We first piloted Kyron in ENC 1101, our fully asynchronous online composition course. I primarily used Kyron to reinforce grammar fundamentals, writing concepts, and pre-writing skills.
Students worked through activities focused on grammar and mechanics while practicing concepts that supported larger writing assignments. Because the course is fully online, Kyron also gave students another way to engage with the material whenever they needed it.
Many of our students are balancing work, family responsibilities, and school. One thing I really appreciated about Kyron is that it gave students another opportunity to engage with the material whenever they had time. They may be getting off work late at night, and Kyron provides an interactive way for them to study and practice.
Kyron also helped increase student engagement in the course, which is always one of my biggest goals as an instructor. In an online asynchronous environment, we're always looking for new ways to make the student experience more engaging, more interactive, and more supportive of learning. Kyron gave students another way to engage with course content beyond traditional readings and assignments.
Student feedback was overwhelmingly positive. In terms of engagement, it was pretty positive across the board.
Students appreciated having an interactive way to work through course concepts and practice skills at their own pace. I think they enjoyed having something that felt more conversational and interactive than a traditional online activity.
One thing that stood out was that Kyron is designed to augment learning, not replace faculty. Faculty remain in control of the learning experience, and that's incredibly important.
As AI becomes more prevalent in education, I think it's critical that these tools remain academically, pedagogically, and faculty-led. That has to stay at the core. Working with the Kyron team was also a positive experience because there was a genuine collaboration around course goals and learning outcomes.
One of the potential dangers of AI is that it can remove the sticky part of learning. Learning is messy. It requires inquiry, questioning, and working through challenges.
What makes Kyron different is that it focuses on that messy part of learning. Rather than simply providing answers, it encourages students to think, reflect, and work through questions. It showed me that we can use AI in constructive, inquisitive ways rather than in ways that replace learning.
One area where I saw a noticeable impact was in pre-writing and outline creation for larger assignments.
Historically, many students struggle with creating an effective outline for a major paper. The examples and guided activities within Kyron were extremely useful in helping students understand that process. I felt it was helping students strengthen their pre-writing and planning skills before they began drafting.
I'm still digging into the data, but the early indicators are encouraging. Preliminary results suggest that success rates were better than the previous year.
One of the biggest challenges in online learning is keeping students engaged through the end of the course. Many students simply stop participating before they finish. The early data suggests Kyron may be helping with that, which is exciting to see.
I was surprised by how deep the conversations could go. When I was testing the Kyron system, I intentionally pushed back on some of the prompts and responses to see how it would react.
What impressed me was that it consistently guided me back to thinking more deeply about the topic. It wasn't simply providing answers. It had the ability to introduce new perspectives and spark new ideas. That was one of the most interesting aspects of the experience.
I like the idea of trying new tools. It never hurts to pilot something, see how it works, and evaluate how students grow and succeed with it.
AI can create apprehension in higher education, and understandably so. But if we're looking at data that shows a positive impact on student engagement and learning, I think faculty should at least give it consideration. The most important thing is finding tools that genuinely help students learn.
We need technology that doesn't simply give students answers, but instead encourages creative thinking.
What I like about Kyron is that it feels like you're having a conversation that encourages you to think through ideas and questions. For me, it was a very unique learning experience and one that has a lot of potential to support student learning in meaningful ways.