PACE Lab @ Iowa State University
The ProWrite Project
Biometric technology for improving college students' writing processes
Watch a 3.5-minute video
The problem
A staple of college-level writing instruction is individualized feedback that students receive about the texts that they write. This feedback is intended to help students understand what they could have done better in the current text, but also to help them learn how to be a more effective writer in the future. However, this feedback focuses on properties of written products (i.e., what a good text is supposed to look like) rather than on the process of writing (i.e., what to do while writing in order to produce a good text). This is because texts that students submit to instructors for feedback bear little (if any) evidence of the moment-by-moment actions taken by the writer in the process of composition.
The solution
This NSF-funded project will develop an intelligent tutoring system for writing, ProWrite, that will automatically capture such moment-by-moment actions using unobtrusive biometric technology, and then provide data-driven, personalized, actionable feedback about the composition process to the student. This feedback will take the form of focused strategy guidance: Instead of simply telling the student to try out a particular strategy, ProWrite will provide a coached writing session where the student will receive real-time, automatic scaffolding for the target strategy. This type of intelligent tutoring system in the context of writing instruction, if effective, has the potential for massive application and, therefore, economic and educational gain.
Read the press release 
Publications
  1. Dux Speltz, E., Roeser, J., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2022). Automating individualized, process-focused writing instruction: A design-based research study. Frontiers in Communication, 7:933878. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.933878
  2. DeKruif, Z., & Smith, J. (2022). A mixed-methods approach to analyzing writing center session notes. Young Scholars in Writing, 19, 85-91.
  3. Conijn, R., Dux Speltz, E., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2021). Automated extraction of revision events from keystroke logs. Reading and Writing. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11145-021-10222-w
  4. Dux Speltz, E., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2021). The effect of automated fluency-focused feedback on text production. Journal of Writing Research, 13(2), 231–255. https://doi.org/10.17239/jowr-2021.13.02.02

Presentations

  1. DeKruif, Z., Dux Speltz, E., & Chukharev, E. (April 16, 2024). Developing specialized and reliable rubrics to evaluate data. ISU Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression.
  2. Dux Speltz, E., Godbersen, J., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2023, September 6–9). Fluency manipulation through real-time feedback during text production, and its effects on product and process measures [Symposium presentation]. 23rd Conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCOP), Porto, Portugal.
  3. Torrance, M., Roeser, J., Dux Speltz, E., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2023, September 6–9). The role of lookback in the written production of multi-sentence texts [Symposium presentation]. 23rd Conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCOP), Porto, Portugal.
  4. Torrance, M., Roeser, J., Ofstad, G., Dux Speltz, E., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2023, July 13). Cascading processes in multi-sentence text production: A mixture model analysis of IKIs and lookbacks. 4th International Workshop on Writing Words, Potsdam, Germany.
  5. Bouwman, W., Dux Speltz, E., Roeser, J., Torrance, M., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2023, March 10–11). Linking reading-during-writing to text quality: Modeling text quality with eye movement and keystroke behavior. Hawaiʻi International Conference on English Language and Literature Studies (HICELLS), Hilo, Hawaiʻi.
  6. DeKruif, Z., Godbersen, J., & Smith, J. (2022, February 21). ProWrite: Biometric technology for improving college students’ writing processes. Research in the Capitol, Des Moines, IA.
  7. Dux Speltz, E., Roeser, J., Torrance, M., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2022, June 20–22). Within-writer behavioral stability across writing tasks: An eye-tracking and keystroke-logging study. SIG Writing Conference, Umeå, Sweden.
  8. Dux Speltz, E., DeKruif, Z., Godbersen, J., Smith, J., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2022, June 20–22). Automating individualized, process-focused writing instruction: A design-based research study. SIG Writing Conference, Umeå, Sweden.
  9. Sollier, N., Dux Speltz, E., Cheatle, J., Conijn, R., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2022, June 20–22). Designing a human-centered dashboard for writing process feedback. SIG Writing Conference, Umeå, Sweden.
  10. Dux Speltz, E., DeKruif, Z., Smith, J., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2021, October 20–23). Product- and process-focused advice in writing center session notes. International Writing Centers Association (IWCA) Annual Conference, Virtual.
  11. Challis, K., & Dux Speltz, E. (2021, October 9). Instructor perception of incorporating writing process data in learning-oriented assessment. Midwest Association of Language Testers (MwALT) Conference 2021. Virtual.
  12. Dux Speltz, E., Sollier, N., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2021, September 14). ProWrite: Process–focused feedback on writing using biometric technologies. Center for Integrative Research in Computing and Learning Sciences (CIRCLS) 2021 Convening, Virtual.
  13. DeKruif, Z. (2021, August 5). Using eye-tracking and keystroke logging to develop process-focused writing interventions. ISU Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium, Virtual.
  14. DeKruif, Z., & Smith, J. (2021, April 21). ProWrite: Biometric technology for improving college students’ writing processes. Honors Poster Presentation at Iowa State University.
  15. Chukharev-Hudilainen, E., Torrance, M., Dux Speltz, E., Conijn, R., & Cheatle, J. (2020, December 14–17). Eye tracking as a tool for understanding writing processes and supporting learning to write: The ProWrite project. EARLI SIG 27 Conference, Virtual.
  16. Conijn, R., Dux Speltz, E., van Zaanen, M., Van Waes, L., & Chukharev-Hudilainen, E. (2020, December 14–17). Automated extraction of revisions during writing. EARLI SIG 27 Conference, Virtual.