Turnitin, a leading provider of academic integrity, assessment, and writing solutions, announced today that its Turnitin Draft Coach feature is now available on Microsoft Word for the web. The announcement was made at the International Society for Technology in Education conference and expo in New Orleans: ISTELive 22 at Turnitin booth 518.
Turnitin Draft Coach, which first launched as a Google Docs add-on, provides tools and coaching for students to pre-check their work before submission. This helps improve students’ academic writing and research skills by providing feedback on: 1) text-similarity; 2) citations in APA, Chicago, and MLA formats; and 3) foundational grammar, mechanics, usage, and structure. And by using AI, Draft Coach can quickly identify citation and grammar issues across large bodies of work.
Unlike other checkers that only flag or auto-correct writing issues, Draft Coach provides detailed, in-app instruction on how students can correct these issues in real-time, helping students think critically about the feedback and independently improve their work before submission.
“The most common forms of academic integrity issues are the result of skill and knowledge gaps,” said Turnitin Chief Product Officer Annie Chechitelli. “With an increasingly complex research environment, students need reliable information and tools to help them understand how to properly credit their sources and convey their message—while they are writing.”
"Our university has found Draft Coach to be a great tool for students and professors to improve academic integrity. Draft Coach helps our students validate their writing skills,” reflected Fernando Fajardo, Director of Technology at Universidad Autónoma de Chile.
For educators, Draft Coach streamlines feedback and submission workflows, as it allows students to address citation, grammar, and academic integrity issues earlier in the writing process. “Draft Coach is truly a coach. Not only does Draft Coach flag something, it helps students understand what's wrong so they can make changes [...],” said Beth Revor, high school library information specialist in Chantilly, VA. “Draft Coach is also a great tool for educators to give formative feedback.”
“By integrating Draft Coach with Microsoft Word, one of schools’ top preferred writing softwares, more students can be confident that they are submitting their best, original work,” continued Chechitelli, who also shared academic integrity insights at the ISTE EdTech Industry Network Summit on June 26.
Recognized by the EdTech Breakthrough Awards, The EdTech Awards by EdTech Digest, The Stevie Awards, and Tech & Learning—Turnitin Draft Coach is available to those with an institutional subscription to Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 and a license to Turnitin Feedback Studio or Turnitin Originality.
Learn more about Turnitin Draft Coach. ISTELive 22 attendees can join a learning session or speak with a specialist in-person at Turnitin booth 518.