20 May 2004
Indiana First With Computerized Grading

I gotta wonder how well this really works. The online demo is, of course, available only to teachers and requires an extensive registration process, so there's no really independent evaluation available. But still ...

Grading essay's is one of the most mind numbing things a teacher has to contend with, and if this system really is workable, it'd be a boon to that profession, no doubt. On the other hand, if the system is as good as claimed, it should seriously be considered for the Turing Test.

Chances are, however, that the system is merely an expanded grammer and spell checker, and cannot really judge content at all. In this case, using it might be a positive disservice to those students who depend on teacher feedback to gain new skills.

Computerized grading has been talked about previously, however, the New York Times reports that Indiana has become the first state to grade high school English essays by computer. The computerized grading process, called 'e-rater', uses a 6-point rating scale and uses artificial intelligence to 'mimic the grading process of human readers'.

(link) [Slashdot]

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