Process Feedback for Google Docs
Extension Actions
Shows the edit history of a Google Docs document.
đź“Ś What is the Process Feedback extension?
The Process Feedback extension is for teachers and students. It pulls the edit history of a Google Docs document and turns that history into a writing process report. In the process report, you can explore copy-paste events, the frequency and timing of breaks taken, typing fluency, time spent on each paragraph, time allocated to revision compared to initial drafting, and total typing time.
âž› Support for multiple tabs
âž› Shows user contributions
âž› Works for Google Classrooms
đź› How do I use the extension?
âž› Step 1: Add this extension to your browser
âž› Step 2: Open your Google document
➛ Step 3: Find the “Explore Process” button near the menu bar and click on it
âž› Step 4: If you prefer the ribbon view instead, change the settings in the extension popup
❌ Unable to install the extension?
âž› To install any Chrome extension, you need to log in to Chrome.
âž› Please reload the Google Docs page after installing the extension.
➛ Your institution’s IT department may need to approve installing any new Chrome extension.
đź”— How to share the writing process report?
âž› Share Link: Copy the URL of the report link and share it.
➛ Share PDF: In the sidebar, click “Download Process Report” to download a PDF of the process report.
👤 Who is it for?
The extension is primarily designed for students to self-reflect on their writing process.
⚙️ How does it work?
The extension pulls the entire edit history of your Google Doc, which is already maintained by Google, and turns the writing journey into an interactive process report.
đź“š How can teachers integrate it into a course?
Please visit www.processfeedback.org/gdocs for step-by-step instructions on how to integrate the extension into your course.
✨ How is it different from other extensions?
Unlike extensions like Draftback, this extension provides many rich features. Students can also download a PDF report or simply share a link to their process report. In a way, it is a free alternative to extensions like Draftback, Originality.ai, Revision History, and Grammarly Authorship, but with many more features.
⚠️ Limitations
The extension is not well-tested with large documents with 100K+ changes or 100K+ characters. Its text styling is also not perfect yet. If you run into issues using the extension, please email us at [email protected].
đź“ś Terms and conditions
By installing the extension, you agree to and acknowledge the terms and conditions at https://processfeedback.org/terms/.
đź”’ Privacy policy
➛ By default, this extension does not collect any user data and runs fully locally in a user’s device.
âž› When a user chooses to save online, for sharing the report with others, it collects the author information and full edit history data of the Google Docs document. Collected data is stored only so users can view reports with the process report link and share the report with others.
âž› For co-edited documents, users should always obtain permission from all co-authors before viewing or sharing process reports.
đź“– Reference/citation
If you are using Process Feedback for a research project, please cite the following peer-reviewed research article:
Adhikari, Badri; “Thinking Beyond Chatbots’ Threat to Education: Visualizations to Elucidate the Writing or Coding Process”; Education Sciences; 2023.
Latest reviews
- Eva Niederhofer
- This is saving me as a teacher!
- Sonia Eastham
- Honestly, I have never seen anything like it! Quite simply an incredible tool for exposing pesky cheating student types. The detail of the report (even the short one) is second to none and leaves you with all the evidence you need in chats with students and parents. One of the best extensions I have seen. Bravo and thank you!
- Melinda Fernung
- This application has been a lifesaver for identifying potential AI generated plagiarism. Before using it, I spent an overwhelming amount of time trying to verify the authenticity of student work, which made grading feel daunting. I am so grateful for this tool; it has truly streamlined the process and allowed me to focus on teaching other things.
- Dustin Anderson
- This is so helpful distinguishing between AI generated work and self-written material!
- Daniel George Compton
- Wonderful tool! Highly recommended for teachers trying to emphasize good habits to students.
- Amy Hayes
- Great tool to help review the students writing process and love that it doesn't add a financial burden on teachers.
- Clare Ryan
- This tool is awesome! Super helpful for looking at students writing process!
