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Computers Could Grade Essay Tests Better Than Profs
An anonymous reader writes "Robot essay graders could be the answer to grade inflation. New software being tested turns over the task of grading to computers — this article has an interactive demo of the software. One professor says the computer is far fairer than human graders, who get tired and become inconsistent, or play favorites."
I can't say if a computer is better than a human at marking, but in my engineering subjects, when my name was on the test papers I did not get very good grades (actually at least grade lower than expected). But as soon as all the students were given anonymous numbers the grades went up. Conclusion, the staff could no longer decide to give better grades to their pet students. So in theory, there could be many students who get better grades because there is no more favouritism.
Take Nobody's Word For It.
Back at NIU, I had a lit class in which the female prof on the tenure track nuked all 3 guys in the class. I mean we scored D and F. ALL of the women scored much higher. I got fed up with this and one of my dorm mates gave a paper of his that had earned a A+ from the head of the lit program. It got a D-. After the semester was done, we took all of my papers including the purposely plagiarized one and went to the head. Showed it to him. Apparently, a major investigation was done, and she was released after that. My grades were adjusted up to a B after the head had re-graded all of the men's paper (I gave the head the paper that I had done and let him grade it).
Sometimes, things do work the way that it should.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
What's up with the mass media headlines? Reading the summary actually makes me dumber. It talks about "computers" like they are sentient and grades the tests instead. Having professors first strictly defining the rules, entering them into software and having a computer evaluate those rules is still "professors grading the essays". It's self evident that the grading is better if it's more strictly defined.
Wow, I can build a house faster with this hammer. Headline: Hammers Could Build Houses Faster Than Construction Workers (In Cyberspace)
The lesson you probably learned is that buttkissing gets you further in today's society than delivering good work.
Who said school doesn't prepare you properly for your adult life?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.