About Western Governors University
Western Governors University (WGU) is a nonprofit, fully online university dedicated to providing accessible, high-quality education to a diverse student population. Focusing on competency-based learning, WGU enables students to progress through their programs based on demonstrated mastery of skills and knowledge rather than time spent in class. Serving over 175,000 students, WGU emphasizes flexibility, personalized support, and practical skill development to prepare graduates for success in the modern workforce.
Partnership Overview
In April 2024, WGU partnered strategically with Grammarly to integrate the Writing Score API into its Learning Management System (LMS). While this enabled WGU to quantify impact and glean data-driven insights into student writing progress, the partnership went beyond metrics alone. By giving students access to Grammarly’s suite of writing support tools, WGU ensured learners could:
- Receive real-time feedback on grammar, clarity, spelling, and tone.
- Leverage authorship and transparency features, enhancing academic integrity.
- Streamline revision and proofreading with in-the-moment suggestions.
Overall, this collaboration aimed to elevate student writing quality, provide faculty with insightful evaluation tools, and streamline administrative processes—paving the way for a more efficient, high-impact learning experience.
Challenges
Writing Support for 175,000 Students
Supporting a large and diverse student body requires scalable solutions that provide immediate and continuous feedback on writing assignments. WGU needed a tool that could offer real-time assistance to over 175,000 students, ensuring they submit their best work while building essential communication skills.
Faculty Efficiencies
With a significant number of evaluations to manage, WGU faculty required a consistent, automated tool to assess writing competency efficiently. The goal was to cover key aspects such as sentence structure, grammar, word choice, mechanics, and organization, allowing faculty to focus more on evaluating sentiment and critical thinking rather than technical writing issues.
Solutions Implemented
Grammarly’s Writing Score API Integration
Grammarly’s Writing Score API was seamlessly integrated into WGU’s proprietary LMS in September 2024, automating a significant percentage of assessments across various disciplines—including General Education, Technology, Business, Health, and Education. By providing a comprehensive and scalable writing partner for students, this integration offers real-time feedback on various aspects and stages of the writing process, enabling learners to proactively identify areas for improvement before submission. On the institutional side, the Writing Score API streamlines administrative processes by reducing evaluation time and enhancing performance assessment accuracy.
“We are excited to embed Grammarly’s in-the-moment feedback into our teaching methods while maintaining a student-centric approach. By incorporating this AI technology, we can provide truly personalized learning experiences and meet students where they are.”
— Debbie Fowler, WGU Senior Vice President, Academic Delivery
Authorship and Transparency Features
With Grammarly’s Authorship features enabled, students can easily categorize external text sources while writing, ensuring they accurately represent their own work and maintain proper attribution. This heightened visibility enhances transparency in the writing process and fosters an open dialogue around the use of AI and other tools. As a result, faculty can shift from policing academic integrity to offering more meaningful instruction, guiding students on responsible AI integration rather than simply flagging potential violations. Ultimately, this approach reinforces ethical writing practices and supports all students in meeting the required learning outcomes.
Comprehensive Writing Support
Beyond automated scoring, Grammarly provides a full suite of writing assistance that helps students learn and improve through every stage of their writing journey. Features such as contextual grammar checks, clarity suggestions, and in-the-moment style guidance empower learners to refine their drafts independently, increasing their confidence and competency over time. Faculty members benefit as well, devoting less time to mechanical edits and more time to personalized feedback on content, critical thinking, and mastery of course objectives.
“I see Grammarly as an essential tool for improving student communication skills and career readiness. The time saved on basic edits allows me to focus on more personalized feedback.”
— WGU Faculty & Staff Survey
Results and Outcomes
Since implementing Grammarly’s Writing Score API, WGU has witnessed remarkable progress in multiple areas. As of March 2025:
- Institution-Wide Adoption: ~70% of WGU (across students, employees, and Academy members) has adopted Grammarly as part of their daily learning and workflows.
- Writing Sessions Improved: 82% of writing sessions show improvement, indicating that most users regularly adopt Grammarly’s suggestions.
- Reduction in Critical Errors: Overall 69% fewer unresolved critical writing errors, reflecting enhanced clarity and correctness.
“I never planned on using Grammarly, but when WGU gave us access and I first used it, I was so impressed! I would never want to write a paper without it!”
— WGU Student Survey
Writing Quality and Performance
- Faculty Satisfaction: 88% of faculty and staff surveyed expressed satisfaction with the Writing Score API’s impact on operational efficiency, citing reduced review times and more consistency in writing evaluations.
- Employees’ usage (faculty, staff, and evaluators) with 84+ total hours of active engagement across the employee user group.
- 59% of faculty and staff report saving 30–60+ minutes per day on writing evaluations, while 60% of students say the same—time that can now be directed to performance assessments or deeper learning.
“Integrating the Writing Score API significantly improved operational efficiency. I’ve noticed we can spend more time on nuanced evaluations, rather than repetitive grammar checks.”
— WGU Faculty & Staff Survey
Operational Efficiencies and Cost Savings
- With improved writing quality and stronger submissions, WGU reduced the median evaluation time (MET) by 2.5 minutes—surpassing its 2-minute goal by 125%. Multiplied by 3.5 million evaluations, that translates to nearly 146,000 hours saved and $2.5MM in annual savings.
- Performance Assessment (PA) attempts dropped from 1.43 to 1.28 per FTE student. These writing- or project-based tasks demonstrate mastery in WGU’s competency-based model. Fewer attempts signal students are delivering stronger work from the start, speeding progress to completion.
- Automation Growth: As of early 2025, a substantial share of WGU’s Performance Assessments (68% of current assessments) leverage the Writing Score API, freeing up faculty capacity for deeper student mentorship.
Conclusion
The partnership between Western Governors University and Grammarly has significantly impacted student success and faculty efficiency. By integrating Grammarly’s Writing Score API, WGU has provided its large and diverse student body with essential writing support, ensuring higher-quality submissions and fostering the development of critical communication skills. Additionally, the automation and transparency features have streamlined faculty evaluation processes, allowing educators to focus more on content and less on technical writing issues. As WGU continues to leverage Grammarly’s innovative solutions, the institution is well-positioned to maintain its commitment to accessible, high-quality education in the evolving AI landscape.
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