How DraftTrail works
Every piece of writing leaves a trail: first words, pauses, rewrites, and sometimes pasted text. DraftTrail records that trail so it can be replayed.
What is recorded
- Each change in the DraftTrail writing box: what was typed or deleted, where, and when.
- Whether text was typed or pasted (or dropped in).
- How many times the student left the page while writing, and for how long.
What is not recorded
- Anything outside the DraftTrail writing box: other apps, websites, the screen or the camera.
- Nothing is sent to a server. The recording is saved on the student's device and in the .drafttrail file they download.
What the teacher sees
- Flags to look at: large pastes, a high share of pasted text, very few corrections, unusually fast typing, a long essay in very little time, leaving the page often, or a file whose text doesn't match its own recording.
- Numbers: words, % pasted, active writing time, sessions, revisions, thinking pauses.
- A chart of the essay's length over time with paste markers, and a replay with pasted text highlighted.
Limits to know
- A student could type out text from another source by hand. Replay often shows this as steady typing with no pauses or corrections.
- Tech-savvy students could try to edit a .drafttrail file. DraftTrail checks that the final text matches its recording and flags it if not.
- Flags are reasons to talk with the student, not proof.