The scientists didn’t actually read all 1,140,328 discussion-board submissions written by 16,791 students between the fall term of 2021 and the winter term of 2024. As specialists in analyzing big data sets, the researchers fed the posts into seven different computer models that analyze writing quality, from vocabulary to syntax to readability. Ultimately, they created a single composite index of writing quality in which all the submissions were ranked on this single yardstick.
The results? Overall student writing quality improved. The improvement was slow at first in the early months of 2023 and then it improved substantially from October 2023 until the study period ended in March 2024.