- Paul Cushing
- Excellent. Thorough and extremely useful
- Rachel Kennerty
- Excellent resource. Hard to believe we must rely on analytics to solve our cheating problem. I am grateful the creators delivered a fine product. I 100% recommend. This free app is better than most paid programs. Thank you!
- Jem Thompson
- Incredibly useful
- TRACEY WILLIAMS
- I love this program! The students know all of the shortcuts, and it is important that teachers have the tools to combat these programs.
- Faith Kenney
- I just found this extension, but it offers SO much information. I feel like this could be a game-changer. As an English teacher, I am always looking for insight into my student's writing process. And bonus, it will help identify if they have used AI or other methods to source their "work."
- Nathan Prichard
- Fantastic Tool! Thank you so much! I use this regularly to check work and start conversations with students about what they submit.
- Kaitlyn Lavin
- This is, by far, the best and most thorough AI checker! Highly recommend to all educators!
- Matthew Pettett
- Very good tool for detecting AI use in assessment tasks. Ability to see easily see all contributors to a Google Doc is great. Ability to see external pastes VS internal pastes is a massive time saver. Summary of total writing time, and each writing session is also great. Devs have taken on feedback on their software and responded quickly to queries.
- Ian Wilson
- This tool is incredible, allowing me to check student work and verify that it has developed organically and honestly and over what time period. It vastly simplifies and summarizes the version history tool in Google Docs, making the experience of working with a student paper much simpler and less time consuming. After working with it for a while, the typing in a document can be "watched" in a way that helps highlight troubling changes that might be the result of AI or plagiarism. Truly a great extension!
- Rachael Clarence
- Love this program! It is helping in keeping students honest with their work. I am impressed that it will even show more than one author and the extent of each person's contributions.
- Lisa Horner
- This extension is awesome for assessing written work and originality. It helped my students learn that AI is not the way to go with written work.
- Jennifer Menzel
- This app has helped to streamline my essay grading process, especially when it comes to checking for AI cheating.
- Amy LeFevre
- Process Feedback has saved me as an English teacher in a day of AI. I tell the students that all their writing must be completed on the Google Doc I provide, and I can still allow them to type writing assignments because of Process Feedback.
- Kelsey Box
- Such a helpful tool for teaching English!
- Sung Eun Park
- So glad to find this tool. Made my job a lot easier and productive. I was switching from DraftBack, and PF offers much more in-depth analysis.
- Nina Avis
- Useful tool for teachers
- Rebecca Howe
- This is a great resource for students and teachers. The play back video is helpful, but I also really like active typing sessions information, all of the visual representations of text added and removed, etc. Definitely worth trying out.
- Ruben Garza
- Wow. This is awesome whether it be free or not. I'm glad that it is free though, of course. It has so much data, aka proof. Thank you!
- Noriko Nishimoto
- Free and Improved! You can pin point where exactly you want to see students' editing history in the fast forwarding video. I was relieved it's free, and it's much quicker and easier to work with, than the other for fee apps.
- Nora Torreano
- Very helpful as a jumping off point for conversations with students regarding whether or not the work is their own as well as if, when, and how to use AI
- Megan Justice
- I've used a lot of different tools but none has been as comprehensive as this one. From a quick view screen on every submitted assignment to very detailed data when I need it, Process Feedback has been the best tool I've used. Thank you so much! Please keep this one free!
- Ryan Mammarella
- Best essay review extension that I've found so far.
- Sarah Schanke
- Love it! I switched to this plagiarism checker when the old one I used became no longer free. I love it! Videos of what the kids have done, results on what was copy and pasted, and the little time count they spent on the document that's automatically there. It's fantastic! Highly recommend and have told my whole English department about it.
- Ryan Gatton - AHS
- Great product for teachers in this new age of AI! Thank you!
- Susan Ciavarro
- Extremely user-friendly for the busy teacher :). Provides a full overview of the probable sources and contributors. A very helpful tool.
- David Schalm
- Havent used it much but so far it has provided great detailed information about the writing process and helps me to authenticate work being submitted.
