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Should a Computer Grade Your Essays?

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Case Study 11: Should a Computer Grade Your Essays?
The case study discusses the April 2013 launch of Harvard/MIT’s joint venture MOOC (massively open online course) essay scoring program, utilizing AI (artificial intelligence) technology to grade educational essays and short answers, with immediate feedback and ability to revise, resubmit, and improve grades.
In 2012, a group of colleagues, Les Perleman, Mark Shermis, and Ben Hamner, introduced over 16,000, K7-12 standardized school tests to the AES (automated essay scoring software) to compare results of hand-scored essays; the results appeared to produce a more accurate grade, however, no official statistical studies were performed to accurately maintain the claim.
Essay Raters (e-Rater), developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS), allowed Perelman to access, and analyze the technology. ETS uses vocabulary and content to score criteria, such as essay length, conjunctive adverb usage, and large word usage, in combination with paper and word length, words per sentence, and word complexity. The downside is the programs’ inability to differentiate factual from nonfactual information, intent, or meaning. Some educators banned to form the group, Professionals Against Machine Scoring of Student Essays in High-Stakes Assessment; they are concerned educators will reduce writing standards to conform to software constraints.
Laudon & Laudon further discuss the probability of lost jobs due to computers taking the place of hired graders, and although this is an educational cost reduction for education, it conveys the potential of increasing unemployment. The e-Rater can score 16,000 essays in 20 seconds, whereas that is impossible from a human grader; additional pitfalls within the scoring criteria, as well as the system’s inability to distinguish thought from gibberish, are notable detractors, at this

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