Abstract
The integration of generative AI tools in
academic writing, particularly for STEM students and
researchers, is a growing trend. These tools may save time
and enhance grammatical accuracy; however, they can
also be used pedagogically to help students improve their
own academic and science communication skills. Despite
this, studies evaluating the impact of AI tools on students'
writing outcomes, specifically in STEM, are limited. This
research focuses on whether individualized AI-based
feedback helps STEM graduate students improve their
writing of short research summaries for a lay audience.
To this end, students participated in the task in one of
four feedback conditions: a group that receives feedback
on appropriate jargon use before each iteration; a group
that receives interactive feedback from ChatGPT with
rewrite suggestions; a group that receives interactive
feedback both about jargon and ChatGPT rewrite
suggestions; and a comparison group that does not
receive any feedback before each rewrite. Results indicate
that AI-based feedback helped students improve their use
of jargon and readability, though no significant
improvement was observed in message distillation. In this
presentation, we share the empirical research and
available online task for use in STEM academic and
science writing programs.
academic writing, particularly for STEM students and
researchers, is a growing trend. These tools may save time
and enhance grammatical accuracy; however, they can
also be used pedagogically to help students improve their
own academic and science communication skills. Despite
this, studies evaluating the impact of AI tools on students'
writing outcomes, specifically in STEM, are limited. This
research focuses on whether individualized AI-based
feedback helps STEM graduate students improve their
writing of short research summaries for a lay audience.
To this end, students participated in the task in one of
four feedback conditions: a group that receives feedback
on appropriate jargon use before each iteration; a group
that receives interactive feedback from ChatGPT with
rewrite suggestions; a group that receives interactive
feedback both about jargon and ChatGPT rewrite
suggestions; and a comparison group that does not
receive any feedback before each rewrite. Results indicate
that AI-based feedback helped students improve their use
of jargon and readability, though no significant
improvement was observed in message distillation. In this
presentation, we share the empirical research and
available online task for use in STEM academic and
science writing programs.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | 2024 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (ProComm) |
| Pages | 294 |
| Number of pages | 295 |
| State | Published - 2024 |