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?"

Pretty

[SoloFlyer2]

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!"

Re:Cheating

[Anonymous Coward]

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."

Wait until Microsoft gets their hands on THIS!

[Paperweight]

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!

Re:The program DOES NOT grade the essays!

[Anonymous Coward]

I just submitted this entire thread with the web form, but it seg faulted at the post with the hedgehogs.

Re:How long...

[mooingyak]

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.

Save $$$ on tuition now?

[d474]

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!

Use it for Moderating SLASHDOT?

[d474]

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.

A new excuse

[IntelliTubbie]

"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

Calculus

[John Seminal]

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.

Newsflash!

[pnatural]

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!

Re:Not the world's best plan

[JoshRosenbaum]

Of course, the effectiveness of a trained machine is limited by how big a computer you have, and how well you train it.

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:

srand;
my $grade = rand(100);
print "Your grade is: $grade \%.\n";

Either that or

# $number_of_keywords_stuff done here.
srand;
my $grade = 50 + rand($number_of_keywords_found);
print "Your grade is: $grade \%.\n";

:) 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. ;)

Re:Cheating

[Cryptnotic]

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.

"A well thought out Slashshdot Post"

[Headcase88]

Some profs at least claim to be a little more discerning when a page is longer than recommended. Everyone probably has at least one prof with the story (whether fact or fiction) of a student that handed in 3 pages of worthwhile material with multiple page data from a semi-related source sandwiched in, and how perople like that get a lower mark. Maybe I should make a long post and see what happens [homestarrunner.com].

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 [turnitin.com]
• Penny Arcade [penny-arcade.com]

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")

No more dupes

[psychgeek]

But can we teach it to spot dupes and use it on slashdot? (and does it have a "Rolland" filter?)

Re:term papers...

[gowen]

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.

Re:"written using a word processor worth 50 points

[tomstdenis]

WTF is a word processor? I write documents in LaTeX ;-)

What, his program can't read a DVI?

Tom

Re:Intresting

[Sir Holo]

It's called Photoshop.

Re:Intresting

[Bemopolis]

Most universities already have this service -- it's called Business School.

Bemopolis

Re:term papers...

[LaCosaNostradamus]

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}

Sociologist writing a sophisticated program

[eestar]

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.