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Packback Now Helps Educators Recognize Student Engagement and Authenticity in Writing

February 2, 2026 Author: Peter Lannon Read time: 2 min
An image of a teaching helping a student engage with their work

Packback’s new Engagement Insights feature set gives educators real-time visibility into their students’ writing processes, allowing for more personalized and timely instructional support

CHICAGO — February 2, 2026 — Packback, whose instructional AI platform is used by 2300 of colleges and universities around the country to help improve students’ writing and critical thinking, today announced the launch of Engagement Insights, a new feature set that encourages students to engage deeply with the writing process, and gives educators a clear view into that engagement. Designed to encourage process-based learning and promote academic integrity, Engagement Insights sheds light on student effort by providing real-time data on how they plan, draft, and reflect on their work.

According to a 2025 survey by Inside Higher Ed, the vast majority of college students (85%) employ generative AI tools to support them with coursework. In addition to sparking widespread concerns around academic integrity, this use of AI can impede the learning process in deeper ways: completing assignments with a single prompt or click removes the productive struggle that underpins effective learning, a practice known as “cognitive offloading.” This offloading makes the job of instructors more complicated, forcing them to spend an outsized amount of time policing the authenticity of student work.

Embedded into Packback’s award-winning, AI-enabled writing platform, Engagement Insights encourages students to demonstrate their learning throughout the writing process, and  give educators a comprehensive view into the  previously invisible efforts made by their students. Packback’s Engagement Insights measures time spent outlining and organizing sources, patterns of revising, and self-reflection—insights that empower educators to provide students with more specific, actionable feedback, and help educators target instructional interventions to the students who need them most.
“The future of education depends on keeping critical thinking, curiosity, and effort at the center of learning—and to do that, we have to prevent cognitive offloading at the outset of every assignment,” said Kelsey Behringer, CEO of Packback. “This is about encouraging students to take ownership of their learning through revision and reflection, and equipping educators with the powerful insights they need to sustain impactful instruction.”

For more information about Engagement Insights, check out our recent webinar.