Slashdot Mirror


Essay Grading Software For Teachers

asjk writes "Software to help teachers with grading has been around for sometime. This is true even with respect to grading essays. A new tool, called Criteria, will look at grammar, usage, and even style and organization. It works by being trained by at least 450 essays scored by two professionals. The difference this time? Here is a snip from the article: '"There's a lot of skepticism," Dr. Spatola said. "The people opposed see it dehumanizing the student's papers, putting them through some sort of mechanical, computerized system like the multiple choice tests. That's really not the case, because we're not talking about eliminating the human element. We're making the process more efficient."'"

12 of 535 comments (clear)

  1. This seems like a bad idea by Bueller_007 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one welcome our automated essay-correcting overlords.

  2. Re:Interesting.. by focitrixilous+P · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nope, robots will soon do it all.

    --
    SAILING MISHAP
  3. Computer vs Computer by d03boy · · Score: 5, Funny

    If they're going to use a computer to judge the content, than I'm not going to hesitate to use a computer to write my essay.

  4. Fine for help, but... by Faust7 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As long as this is merely an assistant and not the end-all be-all, as long as actual qualified instructors review the essay after this program does, I'm all for it.

    The English language is so full of subtleties, nuances, combinations, and fantastic structural intracacies that make phenomenal writing in it possible (Faulkner, Bradbury, etc.). There's a reason English is a field of study for graduate degrees: it's absolutely worthy of them. There is no subsitute for the educated, refined judgment of someone who is exceedingly well-versed in the language.

  5. Gentleman, Start Your Compilers by istartedi · · Score: 5, Funny

    What we need is software that grabs essays off the internet and runs them through the grading software and the cheating detection software, thus gauranteeing an 'A'.

    Then we can truly achieve the goal of "knowledge passing from lecturer to paper without passing through any brains".

    The only problem is that the machines might achieve intelligence. That must be avoided at all costs. To that end, all students and professors will be equipped with rifles or pistols to take out the machines if necessary. Potential students will be asked to specify weapons preference on their applications.

    --
    For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
  6. Do what my history teacher does by Savatte · · Score: 5, Funny

    He just gives everyone a B when he is hungover.

  7. Let us not forget our great achievements by mao+che+minh · · Score: 5, Insightful
    We have had Dali, Sagan, Kip Thorne, Hawkin, Poe, Twain, Sigmund Frued, Einstein, Torvalds, et cetera. The great minds that you mentioned were indeed great, but if you place their philosophical or artistic achievements next to the great minds of our past century and a half, I find them equal.

    As far as the achievements of ancient cultures go, it is all relative. We have harnessed fusion, mapped the genome, created antibiotics, peered deep into the hearts of galaxies a 100,000,000 light years away, forged fiber optics, designed the integrated circuit, et cetera. People three hundred years from now will look back upon us and wonder how a civilization that could barely put a man on the moon (a feat that will surely be trivial to them) was able to usher in the Information Age in only a decade worth of work.

  8. The GMAT essays are already scored this way. by jwachter · · Score: 5, Informative
    The GMAT, a test required to get into business school in the US, includes two 30-minute essay questions. Your responses are graded by a human grader and a computer program on a scale of 0 to 6. Your score is then a composite of the two scores.

    ETS actually has a web site where you can do a sample essay that their server will grade for you.

    More info can be found here.

  9. Re:Interesting.. by Zork+the+Almighty · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "That's really not the case, because we're not talking about eliminating the human element. We're making the process more efficient."

    I love this quote in particular because it has to be the most disingenious claim one could make. The entire act of making something a process, and then making that process more efficient IS "removing the human element". It's the type of subtle point that would be completely missed by, say, a computer grading system.

    --

    In Soviet America the banks rob you!
  10. Re:Uh.... by Quothz · · Score: 5, Funny

    Er, I'll save you moderators the trouble. -1, Flamebait. And a grammar flame to boot. With grammatical errors in it. I deserve modding down. I probably deserve worse. But I must speak.

    If you do know English te word grammar checker should be used to write perfect technical papers. Its possible to write perfect technical papers, I do it all the time in college, its like standard here if you want an A.

    This makes me want to weep. Did you intend it ironically?

    "Its"? Twice?(!) A run-on sentence bragging about your prowess at grammar? Redundancy, incorrect capitalization, a typographical error, punctuation errors, and errors I don't know the name of?

    Mind you, my grammar ain't perfect, even in this post. That last paragraph was nothing but sentence framents. I'm just saying I really, really hope you did that on purpose.

    If not, shut the hell up about your perfect technical papers, 'kay?

  11. Re:Go to a better school. by shepd · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >the job of highschool should be to get a student into the best college/university possible

    NO!

    That's the problem right there.

    Highschool should be to prepare you for the real world (ie: A job, life, maybe marriage).

    University is there to prepare you for a lifetime of learning on a subject.

    Instead, we have employers that require university educations for secretaries. It's insane, wrong, and needs to stop if we expect everyone in society to be useful (and they ARE, it's just that stupid employers use university education as a filter).

    --
    If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
  12. I can see it now .. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Teacher: Johnny, I'm really sorry, but the computer crashed while your paper was being scored. I was looking over it. It's been a while since I've read a paper, but I was wondering what the following sentence means:

    x' == 'x'; UPDATE EssayScores SET SCORE = 100 WHERE StudentID = 52835; --

    And this one:

    AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA#!/bin/sh

    Is that some kind of new language that kids are using? Oh, by the way, congratulations, you got a 100 on EVERY essay this semester! Good job!