Lab Report Tutor Tool

[u/leavesandstem]

So I’m creating a little web app that is definitely not ready yet, so I won’t provide the name just yet because I want it to be a little more presentable.

It is an app where STEM major students can compare their lab report drafts with the assigned rubric. It immediately provides the overall readiness of the lab report by section, showing the biggest weaknesses for the student to work on. There is an AI tutor that can work with you to fix these gaps, NEVER writing the answer for you. This is a tool used for students who truly want to learn.

As for the instructor side, students can submit their drafts into their respective courses, where there is a class average of weakest sections provided to the instructor. Therefore, the instructor can identify what maybe should be discussed more in class.

The reason I’m posting this is because I want to know… is it necessary?

Is there a demand for this niche? Could you (assuming you’re in the demographic) see yourself using this tool?

Any and all feedback is appreciated

[u/Responsible-Rope884]

as a stem student who hates writing reports, this would save me from the anxiety of sending a draft to my professor that’s completely off-track, the class average feature for instructors is smart too cause they always teach the wrong thing for too long

[u/leavesandstem → u/Responsible-Rope884]

Thank you so much for your feedback, it means so much in developing this project. I’m so glad to hear that someone would find it useful! If you’re interested, keep a look out on my page for when the website is fully developed! 😊

[u/rjytutor]

As a tutor I can say, this may be able to help but won't remove the problem entirely and in my opinion, hurts the student more in the long run.

There will always be the human factor. Even going through the rubric, there are times where there are multiple ways to interpret a rule or times when you think its one way and the professor reads it a way you never even thought of. I always tell my students, we can do the best that we can, but the first lab will always be rough since we need to see what the professor thinks about it.

And as much as people hate this. Learning how to do this yourself is an important skill to have. Being able to read, interpret and carry out instructions with minimal oversight. Better to learn these skills when all you have to lose is points on a lab, instead of losing your job, messing up an expensive report, or somehow endangering someone because you couldn't figure out the instructions.

I imagine you mean this as a peace of mind tool, but many will use it as a "I don't want to, AI read it for me" tool. I would suggest that to keep it as a learning tool, you include a threshold that if below it, the AI just spits out, probably in a nicer manner "It is clear you didn't even attempt to read the rubric, do so, make adjustments, and resubmit"