes, then permanently deleted. No learner names are sent alongside images; each learner is identified only by an internal ID. No personal identifying information accompanies the images.

Parent accounts only: You can toggle image analysis off in My Stuff → Settings. If you do, all portfolio entries for your learner will default to text-only analysis, even entries created by educators in your Pod. This is your choice as a parent.

Searching and Filtering Your Portfolio

Navigate to My Stuff → Portfolios to see all portfolio entries for your learners.

As a parent, you'll see every entry for your children, regardless of who created it: your own entries, entries from educators in your Pod, and entries from co-parents or family members you've invited.

At the top of the page, a search bar dynamically matches against entry content, learner names, tags, and more. You can also filter by:

Learner name (including entries where multiple learners are tagged together)
Tags
Categories (Pod-specific)
Author (who created the entry)
Date range (yesterday, last 7 days, last 30 days, or custom)

Filters can be combined. The portfolio view uses infinite scroll, loading more entries as you go down. This becomes increasingly useful as your portfolio grows. Early on, it's straightforward. After months of documentation with hundreds of entries, the filters are essential.

The Learner Dashboard

Navigate to My Stuff → Learners to see your learner dashboards.

If you have multiple children, you'll see a toggle to slide between dashboards. Each dashboard shows emerging patterns aggregated from all of that learner's Learning Signal data across four categories: interests, skills and competencies, subject areas, and learning domains.

You won't see patterns here until a learner has at least 12–15 portfolio entries with Learning Signals, possibly more. The dashboard needs a threshold of unique signals to identify meaningful patterns. As the portfolio grows, this becomes one of the most valuable views in Prism.

What the Dashboard Shows

For each category, the dashboard groups related Learning Signals and surfaces the strongest patterns. For example, under Interests, you might see "Strategic Game Design" with a count showing how many related signals feed into it.

You can click into any pattern to see every individual Learning Signal that contributes to it. You can also see specific portfolio entries referenced under each domain, and click through to view them directly.

At the bottom, an activity timeline shows where documentation has been concentrated over the past several months. The dashboard updates automatically as new portfolio data comes in.

Educator note: On the Learners page, you'll see a list of all learners in your Pod. On the right side, each learner shows a quick count of portfolio entries from the last 30 and 90 days. The list is sorted so learners with the least recent documentation appear at the top, making it easy to see at a glance who might need more attention. Click any learner to load their full dashboard below.

The Assistant

The Assistant (My Stuff → Assistant) is where Prism's generated resources live. This is where the documentation you've been creating turns into something more: transcripts, learning stories, portfolio exports, strewing suggestions, goal analyses, and more.

These resources are most useful after you've been using Prism consistently for weeks or months. The more portfolio entries you have, and the more detail you've put into your reflections, the richer these resources will be.

The Resource Budget

Each resource uses a portion of your budget, which is based on the number of learners in your account (or in your Pod, for educators). The budget resets every quarter: January 1, April 1, July 1, October 1.

Resources that search the web or analyze a large number of entries use more. A goal analysis covering 20 entries uses significantly less than a portfolio export analyzing 300 entries over two years.

The budget is designed to be generous for normal usage. If you're running low, reach out via My Stuff → Feedback and we'll work with you.

Strewing Suggestions

This resource finds books, videos, courses, hands-on projects, local activities, and online communities based on your learner's portfolio content and interests.

To generate strewing suggestions, select a learner, choose a date range to analyze, optionally add a focus area, choose resource types, and if you choose local activities, enter your city and state so Prism can search for things in your area.

The results are organized by interest area, with specific resources, links, and strewing tips for how to present them in a way that feels natural rather than assigned. Each resource page can be shared via a public link.

Academic Transcript

The transcript takes your portfolio content and translates it into the language of conventional academic documentation: course titles, credit hours, and subject categories mapped to your state's requirements.

To generate a transcript, select a learner, choose a date range, select your state (Prism has compiled requirements for every state), choose whether to include grades, review any "full course" tagged entries and assign credit hours, and optionally add custom instructions.

