Platform for Iterative Student Authorship (PISA) is a free web-based essay editor designed for educational purposes. PISA requires no installation or user accounts and features essay revision history as well as other measures to support academic integrity.
Privacy:
This website does not collect, store, or share any personal information about the user. All information is stored locally on the user's browser. When an assignment is saved or opened, it is temporarily sent to a secure server for encryption or decryption only. Absolutely no data is stored or retained on the server. These requests are processed through Netlify's serverless infrastructure.
This site uses Google Analytics to collect anonymous usage data such as page views and browser type. This is not linked to any personal or assignment data.
Acknowledgements:
Quill: Your powerfull rich text editor
Gruvbox: A retro groove color scheme for Vim
Tower of Pisa image edited from a png provided by Vecteezy: https://www.vecteezy.com/free-png/leaning-tower-of-pisa
***
Question: Why does my file look like gobbledygook?
Answer: You are likely looking at the raw text of the encrypted .pisa file. Be sure to use the 'Save' and 'Open' buttons above. You must use this website to view or edit your file.
***
Question: I am writing an essay, how do I save my revision history?
Answer: A revision is automatically saved once per minute as you write your essay. The revisions will be stored within the .pisa file which is downloaded when you click the 'Save' button. To view revisions, upload a .pisa file which was previously saved from this website using the 'Open' button. Then, if you click the 'History' button, the revision history will appear in this output panel.
***
Question: Can I change the size of the essay editor and/or the output panel?
Answer: Yes, click and drag on the bottom right corner of the editor or output panel. If you want to make the output panel larger, you may first have to make the essay editor smaller.
***
Question: I added more text, how do I see the updated word count?
Answer: Click the 'Word Count' button again.
***
Question: How do I export to a pdf, word document, or other document format?
Answer: Sorry, this not currently possible.
Dear Fellow Educators,
In the Spring of 2025, I was asked to teach an introductory Python programming course entirely online. I built PISA for that course to support academic integrity and student understanding for programming assignments. This version has been adapted for writing essays.
To track my students' revision history on their programming assignments, I require that all work and drafts for each assignment be completed using the same file on this website. A revision is saved once per minute while students are writing - as long as changes were made. The revision history is stored in an encrypted format within the file downloaded from this website when the 'Save' button is clicked. To view the essay and revision history, it must be uploaded to this website.
In my class, a significant portion of the grade for each assignment is based on the following criterion:
"Code history demonstrates meaningful engagement with the problem, such as through iterative problem solving, debugging attempts, and logical revisions."
Please note that you can view additional metadata regarding a file via Ctrl+Shift+/.
You are welcome to use this website in your classes. If you have any questions, suggestions, or would like to report a bug, please reach out to me at contact@pisaeditor.com.
I hope this website is as useful to you as it has been for me.
