OnTopic
What is it and how does it work?
OnTopic is a tool designed to help students analyze how well their writing is topically organized. It generates a structural diagram that shows which topics are the focus of a text and when topics shift. For example, it highlights topics that appear consistently throughout the text versus topics that appear in only one paragraph or that emerge only later in the text. As such, OnTopic can help students make informed decisions about how to revise their text so it is more coherent for readers. It is intended for students to use as they are drafting and revising their text before official submission, so that when educators see the final submission, students have already addressed the feedback received from OnTopic.
Which skill(s) are targeted?
- Prepare coherent and clearly organized oral, written, and visual products based on purpose, genre, context, and audience.
- Develop independent processes for setting communication goals, seeking and incorporating feedback, and revising to improve effectiveness.
Educator time commitment
The educator time commitment is approximately one hour. This includes time becoming familiar with the tool and what it produces – to understand how it may be best leveraged to support students’ writing – and then setting up the corresponding assignment(s) in one’s Canvas site so that students receive the relevant instructions and so that their writing submissions (within Canvas) are sent to the OnTopic tool.
Student time commitment
Students will take additional time to review the feedback from OnTopic feedback and revise their first draft accordingly. This will depend on the nature of the writing assignment and the coherence of their first draft, but the idea is this is time well spent.
Get help applying to your context
Contact us for help with identifying, implementing, and/or measuring this core competency for your context: eberly-assist@andrew.cmu.edu
Educator how-to steps
- Optional: Review this Canvas module on how to use and get started with OnTopic.
- Decide which writing tasks you want students to draft with feedback from OnTopic.
- For each applicable assignment, establish a timeline that includes (a) when students should submit their preliminary draft to receive feedback from OnTopic and then (b) when students should submit their final draft, after addressing the feedback from OnTopic. (When instructors use OnTopic for writing assignments in their courses, the preliminary draft stage is required but not graded; only the final draft submission is graded by the instructor.)
- Set up the assignments in Canvas according to your decisions in step 3. (For assistance, email eberly-assist@andrew.cmu.edu or see the instructions in the Canvas module from step 1.
- Grade and provide feedback on students’ final submissions according to your regular practices.