Give AI Feedback on Student Google Docs

Wayground reads a student's Google Doc and drafts margin comments in your voice: the same kind of feedback you'd write yourself, just faster and more consistent across a stack of papers. You review each comment, edit anything you want, and add the ones you approve straight into the Doc. You can do this for a single doc or many at once.

What it does

• Reads a Google Doc and writes suggested margin comments tied to specific spots in the text

• Lets you steer the tone and focus (encouraging, direct, question-based, action-oriented) and shape feedback around evidence, structure, or citations

• Can infer a rubric from the assignment if you don't provide one, or use one you supply

• Optionally runs an integrity check for AI-writing and plagiarism signals alongside the feedback

Give feedback on a single Google Doc

Step 1: Open the Doc and start feedback

1. Open the student's Google Doc.

2. Click the Wayground icon to open the side panel.

3. Choose Give student feedback.

Step 2: Set up the feedback

On the setup screen you can configure:

• Subject & Grade: so feedback is pitched at the right level

• Add more docs (optional): add other Docs to give feedback on several at once (see Give feedback on several Docs at once below)

• Integrity check (optional): turn on Check for AI & plagiarism to include an integrity report. (See the integrity article for what this checks and its weekly limit.)

• Instructions for AI (optional): tell the AI how to give feedback. For example: "Lead with genuine praise for what's working before suggesting improvements. End each comment with one concrete step the student can act on immediately."

• Feedback style: choose how comments should sound and what they should focus on, using the pills: Encouraging, Direct, Ask questions, Actionable, and focus areas like Evidence, Structure, and Citations

• Add a rubric (optional): Import a rubric or pull one from your State library. If you don't add one, Wayground infers an appropriate rubric from the assignment

When you're set, click Generate feedback. (The button shows how many docs it covers, for example "Generate feedback for 1 doc.")

Step 3: Review the suggested comments

Wayground shows "Analyzing…" while it reads the Doc, then presents the suggestions as Review feedback cards. Each card shows the proposed comment and the part of the text it's attached to. For each one you can:

• Edit the wording

• Accept the comment

• Delete it

Take whatever you like, change what you want, and skip the rest.

Step 4: Add the comments to the Doc

When you're happy with your selections, click Apply to Doc. As the panel puts it: "Comments you accept are added to your Google Doc." They appear as real margin comments, authored by you, exactly as if you'd typed them in yourself.

Give feedback on several Docs at once

When you have a stack of papers to get through, queue up multiple Docs:

• On the setup screen, use Add more docs to add Docs one at a time, or paste multiple Doc links, or pick them from the Google Drive picker

• Set your instructions, style, and rubric once; they apply to the whole batch

• Generate, then review each Doc's comments in turn before applying

It's the same flow as a single doc, repeated across the set, so your feedback stays consistent from paper to paper.

Adding an integrity check

If you turn on Check for AI & plagiarism during setup, Wayground also produces an integrity report you can open from the feedback panel via View Full Integrity Report. It shows AI-writing signals and similarity to online sources for the Doc.

For what the report contains and the weekly limit on integrity checks, see Check Student Work for AI Use and Plagiarism.

Tips

• Write your instructions like you'd brief a co-teacher. The more specific you are about tone and focus ("praise first, one action step per comment"), the more the feedback sounds like you

• Use a rubric for consistency. Importing your rubric (or pulling from the State library) keeps feedback anchored to the same criteria across every student

• Review before you apply. The comments are drafts. A quick pass to edit or cut keeps the final feedback genuinely yours

Related articles

• Grade Google Classroom Assignments with Wayground: for scoring whole-class submissions against a rubric

• Check Student Work for AI Use and Plagiarism

• Troubleshooting the Wayground AI Chrome Extension