A critical challenge for computer-based writing instruction is providing appropriate and adaptive practice. The current study examined three modes of computer-based writing practice with the goal of identifying those with the greatest learning and motivational value. High school students learned about writing strategies by studying lessons within…

This study investigated the effect of incorporating spelling and grammar checking tools within an automated writing tutoring system, Writing Pal. High school students (n = 119) wrote and revised six persuasive essays. After initial drafts, all students received formative feedback about writing strategies. Half of the participants were also given…

A critical challenge for computer-based writing instruction is providing appropriate and adaptive practice. The current study examined three modes of computer-based writing practice with the goal of identifying those with the greatest learning and motivational value. High school students learned about writing strategies by studying lessons within…

This chapter explores three broad principles of user-centered design methodologies: participatory design, iteration, and usability considerations. The authors highlight the importance of considering teachers as a prominent type of ITS end user, by describing the barriers teachers face as users and their role in educational technology design. To…

Revising is an essential writing process yet automated writing evaluation systems tend to give feedback on discrete essay drafts rather than changes across drafts. We explore the feasibility of automated revision detection and its potential to guide feedback. Relationships between revising behaviors and linguistic features of students' essays are…

This study evaluates high school students' perceptions of automated writing feedback, and the influence of these perceptions on revising, as a function of varying modes of computer-based writing instruction. Findings indicate that students' perceptions of automated feedback accuracy, ease of use, relevance, and understandability were favorable.…

This study investigates how and whether information about students' writing can be recovered from basic behavioral data extracted during their sessions in an intelligent tutoring system for writing. We calculate basic and time-sensitive keystroke indices based on log files of keys pressed during students' writing sessions. A corpus of prompt-based…

This study investigates how and whether information about students' writing can be recovered from basic behavioral data extracted during their sessions in an intelligent tutoring system for writing. We calculate basic and time-sensitive keystroke indices based on log files of keys pressed during students' writing sessions. A corpus of prompt-based…

Intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs) have been successful at improving students' performance across a variety of domains. To help achieve this widespread success, researchers have identified important behavioral and performance measures that can be used to guide instruction and feedback. Most systems, however, do not present these measures to the…

Automated essay scoring tools are often criticized on the basis of construct validity. Specifically, it has been argued that computational scoring algorithms may be unaligned to higher-level indicators of quality writing, such as writers' demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the essay topics. In this paper, we consider how and whether the…

This study investigates students' essay revising in the context of an intelligent tutoring system called "Writing Pal" (W-Pal), which combines strategy instruction, game-based practice, essay writing practice, and automated formative feedback. We examine how high school students use W-Pal feedback to revise essays in two different…

The ability of educational games to promote students' engagement in learning and practice depends on perceived enjoyment of those games. This study investigated high school students' perceptions and enjoyment of games within the Writing Pal intelligent tutoring system. In accord with research on motivation, results showed that perceived…

Various computer tools have been developed to support educators' assessment of student writing, including automated essay scoring and automated writing evaluation systems. Research demonstrates that these systems exhibit relatively high scoring accuracy but uncertain instructional efficacy. Students' writing proficiency does not necessarily…

We present an evaluation of the Writing Pal (W-Pal) intelligent tutoring system (ITS) and the W-Pal automated writing evaluation (AWE) system through the use of computational indices related to text cohesion. Sixty-four students participated in this study. Each student was assigned to either the W-Pal ITS condition or the W-Pal AWE condition. The…

Multimedia instructional materials require learners to select, organize, and integrate information across multiple modalities. To facilitate these comprehension processes, a variety of multimedia design principles have been proposed. This study further explores the redundancy principle by manipulating the degree of partial redundancy between…