Scaling All the time-On Writing Help at Florida Atlantic College

About Florida Atlantic College

Florida Atlantic College is a student-centered public analysis college based mostly in Boca Raton and a part of Florida’s State College System. Florida Atlantic serves greater than 31,000 undergraduate and graduate college students throughout six campuses alongside Florida’s southeast coast and is ranked among the many high public universities by U.S. Information & World Report. The college pairs broad entry with high-impact educating and analysis to arrange graduates for achievement in at this time’s workforce.

The problem: Assist each pupil, with out including grading burden to instructors

Florida Atlantic College’s leaders wished to take away limitations for college kids from diverse backgrounds, particularly first-years and multi-language learners, with out turning assist into remediation or including workload for college. The purpose was easy: assist college students deliver stronger drafts to class so college might deal with concepts, argument, and suggestions.

Florida Atlantic College’s strategy: Entry for all, autonomy for instructors

Florida Atlantic paired campus-wide availability with teacher autonomy. In some writing-intensive programs, college supplied mild onboarding; elsewhere, college students adopted organically. The assist matches the place college students already write (Phrase, Google Docs, Outlook, Gmail) so adoption didn’t require new platforms or workflows. School typically used it as a primary line of instruction for recurring mechanics earlier than digging into construction and argument.

• Present campus-wide entry to all college students, with mild teacher onboarding in choose writing-intensive programs.
• Match into present workflows throughout Phrase, Google Docs, Outlook, Gmail, and the browser extension (no new platforms).
• Deal with pedagogy through the use of Grammarly as a “first line of instruction” on mechanics to guard time for concepts and argument.

What modified for college kids: Clearer writing, larger completion charges

With assist seen and all the time out there, Florida Atlantic College noticed larger course completion, higher term-to-term completion charges (with a pronounced first-year sign), improved GPA, and within-term and year-over-year writing positive aspects.

“Grammarly supplies a wealthy utilization dataset to the establishment. It’s dependable, well timed, and statistically sound. We used the info to assist our student-success initiatives.”

Dr. Ying Liu, Assistant Provost of Institutional Effectiveness and Evaluation, Florida Atlantic College

Extra college students stayed on observe

Florida Atlantic’s information confirmed a +5.3-point persistence elevate, with fewer college students dropping or transferring mid-program. Completion rose to 79.5% for Grammarly customers in contrast with 74.2% for friends, whereas dropout and switch every declined a number of factors.

Yr-to-year pathways improved: a bigger share of scholars returned whereas fewer dropped out or transferred, reflecting stronger momentum by way of this system.

Extra college students completed the programs that unlock the following class

Completion improved by +3.3 factors throughout all writing-intensive programs and by +4.3 factors in STEM sections. These gateway-course positive aspects point out that college students utilizing Grammarly had been extra more likely to end the programs required for diploma progress.

Completion positive aspects appeared in writing-intensive programs throughout the board, with a very robust sign in STEM.

College students’ writing improved term-to-term and year-to-year

Writing efficiency scores rose +2.14 factors in Fall 2023 and +1.28 in Fall 2024, with steady customers bettering from 76.7 to 81.3 yr over yr. These traits recommend ongoing talent improvement quite than short-term correction.

Scores rose throughout every time period and had been larger the next yr for college kids who stored utilizing the device, exhibiting positive aspects at each the course and longitudinal ranges.

Constant use aligned with larger GPAs

Frequent customers achieved a median GPA of three.69, about 0.4 factors larger than non- or low-frequency customers (3.29). Fashions within the Florida Atlantic College evaluation managed for baseline GPA and demographics, reinforcing that the pattern aligns with routine engagement.

Larger common GPAs tracked with extra frequent weekly use; the hole between day by day and non/low customers was about 0.4 factors, with fashions controlling for baseline variations.

What modified for college: Fewer mechanical corrections, extra significant suggestions

School describe the assist as a classroom stress launch: fewer repeated errors make drafts simpler to learn for that means, and time shifts to guiding construction and argument. As a result of the help occurs within the pupil’s personal draft, patterns change into seen and changeable.

How Florida Atlantic College made it work

Rollout decisions that journey nicely: preserve entry broad, preserve friction low, and deal with momentum metrics that matter.

• Lead with entry + selection. Campus-wide availability; instructors undertake the place it matches pedagogy.
• Hold assist low-barrier. Non-public, on-demand assist reduces help-seeking friction, particularly for multi-language learners.
• Anchor to student-success metrics. Observe completion, retention, first-year momentum, STEM results, writing development, and GPA traits.
• Match into present ecosystems. Meet college students the place they write (Phrase, Google, Outlook, Gmail; browser plugin as wanted).

Florida Atlantic’s expertise factors to a easy sample: when assist is offered to each pupil and is built-in into the environments the place they already write, extra college students preserve transferring ahead. With entry at scale and teacher autonomy, Florida Atlantic noticed larger course completion and year-to-year persistence (particularly for first-year and STEM college students) alongside writing and GPA positive aspects. On the identical time, college shifted time to higher-order suggestions. Florida Atlantic will proceed to watch outcomes and share classes with friends. 

See the Florida Atlantic analysis transient for a snapshot of the examine, or dive into the technical report for the deeper evaluation.