Higher education institutions adopt conversational agents, or chatbots, to perform and automate certain business functions. While chatbots exist to support Enrollment Services, Financial Aid, and other departments within an institution, Institutional Research lacks options. Institutional Research supports higher education institutions by providing…

We investigated the promise of a novel approach to formative writing assessment at scale that involved an automated writing evaluation (AWE) system called MI Write. Specifically, we investigated elementary teachers' perceptions and implementation of MI Write and changes in students' writing performance in three genres from Fall to Spring…

As Computer Science course enrollments have increased over recent years, instructors have turned to automated grading systems to help relieve the burden of processing student assignments. However, the available autograding solutions have generally lacked support for traditionally difficult-to-grade advanced topics courses. In this thesis, I…

Academic advising is a High-Impact Practice that supports better outcomes for all students, particularly those encountering structural barriers to success. This paper presents a case study of processes followed in a three-year project (2018-20) at the University of Cape Town (UCT) to conceptualise, design, and start implementing an academic…

Considering the prominence attached to written corrective feedback (WCF) within the domain of second/foreign language (L2) acquisition, automated writing evaluation (AWE) tools have steadily gained ground over the last two decades. The current study was an attempt to investigate the extent incorporating an AWE program, known as Criterion®, within…

This study examined a naturalistic, districtwide implementation of an automated writing evaluation (AWE) software program called "MI Write" in elementary schools. We specifically examined the degree to which aspects of MI Write were implemented, teacher and student attitudes towards MI Write, and whether MI Write usage along with other…

This study examined a naturalistic, districtwide implementation of an automated writing evaluation (AWE) software program called "MI Write" in elementary schools. We specifically examined the degree to which aspects of MI Write were implemented, teacher and student attitudes towards MI Write, and whether MI Write usage along with other…

Automated writing evaluation (AWE) is a cutting-edge technology-based intervention designed to help teachers meet their challenges in writing classrooms and improve students' writing proficiency. The fast development of AWE systems, along with the encouragement of technology use in the U.S. K-12 education system by the Common Core State Standards…