The digitisation of writing in higher education: exploring the use of Wordtune as an AI writing assistant

Background: Accelerated by the advent of AI-powered writing assistants, writing, as a crucial aspect of higher education assessment and practice, has undergone rapid digitisation in recent decades. However, there is a paucity of empirical research on its use in the everyday practice of students and staff. This study explores the use of Wordtune, an AWCF tool, to determine its benefits and limits from a user perspective. Methods: The research was conducted through a large-scale survey of Wordtune users. Descriptive statistics were generated, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was performed, and open-ended questions were analysed using content analysis. Results: Wordtune users are typically confident English speakers and use it alongside other tools such as Grammarly and Google translate. Wordtune is perceived by users as offering low-order benefits in terms of rephrasing and writing more grammatically but also as having high-order benefits such as overcoming mental blocks and creating opportunities for language learning. Users acknowledged very few drawbacks to using Wordtune. Conclusions: Our paper concludes with pedagogic suggestions for educators to support the use of AI writing assistants for student language learning.