Students who got AI feedback on an essay felt more motivated while fixing it
HelpedThe short version
Students who read AI feedback before they fixed an essay felt more keen and involved than those with none.
- 918
- first-year university writing students in Hong Kong
- Randomised
- groups picked at random
- Self-rated
- people rated themselves
- 1 tool
- tested
The study
Who took part
918 first-year students on a university writing course in Hong Kong, all learning English as a second language; 55 in 100 were women. 342 got feedback and 576 didn't, but only about 194 seem to have answered the questionnaire.
What they did
In one two-hour lesson, every student wrote an essay in 30 minutes and then had 20 minutes to improve it. Before improving it, the feedback group read up to 500 words of feedback written by ChatGPT. The other group improved their essays with no feedback.
What happened
Students who got the feedback rated themselves as more motivated and more involved while improving their essays. They didn't feel clearly happier. The paper doesn't say how students were sorted into groups, and its numbers don't add up, so we can't give sizes.
What the study found
- Helped
Students who read AI feedback before they fixed an essay felt more keen and involved than those with none.
Randomised trial of 918 first-year university writing students in Hong Kong · vs the same time to fix the essay, no feedback · they rated themselves · ⚠ numbers unreliable; unclear how groups were picked
How solid is this?
- Groups picked at random
- People rated themselves
- Numbers unreliable
- Unclear how groups were picked
Source
Enhancing university level English proficiency with generative AI: Empirical insights into automated feedback and learning outcomes (2024)
DOI: 10.30935/cedtech/15607 (opens in a new tab)
