Have you ever sat in front of a desk with a pile of papers? Or opened up your LMS to see a folder full of student submissions? If so, you might have thought, “These are going to take me ages to grade and give thoughtful feedback on, I wish a computer could genuinely do this for me.” While there have been algorithmic AI-powered tools that could partially help, a simple to use and setup free grading and feedback tool that worked on any assignment has yet to exist. But with generative artificial intelligence tools on the scene, that dream has become a reality.
This year, the topic of AI has become part of so many educators’ conversations. AI tools are already transforming the way we think about teaching and learning. Today on the blog, we’ll look at how you can increase your impact as a teacher by using AI to boost your prep, save tons of time on grading and feedback, and genuinely support students in the moment.
Let’s take a look at Writable and everything you can do with their new features!
Giving Better, Faster Feedback & Grades with AI
Writable’s new AI features are designed to increase teacher agency and save teachers a ton of time. Their platform makes it easy to increase the impact of a teacher’s feedback by reaching more students, faster, and in a targeted way when they need support most: while they are writing and reading. Using AI to support grading and feedback isn’t entirely new. Writable has provided powerful AI support tools for both teachers and students for many years now. You might have seen a few of their popular features in action, including RevisionAid, GrammarAid, and Originality Check.
All of these earlier features were based on algorithmic AI. The team at Writable is now using generative AI (powered by Open AI) to improve their existing AI features. They also have a selection of new features ready for teachers heading back to school. This includes:
- AI-powered prompt & assignment suggestions
- AI Suggested Comments
- GradeAssist (AI Draft Scores)
- Enhanced Originality Checking with Authorship Alerts from Writable & the AI-Writing Indicator from Turnitin
Using AI to Comment on Student Work
The AI Suggested Comments feature is super useful if you want to give targeted feedback on a student’s work. As you review student work, you have the option to use the AI Suggested Comments feature, which will give you high quality, skill-aligned comments for both draft and submitted work, and at the paper and/or rubric level. If you’ve tried similar technology in the past, you know that it was hard to generate high-quality, targeted comments for student work – oftentimes, the responses weren’t adjustable or editable, either.
Now, you can use AI to suggest comments on all student work, and the AI Suggested Comments feature is live now! This means that any assignment on the Writable platform, even if it’s customized or created from scratch, will have automatic scoring and commenting. You won’t have to do any extra setup – you will be saving time as soon as you use it.
In addition to giving teacher feedback with AI through the commenting feature, you can also use GradeAssist, which uses AI to generate suggested draft scores at both the paper and rubric item level. This feature can build grading confidence and save a ton of time by helping teachers grade over 80% faster and the draft scores are completely adjustable by the teacher if they don’t agree.
Creating Great Assignments with AI
In addition to the AI Suggested Comments and GradeAssist features, there are also powerful AI assignment building tools in Writable. This special landing page will let you try the prompt generator out right away – you don’t even have to log in. All you have to do is input a topic, and the output you’ll receive is editable prompt suggestions.
Once in Writable you can also use AI to generate essays, multi-section lessons, multiple-choice questions, and more, all with included answer keys! Let AI save you time, then edit and personalize to create your perfect assignment.
These assignment building features are great for supporting cross-curricular writing activities, too. Once you’ve selected the prompt you’d like to use, you’ll have the option to create a great skill-aligned assignment or lesson in just a few steps. Try out the AI Prompt Suggestions right here.
Protect Authentic Learning in the Classroom
Earlier this year, I shared a post on the blog featuring Turnitin and their support for educators concerned about AI use in the classroom. The AI-Writing Indicator from Turnitin is designed to protect authentic learning moments in the classroom. This tool is built into Writable, where you’ll also find Turnitin’s plagiarism tool, Simcheck, which helps students cite their own work and check for plagiarism before hitting submit. The new AI-writing indicator can review student work with AI-generated content in mind and help spark conversations on digital citizenship.
In addition to the AI-writing indicator, Writable has also developed a new tool called Authorship Alerts. Authorship Alerts help to identify writing that may not be original to a student. It shows how a student’s writing behavior compares to their classmates. It alerts the teacher to drafting, editing, and revision patterns that might indicate a lack of originality or use of AI support from outside Writable. In combination with Turnitin’s text-checking tools, this is the most complete set of originality tools on the market.
Increasing Your Impact as a Teacher Using Faster Feedback with Writable
Have you seen the newly released handout from the Office of Educational Technology on AI in education? In its list of key insights on artificial intelligence, it includes how AI can enhance feedback loops. This is also included in the research Writable is built upon. It states, “AI can increase the quality and quantity of feedback provided to students and teachers, as well as suggesting resources to advance their teaching and learning.”
Can artificial intelligence increase your impact as a teacher? Using AI tools to help you prep and review student work can save you a ton of time for other instructional planning tasks. You can also free up time for more in-depth one-on-one conversations with students.
Get started with Writable today! Learn more about AI in Writable and create a free account to try out their AI features. You can also take an interactive tour of Writable’s new AI tools or book a meeting or live demo with Writable.
