The University of Sydney has partnered with private equity owned tutoring company Studiosity to provide students access to assignment feedback and free online tutoring services, as contract cheating and AI usage become sector wide concerns.
Studiosity, founded 20 years ago, is used by students at over 25 Australian universities across every state and territory including UNSW, Curtin, Maqauire, and Monash. The company also does business with British and Canadian universities.
The service was initially trialled for postgraduate students in 2023 and then rolled out for all students in Semester 1 this year.
Starting in Semester 2, the service has been added to all Canvas course pages as a plugin and has its own section on the canvas home page.
Every student can upload up to 10 assignments of any kind including essays, research papers, reports, and reflections to the service every semester and receive feedback within 24 hours on structure, spelling, grammar, and citations.
Honi tested this service, submitting two first year essays requesting feedback on all three categories. A response was received within the 24 hour deadline.
The tutor acted as a copy editor, explaining spelling and grammar suggestions in detail and providing general essay style feedback like suggesting the student signpost body paragraph points in their introduction.
The students whose papers were reviewed did not think the feedback differed from free online editing tools, telling Honi that “Grammarly or Quillbot could spot similar mistakes and make the same suggestions.”
However, other students Honi spoke to, including two international students from China, said they would use the service. When submitting, the service provides a feature for students to flag if their primary language is not English.
“It’s hard to tell sometimes when your language is odd or maybe does not sound right,” one student said. “Having someone professional read over it could be very helpful.”
While a human reviews each submission, digital tools also provide some feedback, referencing a “system” that detects American spelling and notes grammar errors such as missing commas. The feedback also includes links to Studiosity produced videos on basic grammar rules like subject verb agreement and the use of apostrophes.
A University of Sydney did not provide any data on student outcomes so far from the trial or the rollout this year, but multiple other Universities have told Honi they had evidence the service improved student outcomes and retention.
A UNSW spokesperson said that over 4,000 students had used Studiosity since 2020 and that use was associated with “higher performance”, while UTS told Honi that a study of over 1,500 uses of the writing feedback showed an increase in student confidence and academic performance.
Studiosity also allows students to access ‘Peer Mentors’ over voice call or chat if they have any question related to a university assignment.
Honi also tested this service asking a tutor to give advice on how to write in a reflective style that was still academic. The answers provided were generalised and did not address the content of the assignment but were easy to understand and addressed queries directly.
Students can view which university the tutor comes from and their rating from other students. The University of Sydney spokesperson confirmed to Honi that student feedback was provided to the University in monthly reports and said that “any negative rating prompts Studiosity to conduct a review to ensure the feedback aligns with their service standards.”
The spokesperson told Honi that the service was being offered as a supplement to existing academic support services like Learning Hub but would also function “outside of regular office hours and on the weekend.”
There have been concerns from the NTEU in the past that casual staff like tutors are not paid enough to do the same work and some tutors due to the payment code of the assignment are unable to give detailed feedback.
The rollout of Studiosity coincides with a massive increase in serious academic misconduct cases across Australian universities.
The University of Sydney reported 1038 cases referred to the regulator in 2023, up from just 92 in 2021. 940 cases of contract cheating were recorded in 2023 and the government has now blocked over 400 websites that offer essay writing services to students.
A student wide canvas announcement this week warning students against using contrast cheating services contained links to Studiosity. The university has also launched an AI in education page, informing students how to use AI tools like ChatGPT in a way that maintains academic integrity.
Students who implement Studiosity feedback are required to cite the service in their final assignment.
One education agent who has also worked for tutoring services targeting international students told Honi universities were “worried” about losing control of cheating and these services were attempts at mirroring the academic support outside services provided.
“This is clearly an attempt to dissuade students from going elsewhere,” he said. “Keeping students in house also allows universities to keep the data and track student behaviour.”
All the universities Honi contacted, including the University of Sydney, declined to disclose how much they are paying for the services, citing confidential vendor agreements.
The company received a $10 million private equity investment in 2021 as it began to pivot its business model towards universities and now over 80% of its revenue comes from tertiary institutions.
The academic board of the company included multiple former university executives with former Deputy Vice Chancellor’s from La Trobe and Macquarie sitting alongside VC’s from British universities like York University and the University of Bedfordshire.
Their website claims they “only hire graduates from universities ranked in the top 10% globally” and that “1 in 20 applicants” successfully land a role as a tutor.
Honi sent a detailed list of questions to Studiosity asking how much it charged for its services, how much it uses AI tools, and how it trained tutors, but the company declined to comment on any matter related to its partnerships with universities.
