Online Grading shooting for an A

A sometimes reluctant writer, Robin Squirrell was nevertheless excited to compose an essay asserting that Friar Lawrence was the “Romeo and Juliet” character most to blame for the deaths of the star-crossed lovers.

Robin’s enthusiasm was heightened because she knew she wouldn’t have to wait long for feedback.

“It takes, like, two seconds,” she said, beaming when she recalled that the automated essay scoring system used at East Haven High School had given her some of the highest marks in the class for the content and organization of her work.New systems allow students to get quick online feedback on their writing.

The major players providing this service as the Pennsylvania based Vantage Learning which relies on an artificial scoring engine called IntelliMetric and ETS which is better known for administering SAT tests has an essay assessment program called Criterion.

As long as they’re using this as an assessment tool and not to replace teachers I have no problem. I wish someone would put this on a public site so we could all make use of it.

For the full article, check out the Courant article