Tuesday, April 09, 2013

Essay Grading Vs. Essay Writing Software Race

Trigger

New York Times recently published an article titled “Essay-Grading Software Offers Professors a Break” (4/4/2013). This software was introduced by the EdX Consortium founded by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “[EdX] will make its automated software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it. The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks.”

What are these other tasks? Who frees the student from writing those essays?

Import

It will be only a matter of time until students use essay writing software to outsmart the grading software.

Viewed from this perspective, what is the importance or benefit of traditional essays for the educational assessment of students in the 21st century?

I have an inkling that traditional forms of student assessment go the way of the Dodo bird! J

Further Reading

See, e.g. my earlier blog on education reform.

No comments: