How our research works
What actually happens between applying for a case study and a published finding, step by step. We'd rather tell you exactly what's real today than describe a pipeline that isn't.
1. You apply
A teacher or researcher applies via our case-study form with a course, section size, and semester. We review every application ourselves.
2. We set up your course
Once accepted, we activate your case study, which creates your course in Colophon and a join code for your students right away.
3. Students join and consent
Each student joins with the code and gives their own consent before anything of theirs is included in the study. Consent is per student, not implied by enrollment.
4. Students write with Colophon recording
The Chrome extension records the writing process locally, exactly as described on our what gets recorded page: activity, not content.
5. Sessions reach the study
Students export their session as a TWFF file and submit it themselves while signed in. We check that the file is intact and hasn't been altered before it's recorded; a tampered or invalid file is rejected, not silently accepted.
6. Data is pseudonymized and aggregated
Names and identifying details are replaced with a one-way pseudonym before anything leaves an individual record; the researcher dashboard only ever shows cohort-level patterns, never a named student's document.
7. We publish what we learn
Every case study ends in a findings report you can read and share. A broader, anonymized dataset organized by research topic is the eventual goal; that release mechanism doesn't exist yet, and we'd rather say so than promise a date.
See what your dataset view looks like →What we're actually studying
Provenance of Human-AI Knowledge Work
How people actually incorporate AI into writing, and what information is useful to authors versus educators.
Human-AI Collaboration
How AI should support writing without replacing authorship, and what interactions build confidence rather than dependency.
Computational Reproducibility of Writing
Whether the writing process can be made inspectable and reproducible, much like code is with version control, and what standards real interoperability needs.
Want to run a case study with your course?
Apply for a case study