Versioning student work to emphasise process
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Version control is a powerful tool commonly used in large software projects. It is valuable for other types of project too, including academic writing.
This blog is cited in a short guide on Assessment in the Age of AI by University College Cork.
Probably more useful than the blog is this handout I provide to students and academics who are interested in versioning but may not be familiar with the concept.
Motivation
Google Docs is one of the easiest ways to get started with versioning. It is not the best system — especially compared to a dedicated tool like Git — but it works and is easy-to-use.
Two immediate advantages of versioning student work are:
- Structure: the expectation that writing projects should have multiple, dated versions can reduce the tendency to write (or copy) everything in one big draft, encouraging instead a more deliberate approach to writing.
- Transparency: the contributions of individual students to groupwork are highlighted clearly, alerting the group and the teacher to any disparaties in effort.
Versioning is not a general solution for plagiarism and AI usage, although it can be considered a hurdle — to be combined with others — against ineffective approaches to writing.
How-to
Use versioning as a student
Create a new Google Docs file and give it an appropriate name, such as AIandFoodPaper.
Decide what your first task will be; for example, it could be write a rough draft of the project structure. When you have written this draft, select:
File > Version History > Name Current Version
Give a descriptive name to the version1. In this case, it could be:
Drafted a project structure for AI and Food paper
Your next version might be:
Drafted an introduction, focusing on AI in data analysis
Each time you create a version, it is saved to the version history. This can be viewed by you or anyone else with edit access:
File > Version History > View Version History
Versions are grouped by month and include details, such as the version name, date/time saved and version author. Contributions by different authors to the same file will be highlighted in a unique colour2.
When you select a version, any edits (additions, deletions) are displayed.
If a major error is introduced in a project, a previous version can be restored at any time.
Examples
Named versions should typically involve a substantial, self-contained change.
Here are some good examples:
Drafted a structure for the project
+ Title: AI Technology in the food industry
+ 1. Introduction
+ 2. Data Analysis
+ 3. Product Design
+ 4. Computer Vision
+ 5. Conclusions
Clarified and developed statement regarding new AI technology
- AI technologies like ChatGPT display human-like intelligence
- and may allow the automation of tasks normally done by humans.
+ AI technologies like ChatGPT are based on Large Language Models
+ (LLMs), which --- although powerful --- have limitations.
+ Currently, for example, they have limited capacity
+ to problem-solve when presented with novel scenarios (TODO: add ref).
Added reference to support claim regarding AI limitations
- Currently, for example, they have limited capacity
- to problem-solve when presented with novel scenarios (TODO: add ref).
+ For example, Crowley (2042), compared humans with an AI in a
+ series of problem-solving activities and found that humans
+ out-performed the AI in 20% of the activities.
Bad examples come in broadly two forms.
The first is a large set of trivial versions. For example, 10 different versions that correct individual typos, which could have been grouped into one version if handled together. Every change or new sentence does not necessarily warrant its own version.
The previous example above could have been longer, while still being one version:
- Currently, for example, they have limited capacity
- to problem-solve when presented with novel scenarios (TODO: add ref).
+ For example, Crowley (2042), compared humans with an AI in a
+ series of problem-solving activities and found that humans
+ out-performed the AI in 20% of the activities.
+ This suggests that there is still a role for
+ humans in the performance of these tasks.
+ However, there was one key limitation of Crowley's work...
+ ...
The second bad example is a single version with a complex set of unrelated changes. This might be a version that includes the deletion of one section, the addition of two others, a change in the title, the addition of images, and a restatement of the central thesis. These changes could probably have been sub-divided and given their own versions.
Inevitably there are occasions where different types of change have been made, which can be referred to in a single description:
Updated figure 3 and corrected typos in main text
However, an effort should be made to avoid doing a substantial amount of unstructured work across the entire paper that is then grouped into one version. Each time you approach your project, you should be thinking: “What specific task am I focusing on now”.
Use versioning as a teacher
Submission of work
To make the version history accessible, students need to share the actual Google Docs file.
