Enhancing Academic Writing and Digital Literacy with an AI Coach

​(California Education Learning Lab, AI Grand Challenge)

2025 - 2027  | Mark Warschauer (PI), Tamara Tate (Co-PI), Crista Lopes (Co-PI), Leslie Bruce (PI), Beth Harnick-Shapiro (Co-PI), Stephanie Tran (PI), W. Cherry Li-Bugg​ (Co-PI)

This project will iteratively develop, implement, and evaluate an AI tool to improve academic writing and digital literacy across California public higher education segments. The project will leverage PapyrusAI, a tool created with NSF funding by the UCI team to provide a scaffolded AI writing coach that assists students in learning to write effectively through personalized support across the process of writing from planning to revision. Resources, professional development, and faculty learning communities will also support teacher and student AI literacy, so that they understand when and how to effectively and ethically use generative AI for writing. The study is carried out in partnership between UC Irvine, Cal State Fullerton, and the North Orange County Community College District.

CELL Proposal

AI Writing & Digital Literacy Fellows

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Incorporating Generative Artificial Intelligence into

Engineering Writing Courses (IUSE: EDU #2315294)

2023 - 2026  | Tamara Tate (PI), Mark Warschauer (Co-PI), Beth Harnick-Shapiro (Co-PI), Michael Dennin (Co-PI)

This project is designed to improve undergraduate teaching and learning for engineering students and enable them to be skillful writers and knowledgeable and ethical users of AI. It is based on the initial development of PapyrusAI, an innovative platform to promote academic writing and digital literacy, as well as associate professional development and instructional resources. The study is carried out in partnership between the UCI School of Education and the Samueli School of Engineering, and will implement PapyrusAI in instruction in Engineering 190W, an upper-division writing and communication course required for all engineering majors.

IUSE: EDU Proposal

Poster presented on the IUSE: EDU project at the Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) National Summit, 2024.

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Deploying an Argumentative Essay Feedback Algorithm

with Middle School Teachers and Students (The Learning Agency Lab)

October 2024 - May 2025  |  Mark Warschauer (PI), Tamara Tate (Co-PI)

The main goal of this project is to incorporate the RATER model, which labels secondary students' argumentative essays and rates their effectiveness, into our existing writing feedback and teacher reports for PapyrusAI. Our goal with the teacher report improvements is to provide analytics to teachers to assist them with identifying areas that students need help with. We will also be investigating differences in students' essay scores and engagement with the tool in relation to the improved feedback.

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PapyrusAI: An Intelligent Writing Coach for K-12 Schools

​(Beall Applied Innovation)

January 2024 - June 2024  |  Mark Warschauer (PI), Tamara Tate (Co-PI)

This project will iteratively adapt PapyrusAI, an intelligent writing coach, to be suitable for middle school and high school students. The platform will help secondary students improve their writing and AI literacy by interacting with AI in a “walled garden” that provides access to generative AI in a supervised way. Students will receive personalized support by interacting with the embedded prompts in the platform to help them effectively plan and revise their writing. This project will leverage NSF-funded work underway on a version of the platform for undergraduates. We are partnering with El Sol Science & Arts Academy of Santa Ana to conduct a feasibility study and initial pilot.