How Good Are Robo-Graders?

Posted by samzenpus on Monday April 23, 2012 @02:15AM from the reading-robots dept.

stoolpigeon writes "With a large study showing software grades essays as well as humans, but much faster, it might seem that soon humans will be completely out of the loop when it comes to evaluating standardized tests. But Les Perelman, a writing teacher at MIT, has shown the limits of algorithms used for grading with an essay that got a top score from an automated system but contained no relevant information and many inaccuracies. Mr. Perelman outlined his approach for the NY Times after he was given a month to analyze E-Rater, one of the software packages that grades essays."

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Re:More importantly by Anonymous Coward · 2012-04-23 02:22 · Score: 5, Funny

How quickly will students learn to game the system to get perfect scores with perfect gibberish?
Noooooooooo.
I had to deal with a Robo grader once during an exam. Time was up and I was still writing. Several large automatic weapons appeared and in a robotic voice it said, "Drop your pen!"
I did immediately and it said, "Thank you for your cooperation."
Or that might have been when I was taking an art class taught by Peter Weller .... I don't remember now.