Slashdot Mirror
Computer Program Makes Essay Grading Easier
phresno writes "c|Net is running a short article on Prof. Bent at the Columbia, Mo., University. The Prof. has developed a computer program which he now uses to grade his sociology students' essays. He claims the program can discern content, and argument flow within sentence and paragraph structure, and has saved him over two hundred hours of reading per semester. How long before he's replaced entirely by his own program to cut down on staff costs?"
Now all the people who seem to think they need to spend 4 hours coloring borders and using alternating pink and purple pens arent going to get any extra marks.
Are we trying to strip the creative juices away from people, and actually require them to write a good essay?
"Long live black system font on white paper!"
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own" - Adam Savage
Here is a short piece from my essay (which got an A+):
"Cellar Door Cellar Door Cellar Door Cellar Door Cellar Door, Cellar Door. Cellar Door Cellar Door Cellar Door."
Introducing Microsoft Virtual Staircase XP Professor Edition 2000 Plus. Tired of moving up and down staircases to determine the flight distance and grades of your thrown paper essays? Enter the 21st century with MSVSXPPE2kP, Microsofts solution to choosing winners. Previously only available to in-house project managers for debugging code, it is now available for only $349.95!
I just submitted this entire thread with the web form, but it seg faulted at the post with the hedgehogs.
What makes you think that the English teachers get paid as much as the math/science guys, especially at a college level?
My father was a high school math teacher. One day, a new assistant principal came by the math & science department lounge and told the chairman of the department (a physics teacher) that he didn't approve of the way he dressed (wearing jeans). The department chair replied "I was passing by the unemployment office the other day. I saw a whole line of assistant principals but not one tenured physics teacher." He wasn't bothered again.
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
So since the professor's time is worth about $36.00/hour and he spends 200 less hours on reading papers...
200 hours * $32.00 = $7200
He teaches about 84 students...
$7200 / 84 = $85.71 refund for each student. It's party time!
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
Okay Slashdot Editors, time to fork out the $$$ to get some auto-moderating going on in these threads! Wait, can this grading program test for humor? No? Fuck it then.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
"But Professor, my original essay was really good! I just had to add a bunch of crap to get past the lameness filter ..."
Cheers,
IT
Power corrupts. PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
I can say this much, I have never had any other professor, outside of the Chem or Physics department, grade my papers like a math professor. Most of the humanities professors just skim over. But in my Calculus class, it was possible to turn in homework and get negative points. For example, you have a problem 1.0 + 1.00 = ?. You write 2. First, half a point off for not figuring in significant digits. Another half a point off for sloppy handwriting. And the full point off for not showing your work. Problem worth one point, your score is negative one point. In some cases, it was better to not turn in anything at all.
Rosco: "If brains were gunpowder, Enos couldn't blow his nose."
1. Students write a draft of their essay, which they then upload via a Web form to this program
2. The program gives them a score on various parts of their essay, giving them valuable feedback on what needs to be improved.
This just in! University English professor discovers the POSIX toolchain. Novel misuse of cat, awk, and sed and friends expected. Film at 11!
I think that says it all about this. There's no way he can train for 50 students papers from just a paper he writes. Until we can see really accurate computer translations of languages, I don't trust this kind of software. (And don't tell me the translate deals on the web are good, because they miss out on a lot of stuff.) Here's my idea of how his program grades the papers:
Either that or:) I'd rather see the prof get some grad students working on the papers. Although some would argue that the code I wrote above might be more accurate.
79% gave up on 1st day in iCLOD city. Can you survive there? [iclod.com]
I spent 3 minutes reading about it and I gave up.
My other first post is car post.
First, moving around quickly, and with purpose, is a true sign of character. Secondarily, bustle(e.g. hustle) yields more product for the working types. "Hustle and bustle are like my right and left arms," said Li'l Spicy in his famous "Hustle and Bustle Are Like My Right and Left Arms" speech. Webster's defines bustle as "excited and often noisy activity; a stir." A stir, indeed. Finally, sometimes gross stuff can be funny.
Here are some links:
- Turn It In
- Penny Arcade
It is now my intention to play video games for several hours.Sources:
The Brothers Chaps (2004).Homestar Runner. Retrieved April 8, 2005 from www.homestarrunner.com
Random Source (2005). that you won't read because you were too lazy. Retrieved April 8, 2005 from www.toreadthisfar.com
(I have four words for this post: "Too much half-asleep effort")
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
But can we teach it to spot dupes and use it on slashdot? (and does it have a "Rolland" filter?)
So lets see : An independent investigation by a Columbia university panel says one thing. A load of bloggers say something else.
Yes, my analytical mind tells me the bloggers have more credibility. I think I'll believe them.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
WTF is a word processor? I write documents in LaTeX ;-)
What, his program can't read a DVI?
Tom
Someday, I'll have a real sig.
It's called Photoshop.
Most universities already have this service -- it's called Business School.
Bemopolis
"I guess the moral of the story is, don't paint your airship with rocket fuel." -- Addison Bain
Student: "But ... but ... but I salivated when I heard the bell ring! That's what I'm supposed to do!!"
Professor: {shakes his head sadly}
[You have a stable society when some nut guns down a schoolyard and the law doesn't change.]
When was the last time a sociologist wrote a sophisticated program. I mean the way he is advertisng is it, he proclaims the program is capable of understanding the document. Thats insane. Do the guys at the AI lab at MIT know that some sociologist in Missouri is kicking their asses.