The transcript is especially valuable for high school learners who need formal documentation for college applications, evaluators, or school transitions. It can be generated for any age, but the format is most relevant for older students.

How credit hours work: Prism treats each portfolio entry as roughly equivalent to two credit hours, where 120 hours equals one full credit. The transcript aggregates many small entries into coherent course titles and descriptions. For entries that represent an entire course, add the tag "full course" to the portfolio entry. During transcript generation, these entries appear on a dedicated screen where you can assign specific credit-hour weighting.

Portfolio Export

The portfolio export creates a comprehensive, formatted PDF of a learner's portfolio organized by subject area, with photos, entry descriptions, and Learning Signal summaries.

This is the resource to use when you need to present a full picture of a learner's educational experience: for annual portfolio reviews, evaluator visits, school transitions, custody documentation, progress reports, or as a keepsake.

To generate a portfolio export, select a learner, choose a purpose, choose a date range, decide how many entries to include, and choose whether to include photos, Learning Signals, and an opening narrative. The result is a professional PDF that is easy for evaluators, schools, or family members to read.

Parent & Family Features

Family Accounts Parent accounts

Family Accounts let you invite other people to your learner's portfolio. Navigate to My Stuff → Settings → Family Accounts.

When you add a family member, you'll provide their name, email address, a relationship label (mom, dad, grandma, pop pop, nanny, or whatever fits), and a permission level.

Permission Levels

Co-owner — Full access. Can create entries, generate reports, and invite other family members. This is for a co-parent who shares equal ownership of the portfolio.

Co-author — Can create entries and generate reports, but cannot invite others. Good for a family member who actively documents learning.

View-only — Can see portfolio content but cannot create or edit anything. Perfect for grandparents or family members who want to stay connected.

If you have multiple learners, you can choose which ones each family member gets access to. This supports blended families or situations where access should be selective.

Pod Content Visibility

If your learner is in a Pod, co-owners and co-authors can also see public Pod content by default. You can uncheck this option when inviting them if you prefer to limit their view to only your learner's portfolio entries.

Educator note: You can see linked family accounts for any parent in your Pod from Pod Management → Manage. This shows which family members a parent has invited and whether they can see Pod content.

Homeschool Compliance Guide Parent accounts

Navigate to My Stuff → Settings to find the Homeschool Compliance Guide.

This tool generates a state-specific compliance guide tailored to your learner's grade level. Choose your state, confirm your learner's information, and Prism compiles a formatted guide covering:

What your state requires and doesn't require (curriculum approval, testing, portfolio reviews, hours)
What you need to file and when (deadlines, intent to homeschool forms)
Grade-specific notes and recommendations
ESA and school choice program information, including eligibility and application links

You can download the guide as a PDF or save it to your settings for easy reference.

Homeschool Attendance Tracker Parent accounts

Navigate to My Stuff → Settings to find the Attendance Tracker.

If you're in a state that requires tracking school days, this tool syncs your documentation with attendance tracking. Set up your school year start and end dates, the number of required school days (most states are between 170 and 180), and optionally how many days you've already completed if you're starting mid-year.

Every day that has a portfolio entry with a "happened at" date counts as one school day. If you document at the end of the week, backdate entries to the actual dates and the tracker counts those days. It's a simple way to keep attendance records in sync with your documentation practice.

General

Mobile Apps

Prism has mobile apps for both iOS and Android. The mobile apps are ideal for quick-capture documentation — snap a photo, write a description, tag learners, and post. Many users find that having the app on their phone is what makes consistent documentation sustainable.

Feedback and Support

We actively want to hear from you. Feature requests, bug reports, questions, or ideas are all welcome.

Go to My Stuff → Feedback anytime. You can type a message, attach screenshots, and send it directly to the Prism team.

If you're a parent or educator exploring Prism, reach out. These are conversations we genuinely enjoy having, and we want to make sure you get the most out of the tool.