Packback

Packback Platform Overview is an instructional AI-powered suite designed to boost student curiosity, enhance writing skills, and assist educators with proactive, personalized feedback. Built around the Digital TA AI, Packback integrates three core tools—Packback Discussions, Packback Writing, and Packback Originality—with an emphasis on inquiry-based learning, rigorous writing, and academic integrity. It aims to increase student engagement, improve writing quality, and streamline grading and feedback for instructors. The platform is designed for use across higher education and K-12 institutions and emphasizes privacy, accessibility, and FERPA/GDPR compliance.

How Packback Works

• Packback Discussions: An inquiry-based student discussion platform with built-in AI coaching that helps students generate better questions and more thoughtful responses, fostering curiosity, motivation, and community.
• Packback Writing: An AI-powered coaching tool for writing assignments that provides instant feedback and guides students toward stronger writing, while offering educators a rubric-aligned AI grading assistant to speed assessment.
• Packback Originality: Academic integrity tools that detect possible plagiarism and Generative AI usage, paired with proactive, personalized AI feedback to improve student writing and uphold integrity.
• AI-Enhanced Workflow: The AI acts as a supportive assistant for instructors, handling mechanical tasks like grammar, formatting, and plagiarism checks, so educators can focus on content quality and mentorship.

Key Benefits

• Improved student writing quality and confidence
• Higher quality, more engaged discussions with source-backed posts
• Faster, more consistent grading and feedback for educators
• Proactive integrity checks and guidance on responsible AI usage
• Evidence of positive outcomes from multi-institution studies (e.g., increased rigor, student sentiment, and engagement)

Safety, Privacy, and Accessibility

• Compliance: FERPA, GDPR, PIPEDA, PCI standards
• Accessibility: WCAG AA alignment
• Privacy-first: AI tools designed to assist rather than replace teacher oversight; data handling aligned with institutional policies

Core Features

• AI-powered Discussion Coach: guides students to ask stronger questions and craft engaging responses
• AI Writing Coach: provides instant feedback and writing improvement suggestions
• AI Grading Assistant: helps educators align feedback with rubrics and speed up grading
• Originality & Integrity Tools: plagiarism detection and AI-use monitoring with constructive feedback
• Data Privacy & Compliance: FERPA/GDPR/PIPEDA/PCI compliant and accessible design
• Institutional Adoption: used by educators across 600+ institutions with integration options (LTI, Google Classroom support, etc.)
• Student Engagement Analytics: insights into participation, writing quality, and citation usage
• Accessible & Inclusive: WCAG AA alignment to support all students