Kumo Study’s online tool helps ADHD students in university success

Ed-tech entrepreneur Alex Kerr was diagnosed with ADHD in her last year at university. Photo / Jason Dorday

An innovative online tool for university students with ADHD, developed by Kiwi ed-tech entrepreneur Alex Kerr, has gone live for the new academic year.

Up to 85% of students with ADHD will drop out or fail a course during their time at university. Alex Kerr was one of them.

After sailing through school academically, her organisational and time-management skills at university were so shambolic she struggled to keep up with the workload.

“I still remember the first time I just forgot to put an assignment in,” says Kerr, who failed two courses at Victoria University before being diagnosed with executive functioning difficulties (one of the key symptoms of ADHD) during her final year of an economics and finance degree.

“I really did think, ‘Am I stupid? Or am I lazy?’ That’s something a lot of people with ADHD battle. You go into this shame spiral where you don’t want to tell anyone or ask for help.”

Kerr, 26, was working as a business advisory accountant when she began developing the concept for Kumo Study, a website and app designed for university students with ADHD.

An early version of a simple calendar tool to help with time-management skills was created in late 2023 and trialled with students at Canterbury University.

Following further trials at a handful of universities in New Zealand and Australia, a completely revamped model has been released for the new academic year.

Last week, the University of Sydney launched a partnership deal with Kumo Study, providing free subscriptions to 875 students registered with their disability department for ADHD.

A research project will also track the study habits and executive functioning challenges of 100 students throughout the year.

“A lot of the pain comes from the day-to-day study that students with ADHD experience – that executive functioning where they’re sitting at their desk, completely frozen,” says Kerr, who’s now based in Sydney.

“They can’t focus, they can’t get organised and they don’t know where to start. That makes them miss deadlines and they slip through the cracks.”

Inside the ADHD brain

Understanding how the neurodivergent brain works has been a key focus for Kerr and her two co-founders at Kumo Study. Gabriela Mendelski has a background in neuroscience and specialised health sciences, while Jack Reichelt is an experienced software engineer.

International studies suggest some 16% of university students have ADHD, but few access the specialist support services available.

“If you think of the student as an athlete, their prefrontal cortex is their ‘coach’,” says Kerr. “But for someone with ADHD, the coach doesn’t really show up to training. So we bring that coach to them.”

The extended model includes a smart study timer that can be personalised to a student’s energy levels and attention span, a website blocker, a task planner, a study dashboard and a rewards-based progress tracker.

Users can link up with “collaboration and accountability buddies” to help keep them motivated and on track. Occupational therapists have also worked with the Kumo team to develop sensory modulation tools that help create a distraction-resistant environment.

“Students can do a quiz that shows them their sensory profile,” says Kerr. “They might be really sensitive to light and noise, so they need to sit in a dark, quiet room to be productive. They might need a fidget toy.

“Then they can show that to their disability adviser and ask if they can do their exam in a quiet room at night or in the afternoon, because that’s when they are at their most productive.”

Kumo Study founders (from left) Gabriela Mendelski, Jack Reichelt and Alex Kerr.

Male ADHD rates are about two and a half times higher than among women. Kerr’s younger brother – “a stereotypical hyperactive boy” – was diagnosed with ADHD as a child.

However, women and girls with the condition tend to present differently, as Kerr did, and are often misdiagnosed with anxiety and depression.

Kerr has also noted a significant gender difference in the way students have responded to the Kumo Study tools.

“Female students have a much more proactive stance on understanding their mood and peak point of productivity on a daily schedule,” she says. “Whether they’re a morning bird or a night owl, they really wanted to track things like that.

“Male students perform better with the more competitive, friendly-competition leaderboards. So there’s a very clear divide.”

Tracy Bewell, the Pro Vice-Chancellor academic quality and learner success at Waikato University, says students who volunteered to take part in one of the Kumo Study trials shared some positive feedback.

“It’s got some really interesting ideas,” she says. “There’s innovation there.”

Bewell has seen increased demand for the university’s accessibility services over the past five years, ranging from neurodivergent students who need ongoing support to those with a temporary impairment, such as concussion.

“If they’ve had really good support in high school, often they have a good sense of what works for them and they understand how to self manage, so a big part of our work is supporting them with that transition,” she says.

“Some [ADHD] students won’t get a diagnosis until they’re in university, where there’s less structure and you have to create that for yourself. I think tools such as this can be extremely valuable, but students still need expert staff support as they start to use them.”

Joanna Wane is an award-winning senior feature writer in the New Zealand Herald’s Lifestyle Premium team, with a special interest in social issues and the arts.