What is it about?
Generative AI can assist students with writing, but it can also make it easy for them to hand over too much of the writing process. To address this, I created ProseSpark, an agentic AI writing companion designed for computing students. Instead of generating complete drafts, ProseSpark identifies a suitable way to guide each student based on their needs, proposes a plan, and waits for their confirmation before acting. It can then provide tailored support, such as writing prompts, focused work sessions, feedback, goal setting, and reflection, helping students work through the writing process themselves.
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Photo by Igor Omilaev on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Writing is an essential skill for computing students to communicate complex technical ideas, yet it can also be challenging. Relying on AI to produce text can raise questions about students’ ownership of their work. ProseSpark explores how AI can provide personalized assistance without taking over the task, with the goal of helping students navigate these challenges while developing their own skills
Perspectives
I am passionate about designing learning experiences that give students agency and keep them motivated and engaged. With ProseSpark, I wanted to explore how AI could guide students through difficult parts of the writing process while helping them feel confident in what they create. Next, I plan to evaluate ProseSpark with students to better understand how it might influence their motivation, engagement, and belief in their own writing abilities.
Victoria Brenes
Nova Southeastern University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: ProseSpark: Preserving Student Agency in Computing Writing with an Agentic AI Companion, November 2026, ACM (Association for Computing Machinery),
DOI: 10.1145/3795860.3846245.
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