How Norsoft built and maintains the online testing and AI essay-grading platform that powers a nationwide academic decathlon, expanding access to schools that could never afford to compete in person.
The United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) runs team-based decathlon competitions, but in-person events were too costly for many schools to join, and hand-grading hundreds of essays took days. Norsoft built a secure online testing and training platform with AI-driven essay grading, automated team scoring, and anti-cheating safeguards. The platform now serves 800+ schools, cut grading turnaround from days to hours, and let dozens of new schools compete for the first time.
The United States Academic Decathlon (USAD) hosts custom, team-based decathlon competitions across more than 800 schools, emphasizing collaboration, critical thinking, and subject mastery for students nationwide.
For years, those competitions had to happen in person. Travel, staffing, and venue costs limited participation, especially for smaller and rural districts. Grading was slow too: hundreds of essays were scored by hand, which took days and made it hard to keep scoring fair and accurate across that many schools.
Norsoft partnered with USAD to develop and maintain a fully integrated online testing and training platform built for their unique decathlon format. It calculates team results automatically based on the top two students from each division (A, B, and C).
We integrated AI-driven essay grading with NLP and automated testing to dramatically reduce evaluation time, plus anti-cheating safeguards and secure user verification to preserve competition integrity. The platform is designed for continuous updates, so the program can scale nationwide while keeping costs low.
Schools competing on the platform
Grading turnaround with AI scoring
Of the cost of in-person events
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Travel and venue costs kept many schools out | Dozens of new schools competing for the first time |
| Grading speed | Hundreds of essays hand-graded over days | AI-driven grading turns days into hours |
| Cost | Expensive, resource-heavy in-person events | Runs at a fraction of the cost |
| Integrity | Fairness hard to maintain at scale | Anti-cheating safeguards and secure verification |
"Norsoft provides outstanding customer service. Sam and John are incredibly patient, thorough, and committed to finding solutions, whether we're working in desktop or cloud-based software. They are knowledgeable, dependable, and truly a pleasure to work with."
Kristin · USAD Orange County
By transforming an expensive, resource-heavy process into a modern, accessible digital competition, Norsoft helped democratize academic achievement. Schools that once couldn't afford to participate now can, and the program continues to grow year over year on a stable, scalable foundation.
Tell us what you're dealing with. We'll let you know if we can help.
Contact us