Make the Learning Process Visible with Revision History
Revision History is a Chrome extension that helps instructors better understand how students develop their work in Google Docs and Slides. In this article, we’ll explore how Revision History can make the process behind students’ work more visible and how instructors can use that information to support student learning.
In this article
- Why Make the Learning Process Visible?
- What Can You See with Revision History?
- Ways to use Revision History for Teaching and Learning
- Set Expectations with Students
- Getting Started
- Resources
Why Make the Learning Process Visible?
Learning is a process. As instructors, we see the final version of students’ work, but we don’t always see how their ideas evolved into the final submission. While the final submission is important, it doesn’t always help us understand how students developed their thoughts, refined their work, and collaborated with others along the way.
Understanding how students approach and develop their work can help instructors provide more informed feedback and guidance throughout the learning process.
What Can You See with Revision History?
Revision History provides several ways for instructors to see how a document developed over time.
- Replay the development of student work
- Instructors can watch the replay to see how the work progressed from an early version to the final version.
- Review activity and revision information
- Instructors can see information such as large copy/paste activity, revisions, editing sessions, and time spent working on the file.
- In Google Docs, instructors can select Details to view additional analysis of editing, copy/paste, content addition, and voice-to-text patterns.
- In Google Slides, instructors can view contributor information, including the percentage of contributions associated with each collaborator. Note: Revision History for Google Slides is currently in beta, so features may continue to change
Ways to Use Revision History for Teaching and Learning
Understand how students approach their work
Revision History can help instructors look beyond the final submission to better understand how students approached an assignment. For example, Elizabeth Wagner, Senior Lecturer in NC State’s Department of English, uses the replay to observe planning, reorganizing, revising, and other changes throughout the writing process. She then uses those observations to ask students questions and discuss ways they might strengthen their process.
Provide more informed feedback and guide conversations
Instructors can use information about time spent working, editing sessions, and pasted text to guide conversations with students. For example, if a student completes an assignment in one session, you might want to talk with the student about whether taking breaks or spreading the work across multiple sessions could improve their process. If copy/paste activity or other information raises questions about inappropriate AI use, the instructor can use that information as a starting point for a conversation.
Support an intentional assignment process
If your assignment asks students to complete their work in a particular sequence or process, Revision History may help you see how they followed that process. For example, Elizabeth Wagner, Senior Lecturer in NC State’s Department of English, asks students to write their abstracts after they’ve completed a full draft of their paper, and Revision History helps her see whether students followed that direction. Instructors in other disciplines might also consider where specific stages or steps are important in their own assignments.
Set Expectations with Students
When planning to use Revision History, be transparent with students about why you are using the extension. Tell students that you want them to “show their work” and explain that you value not only the final product but also the process of getting there.
Tip: To get a more complete view of how students’ work develops, ask them to use Google Docs or Slides throughout the assignment rather than creating their work elsewhere and transferring it later. Students will also need to share their files with you as an editor. For organization, you can create an assignment folder for each student in Google Drive.
Getting Started
- Install the Revision History Chrome extension
- Sign in with your NC State Google account.
- Open a Google Doc or Slides file that you can edit. Revision History will appear as an option within the Google file.