LX Lab: Using AcaWriter to help develop student writing

Presenters: Sophie Abel, Shibani Antonette

The Connected Intelligence Centre at UTS has developed a Writing Analytics software called ‘AcaWriter’ that can help develop students’ academic writing by providing automatic feedback on their writing. However, using the software standalone without integrating it in its educational context isn’t enough for students to make the best use of it. For learning analytic tools like AcaWriter to have a meaningful impact on learners, the tools should be embedded in the pedagogical context. In our workshop, we will demonstrate the use of AcaWriter for writing feedback and how we design learning activities around it for different pedagogic contexts. We will show examples of learning activities integrating AcaWriter in two different pedagogical contexts implemented in UTS: an undergraduate law unit for writing essays and a HDR research writing workshop for writing abstracts/ introductions. These models can help you design similar learning activities for students using AcaWriter in your own pedagogical contexts. So bring along your laptop and some sample writing so you can play with AcaWriter and see how it can help improve your students’ academic writing.