Launching RM Echo to Public Beta

D major. A major. B minor. F-sharp minor. G major. D major. G major. A major 🎵

For the non-musicians among you, that's the chord progression of Pachelbel's Canon in D. You've probably heard it at a wedding or two over the years, and you'll probably be whistling it for the rest of the afternoon. Sorry about that!

But what has a piece of music written over 300 hundred years ago got to do with high-stakes assessment, academic writing, or the integrity of a qualification? Let's answer that by briefly visiting 1987 when Bananarama released "Love in the First Degree", then on to 1993 where the Pet Shop Boys first sang about going west. Are you with us yet? Let’s stop briefly in 1994 when Green Day got in on the act with "Basket Case" before Belle and Sebastian's Indie hit "Get Me Away From here, I'm Dying" broke onto the scene.

We’re sure you’ve got it now! Play all these songs back-to-back and you'll see how Pachelbel set the template with his original chord sequence for these pieces and countless others to follow. In other words, these pieces of music are different, but similar, and how similar is probably a matter of opinion.

That's all very well with music (although Ed Sheeran would probably disagree with us), but what about when it comes to written work, particularly in an academic or assessment context? Should we leave similarity up to ‘opinion’ or ‘best guess’?

Will examiners get the same sense of pleasant familiarity when the echoes (see what we did there?) of one learner's work seem to come through in somebody else's? Probably not, particularly when the integrity of the whole qualification rests on correct attribution.

This month, we launched our latest product 'RM Echo' to Public Beta. The software allows users to add high volumes of written content and run a growing suite of analyses or 'Checks' against it. This might be checking student's exam responses for collusion or plagiarism, checking your own writing against your referenced material, or even evaluating the uniqueness of your newly authored exam question against your question bank. Whatever it is that you're evaluating your written content for, RM Echo provides the clarity and confidence that it's fit for purpose.

So, what does it mean to be in 'Public Beta'? It means that we're making a working version of the product available, for free, between now and January 2026 using credit code Launch1k. You'll be able to add content, run 'Checks' against it, and generally get a feel for what RM Echo can do for you. All we ask in return is that you let us know what you think. You don't have to; we'd just really appreciate it as we keep developing RM Echo to make it as useful as possible!

We're continuing to shape the roadmap for RM Echo as we plan for continuous innovation throughout 2026. Expect additional types of content Checking, more integration, and a host of enhancements to the overall user experience.

Go to https://beta.echo.ava.rm.com/app/credits?code=Launch1k to redeem your free credits and use RM Echo for free.

And to quote Coolio's 1997 hit, we'll "see you when you get there". Yes, that's also based on Pachelbel's Canon.