If the file needs to be passed through a plagiarism-detector, they can also download the file in an appropriate format suitable for upload.
To share the Docs file, select:
File > Share > Share with Others
To ensure there are no issues with file access, the General Access setting in the popup dialog can be changed from “Restricted” to “Anyone with a Link”. This is important primarily for cases where a teacher does not have a Gmail account (rare).
When you receive this link, you should be able to access the version history as described earlier.
If you also require students to upload the file to an LMS like Canvas or Blackboard, they will first need to download the file in a suitable format.
In File > Download both Word (.docx) and .pdf formats are available.
Review
The version history is a supplement to the assessment process. A good version history might demonstrate:
- Consistent work on the project over time
- Evidence of iteration and editing of own writing
- Descriptive version names that identify major changes
- Solutions to different writing problems (referencing, logic, organisation, visualisations, editing)
- Balance of workload across collaborators (group projects)
If you are suspicious that a project has been plagiarised or AI-generated, the version history is another tool for you to evaluate the process behind the writing.
When feedback on writing is a part of your assessment process, the version history provides a useful reference point for both student and teacher.
“How many versions?”
Students might ask the question:
How many versions will I need to get a good mark?
Similar questions are often asked about numbers of citations and numbers of words — they all usually miss the point.
Any significant writing project will consist of more than one version, usually many more, but a precise number cannot be given. It is possible for there to be 100 versions that each only make trivial changes (typos, spelling) — the high number does not necessarily reflect strong writing.
In comparison, 10 or 20 versions, which showcase a range of activities, including additions, deletions, rewordings, citations and clarifications, might be more compelling evidence of effort. If the students get the impression that they are trying to hit a number, rather than approach their writing in a structured manner, then the exercise is a waste of everyone’s time.
Background
Version control systems
There are version control systems, tools and philosophies. To keep things simple: version control involves assigning a unique number or identifier to different versions of your project.
When you update your computer or phone you move from an older to a newer version of the operating system. A move from Windows 10 to 11 or Android 12 to 13 usually involves several major changes to the underlying code that users are advised to adopt. Behind-the-scenes, programmers usually have more intricate versioning systems, with many minor versions existing between major releases.
Git is probably the most popular version control system among writers of computer programs and technical documentation. Git is typically used in conjunction with GitHub, a web-based platform for hosting versioned projects and structuring collaboration.
Projects are iterative
Working on any large project often demands working with versions. When writing a paper, you typically have multiple drafts. It can be useful to distinguish these with appropriate names. For example: myDraft1.docx, myDraft2.docx, and so on. This is a simple form of version control, although it gets messy. The first scientific paper that I published had 13 drafts!
Another problem with this approach is that it becomes difficult to actually compare across the versions. If draft 12 and 13 each have dozens of pages and numerous changes, how can you actually find what you changed?
Version control systems — in simple terms — allow you to edit only a single file while storing a history of its different versions, any of which can be restored.
Conclusion
Students are asked to write because writing is considered useful. Muddled thoughts can be clarified once an attempt is made to write them down. Extracting key information on a topic and combining them into an overview is often far more effective than merely reading about the topic.
Although writing is a process, student work is often corrected as a static artifact. The final version is assessed and deemed a reflection of that underlying process. In an era of Large Language Models, there is an increasing probability that this final version is the only version and it was drafted by an undetectable AI.
Perhaps then the process of writing — the thing that we value — needs to be re-emphasised. An analog solution is simply to require students to perform their writing in-person. However, this is not always a fair, accessible or practical approach. Serious essays, literature reviews and group projects often involve many hours of work, dead-ends and revisions. It is not feasible to translate this process to an in-person scenario, and it is also not aligned with a workplace that is increasinly digitalised and dispersed.
To work effectively, both student and teachers have to buy into the idea that versioning helps them both. It helps students to structure their writing process, protects them against lost work and helps keep track of their collaborations. For teachers, they gain insights into the student’s writing process and find additional opportunities for discussion.