https://cic.uts.edu.au/events/24-7-instant-feedback-on-writing-integrating-acawriter-into-your-teaching-2-dec/ What difference could instant feedback on draft writing make to your students? Over the last 5 years the Connected Intelligence Centre has been developing and piloting an automated feedback tool for academic writing (AcaWriter), working closely with academics across several faculties. The research portal documents how educators and students engage with this kind of AI, and what we’ve learnt about integrating it into teaching and assessment. In May, AcaWriter was launched to all students along with an information portal. Now we want to start upskilling academics, tutors and learning technologists, in a monthly session to give you the chance to learn about AcaWriter, and specifically, good practices for integrating it into your subject. CIC can support you, and we hope you may be interested in co-designing publishable research. AcaWriter handles several different ‘genres’ of writing, including reflective writing (e.g. a Reflective Essay; Reflective Blogs/Journals on internships/work-placements) and analytical writing (e.g. Argumentative Essays; Research Abstracts & Introductions). This briefing will demo AcaWriter, and show it can be embedded in student activities. We hope this sparks ideas for your own teaching, which we can discuss in more detail.

1. 24/7 Instant Feedback on Writing:
Integrating AcaWriter into your Teaching
Simon Buckingham Shum (Connected Intelligence Centre)
Antonette Shibani (Transdisciplinary Innovation School)

2. AGENDA
• Introduction to AcaWriter (5 min) (Simon)
• Learning Context 1 (Law Essay & Business Report) (8 min) (Shibani)
• Learning Context 2 (Research Abstract) (8 min) (Simon)
• Learning Context 3 (Critical Reflection on practice) (8 min) (Simon)
• Hands-on activity (10 min) (Shibani)
• Sharing and Discussion (10 min)
• How would you integrate AcaWriter into your teaching? (10 min)
• Keep talking to us!
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3. WELCOME &
INTRODUCTION!
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4. AcaWriter now a UTS-wide tool (May 2020)
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5. A long term R&D project in CIC
https://cic.uts.edu.au/tools/awa
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6. AcaWriter
• Students need better feedback on academic
writing
• AcaWriter is a web-based tool that provides
formative feedback on rhetorical moves
(structural elements) in writing
• Two types of writing genres are supported
1. Analytical Writing e.g. Essay, Research Paper/Abstract
2. Reflective Writing e.g. Learning Journal, Reflective Essay, Project
Review
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7. Rhetorical moves in analytical writing
A rhetorical move is “a discoursal or rhetorical unit that performs a coherent
communicative function in a written or spoken discourse” (Swales, 2004).
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8. AcaWriter feedback on analytical writing
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9. Very different rhetorical moves in reflective writing
Major moves: Context, Challenge, Change
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Gibson, A., Aitken, A., Sándor, Á., Buckingham Shum, S., Tsingos-Lucas, C. and Knight, S. (2017). Reflective Writing Analytics for Actionable Feedback. Proc. LAK17: 7th Int.
Conf. on Learning Analytics & Knowledge, March 13-17, 2017, Vancouver. (ACM Press). https://doi.org/10.1145/3027385.3027436 Best Paper Award

10. AcaWriter feedback on reflective writing
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11. How to integrate AcaWriter into your course?
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12. How to integrate AcaWriter into your course?
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Shibani, A., Knight, S. and Buckingham Shum, S. (2019). Contextualizable Learning Analytics Design: A Generic Model, and Writing Analytics Evaluations. Proc. 9
th International
Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK19). ACM Press, NY, pp. 210-219. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3303772.3303785. Eprint: https://tinyurl.com/lak19clad

13. LEARNING CONTEXT 1
Law essay writing
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14. Law Essay Context
• Writing is a key disciplinary skill
for law students
• Instructor rubric elements
require the use of rhetorical
moves
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15. Law essay context – Feedback tuning
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16. Writing Activity
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More info: http://heta.io/resources/wawa-improve-sample-text-plus-peer-discussion-civil-law/

17. Matching exercise
Understanding instructor’s rubric by matching sample sentences to rubric elements
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18. Viewing sample revisions
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19. Assessing given text
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20. Revision and Self-assessment
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21. Peer Discussion and Revision
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22. Feedback Survey
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23. Writing Activity
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More info: http://heta.io/resources/wawa-improve-sample-text-plus-peer-discussion-civil-law/

24. UTS CIC 24
http://heta.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/AcaWriter-QuickStart-Guide_Civil-Practice-Apr-2018-1.pdf

25. Accounting feedback example – New context
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26. Accounting Writing Activity
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Week Activity
Week 1 Homework Online activity
Week 2 Class exercise – Peer discussion
Week 3 Submitting their draft report
Week 4 Self-evaluation of draft report (with AcaWriter
feedback)
Week 5, Week 6 Peer feedback (optional) and working on final report
Week 7 Report submission

27. LEARNING CONTEXT 2
HDR research writing
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28. UTS CIC 28
Designing AWA for CARS model
Create A Research Space (CARS)

29. Example AcaWriter Feedback
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30. UTS CIC 30
Embedding AcaWriter in an HDR activity

31. UTS CIC 31
Embedding AcaWriter in an HDR activity

32. UTS CIC 32
Embedding AcaWriter in an HDR activity

33. UTS Online Open Course: Writing an Abstract
https://open.uts.edu.au/uts-open/faculty/connected-intelligence-centre/writing-an-abstract/
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34. LEARNING CONTEXT 3
Reflective Writing
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35. UTS CIC 35
An example of co-design rubrics for Critical Reflection Essay

36. UTS CIC 36
An example of co-design feedback for
pharmacy placement reflection report

37. Co-design feedback (Contd..)
• The feedback template consists of a set of rules, which
will trigger feedback device to students given the
presence or absence of particular writing analytics
features.
• An example of co-designed feedback rules in
pharmacy. For a given feature (col.1), we considered
what should be said to the student if it appeared (col.2)
or was missing (col.3). More complex patterns can be
defined.
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38. ACAWRITER HANDS-ON
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39. Tutorial & Questions
• Go to https://acawriter.uts.edu.au and login with your staff ID.
• Create your own assignment using a genre type.
• If you have a sample text to try on, paste it in the editor and click on
‘Get Feedback & Save’.
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Sample texts:https://tinyurl.com/yyxg4nlf

40. SHARE YOUR
THOUGHTS...
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41. Interested in working with us to integrate
AcaWriter into student tasks/assessments?
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42. Recap
• Rhetorical moves
• AcaWriter feedback
• AcaWriter Integration into Courses
• Hands-on with AcaWriter
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43. Educator resources:
AcaWriter Educators portal
https://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/teaching-and-research-integration/acawriter/educators
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44. Educator resources:
The UTS Open module for Research Abstracts
https://open.uts.edu.au/uts-open/study-area/communication--media/writing-an-abstract
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45. This was just the
conversation starter.
Do get in touch...
Enquiries:
cic@uts.edu.au