THE IMPACT OF AI AND PEER FEEDBACK ON RESEARCH WRITING SKILLS: A STUDY USING THE CGSCHOLAR PLATFORM AMONG KAZAKHSTANI SCHOLARS

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.37943/21TBAX7694

Keywords:

AI feedback, Peer feedback, writing skills, CGScholar

Abstract

This research studies the impact of AI and Peer feedback on the academic writing development of Kazakhstani scholars using the CGScholar platform − the product of cutting-edge research and development into collaborative learning, big data, and artificial intelligence developed by educators and computer scientists at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). The study aimed to find out how familiarity with AI tools and peer feedback processes affects participants’ openness to incorporating feedback into their academic writing. The study involved 36 Bolashak scholars enrolled in a scientific internship focused on education at the University of UIUC. A survey with 15 questions with multiple-choice, Likert scale, and open-ended questions was employed to collect a data. The survey was conducted via Google Forms in both English and Russian to ensure linguistic accessibility. Demographic information such as age, gender, and first language were collected to provide a nuanced understanding of the data. The analysis revealed a moderate positive correlation between familiarity with AI tools and openness to making changes based on feedback, and a strong positive correlation between research writing experience and expectations of peer feedback, especially in the area of research methodology. These results show that  participants are open minded to AI-assisted feedback, however they still highly appreciate peer input, especially regarding methodological guidance. This study demonstrates the potential benefits of integrating AI tools with traditional feedback mechanisms to improve research writing quality in academic settings. Further research is recommended to evaluate the long-term impact of AI and peer feedback on academic writing skills, particularly through longitudinal studies that assess skill retention over multiple feedback cycles. Additionally, expanding the study to include a more diverse academic audience will provide deeper insights into how feedback mechanisms function across different research cultures and disciplines.

Author Biography

Raigul Zheldibayeva, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA

PhD, Head of the Department of Education and upbringing methodology, Researcher

References

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2019). Education 2.0: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Test. Beijing International Review of Education, 1, 528-543. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1163/25902539-00102009

Kong, S. C., Cheung, W. M. Y., & Zhang, G. (2021). Evaluation of an artificial intelligence literacy course for university students with diverse study backgrounds. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 2, 100026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.caeai.2021.100026

Abel, S., Kitto, K., Knight, S., & Buckingham Shum, S. (2018). Designing personalised, automated feedback to develop students’ research writing skills. ASCILITE 2018 Conference Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.14742/apubs.2018.1932

Varshney, L. R., Keskar, N. S., & Socher, R. (2019). Pretrained AI models: Performativity, mobility, and change. arXiv Preprint, arXiv:1909.03290. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.1909.03290

Illia, Laura & Colleoni, Elanor & Zyglidopoulos, Stelios. (2022). Ethical implications of text generation in the age of artificial intelligence. Business Ethics, the Environment & Responsibility. 32. 10.1111/beer.12479.

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2023a). Creating a Different Kind of Learning Management System: The CGScholar Experiment. In M. Montebello (Ed.), Promoting Next-Generation Learning Environments Through CGScholar (pp. 1-18). IGI Global. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5124-3.ch001

Santo, Susan. (2011). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education Michael Simonson, Sharon Smaldino, Michael Albright, and Susan Zvacek, Eds. American Journal of Distance Education. 25. 201-204. 10.1080/08923647.2011.589757.

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2017). Scholar’s New Analytics App: Towards Mastery Learning. Common Ground. https://cgscholar.com/community/community_profiles/new-learning/community_updates/54189

Montebello, M., Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2019). Learning analytics and AI in educational technologies. In Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing (pp. 65–80). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19742-5_5

Allagui, B. (2023). Chatbot Feedback on students’ writing: Typology of comments and efectiveness. In O. Gervasi, B. Murgante, A. M. A. C. Rocha, C. Garau, F. Scorza, Y. Karaca, & C. M. Torre (Eds.), International conference on computational science and its applications (pp. 377–384). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37129-5_31

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2023a). Creating a Different Kind of Learning Management System: The CGScholar Experiment. In M. Montebello (Ed.), Promoting Next-Generation Learning Environments Through CGScholar (pp. 1-18). IGI Global. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5124-3.ch001

Zheldibayeva, R. (2024, October 20). Video tutorial CGScholar for Bolashak scholars [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xknpKDtWDu8

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2022). The Changing Dynamics of Online Education: Five Theses on the Future of Learning. In C. Lütge (Ed.), Foreign Language Learning in the Digital Age: Theory and Pedagogy for Developing Literacies (pp. 9-33). Routledge. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003032083-3

Anderson, J. A., & Ayaawan, A. E. (2023). Formative feedback in a writing programme at the University of Ghana. In A. Esimaje, B. van Rooy, D. Jolayemi, D. Nkemleke, & E. Klu (Eds.), African perspectives on the teaching and learning of English in higher education (pp. 197–213). Routledge.

Kalantzis, M., & Cope, B. (2015). A pedagogy of multiliteracies: Learning by design. Harvard Educational Review, 85(2), 196–232.

Chan, C. K. Y., & Hu, W. (2023). Students’ voices on generative AI: Perceptions, benefits, and challenges in higher education. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 20, 43. https://doi.org/10.1186

Andrade, H., & Valtcheva, A. (2009). Promoting learning and achievement through self-assessment. Theory Into Practice, 48(1), 12–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405840802577544

Cope, B., & Kalantzis, M. (2022). Artificial intelligence in the long view: From mechanical intelligence to cyber-social systems. Discover Artificial Intelligence, 2(1), 1–18. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1007/s44163-022-00029-1

Cope, B., Kalantzis, M., Zhai, C., Krussel, A., Searsmith, D., Ferguson, D., Tapping, R., & Berrocal, Y. (2022). Maps of medical reason: Applying knowledge graphs and artificial intelligence in medical education and practice. In P. Michael, J. Petar & H. Sarah (Eds.), Bioinformational philosophy and postdigital knowledge ecologies (pp. 133–159). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95006-4_8

Fitria, T. N. (2021). Grammarly as AI-powered English writing asssistant: Students’ alternative for writing English. Metathesis, 5(1), 65–78. https://doi.org/10.31002/metathesis.v5i1.3519

Allagui, B. (2023). Chatbot Feedback on students’ writing: Typology of comments and efectiveness. In O. Gervasi, B. Murgante, A. M. A. C. Rocha, C. Garau, F. Scorza, Y. Karaca, & C. M. Torre (Eds.), International conference on computational science and its applications (pp. 377–384). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-37129-5_31

Saini, A. K. (2023). Assessment and analysis through CGScholar. In M. Montebello (Ed.), Promoting next-generation learning environments through CGScholar (pp. 23–45). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5124-3

Castro, V. C. de. (2023). Designing a 21st-century learning module with CGScholar: An example of design for Brazilian educators. In M. Montebello (Ed.), Promoting next-generation learning environments through CGScholar (Chapter 16). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-6684-5124-3.ch016

Downloads

Published

2025-03-30

How to Cite

Zheldibayeva, R. (2025). THE IMPACT OF AI AND PEER FEEDBACK ON RESEARCH WRITING SKILLS: A STUDY USING THE CGSCHOLAR PLATFORM AMONG KAZAKHSTANI SCHOLARS. Scientific Journal of Astana IT University, 21. https://doi.org/10.37943/21TBAX7694

Issue

Section

Pedagogy