UCLA history students wrote twice as many developed arguments with Kudu's Kai Coach

Kudu says students who used its Kai Coach in UCLA's History 2C course wrote twice as many fully developed arguments as the same course's students a year earlier, according to a press release. Developed arguments per paper rose from 1.0 to 2.0, and 87% of final exams cited a specific assigned reading, up from 7%.

The pilot compared two consecutive cohorts with the same instructor, the same writing prompts and the same final exam. The figures come from Kudu; the release does not mention an independent evaluation.

Kai Coach never writes for students. It works only from the readings an instructor assigns and asks questions, such as which passage supports an interpretation, until students can explain and defend their reasoning.

"My students stopped reciting what happened and began arguing why it happened," said Teofilo F. Ruiz, Distinguished Research Professor of History at UCLA. Kudu plans a physics pilot this fall, a comparative literature course in winter 2027 and a larger physics study comparing course sections in spring 2027.