- Timmy LEUNG [11DS]
- Very helpful. I'm glad it's free.
- Lisa Marcos
- This is an excellent resource for teachers to help students. It not only shows a number of cut and pastes (which can highlight potential plagiarism) but also is useful for showing a students' editing process. It has been very useful for conversations.
- Abigail Watson
- Great tool to use in school, the reports are very detailed and make the conversations with students and parents easy.
- Fiona Game
- I think this is one of the better tools to understand how students may be using AI. In particular, the tool in the 'Full Report' which appears last of all, called 'Compare changes', allows teachers to see the editing process in a very fine-grained way. I find this one very helpful where a student might be re-typing an "AI response" from a different computer screen.
- Ian Tibby
- I'm the Dean of Students at my school, and this extension has been a game changer and life saver for us. We've used to check any reports of Cheating or Plagiarism and successfully used it to catch some of them. Our students are more likely to do their work properly now as we have this tool to catch them cheating. Thank you guys so much for creating this!
- Dorothy Simon
- I teach high school in a very competitive school, where, unfortunately, AI writing has been invading my classroom steadily. I use it on every assignment my students do on Google Docs. Not only does it help me see where they might have used an AI, but it lets me know how long they actually spent on the assignment. I have been able to use it to retrieve earlier versions of a response/ essay, and check that on an AI identifying program. I love that it lets me check the process on work they did three years ago; as I write their recommendations for college, I like to be sure I'm not referencing something they didn't write on their own. I love that it's right there, and with a few quick clicks, I get the information I need in seconds. I wish I'd had it from the day ChatGPT was released on the world.
- Silvio Mazzella
- I am a high school teacher and I love using the Process feedback for Google docs. This free tool is very useful when grading student writing and it helps me to monitor plagiarism and AI use. In addition, it gives me the opportunity to provide feedback on the student's writing process. I am thankful that this is a free service for all to use.
- ALISON FIORELLI
- This is great, free alternative to backdraft. It would be cool if it flagged large sections being copied and pasted, so I did not have to watch the whole playback.
- Maria Whittle
- I'm a college professor and I find this tool to be very helpful when grading student writing. The reports can help flag AI use, but they are also super helpful to see what the student's writing process was like, which helps me tailor my feedback to their strengths and weaknesses, and offer writing strategies to them going forward. I would definitely recommend this tool to colleagues.
- Emily Okes
- The report and "live" video are full of details that help to monitor students' and writers' work. While it is very helpful to monitor for inappropriate plagiarism or AI use, it can also be used to show how a work's text can be reorganized and edited for improvement. In some cases it seems to show more detail than Google Docs' version history. I am grateful that it is free to help teachers and writers.
- Erik Ingmundson
- It's a great tool. It's useful for identifying potential uses of outside sources. It also can give great insight into a student's writing process, giving teachers the opportunity to provide feedback not only on the text that was submitted, but on the process the student followed in getting there. I REALLY hope this tool remains free!
- K Tappe
- This is a pretty amazing free tool (and I hope it stays that way!) The statistics it is able to provide on writing behavior are invaluable to me as a professor. I particularly like the copy/paste behaviors, as I strictly forbit students from pasting into their working document, so I can observe their writing process. Keep up the good work!!
- Larkin Bond
- This has helped identify AI use as an English Teacher. It is a gamechanger!
- Kimberly Reigle
- This an excellent, user friendly tool for educators.
- Dana Shool
- I just found out about this tool and love that it is free. I had another extension that did the same thing but became a paid service and I was so bummed. This works just as well and I love the video plus large copy/paste event. It is helpful to show students that I have access to this and can easily spot plagiarism/AI use. Thank you!
- Jo Carmona
- In this era of teaching, many educators are pressed to remove measures of student accountability. I'm glad there are still good people making effective tools that preserve the honesty component of academic excellence.
- William Chesser
- I teach at a virtual school and I use this daily in grading. It is a game changer for knowing how my students are doing the work that they turn in. Thank you so much for this incredibly useful tool.