James Christie Automated Marking of Essays for Content

Earliest recorded use is some 2,000 years BC by the Chinese for their Administrators! How long have essays been used for assessment?

Essay Definition 1 of 2 … requires a response composed by the examinee, usually in the form of one or more sentence, of a nature that no single response or pattern of responses can be listed as correct, and the accuracy and quality of which can be judged subjectively only by one skilled or informed in the subject, …

Essay Definition 2 of 2 … but even an expert cannot usually classify a response as categorically right or wrong. Rather, there are different degrees of quality or merit which can be recognized. … attributed to Stalnaker, 1951

Possible criteria for automated essay marking Ease of creating a scoring schema Ability to score on various mark regimes Ease of identification on non-scoring elements Ease of modification should scoring error(s) occur Consistent and reproducible scoring Acceptability of results to human markers, essayists, … Defensibility Accuracy and precision Coachability avoidance Cost

Model Essay The cat sat on the mat.

Marking Schema MarkItem 3catsatmat [max:3]

Content Data Structure 1 z a a * 3 0 n 3 2 z f cat * 0 1 n 0 3 z f sat * 0 1 n 0 4 z f mat * 0 1 n 0

Essay Set ALPHA –The cat sat on the mat. BRAVO –The cat sat on the floor. CHARLIE –The dog lay on the floor. MODEL –The cat sat on the mat.

Process interface What LEVEL of Diagnostics to use [0... 3] : 0 What ESSAY SET to use : catmat Enter SCHEMA to use : catmat ALPHA.EXT. BRAVO.EXT. CHARLIE.EXT. MODEL.EXT. Started on Thursday, February at 15:59:05 Finished on Thursday, February at 15:59:06

Schema Report Essay set catmat Schema Report using... catmat Entities : Entity ID : Entity Type : a f f f Part ID's : z Essay Name : ALPHA.EXT: y y y y BRAVO.EXT: _ y y _ CHARLIE.EXT: _ _ _ _ MODEL.EXT: y y y y

Content Report Essay set catmat Content Report using... catmat Essay Name : Words Sentences Usage[%]Coverage[%]Part: z[ 3] Mark[ 3] %[100] ALPHA.EXT: BRAVO.EXT: CHARLIE.EXT: MODEL.EXT: Started on Thursday, February at 15:59:05 Finished on Thursday, February at 15:59:06 Marked 4 file(s): scanned 4 file(s)

Marking Performance Essay Set First v Second Markers Human v SEAR A 0.704** / 0.700**0.594** / 0.596** B 0.810** / 0.740**0.404** / 0.376** C / * / 0.394** D N/A0.238* / 0.336** Pearson / Spearman Significance **= 0.01 *= 0.05

Future work [style] obtain marked essays for style marking –plain ASCII essays using a common set of metrics –word-processed essays using a common set of metrics augmented with word-processing based metrics

Future work [content] maximise use of active and passive voices cope with spelling (and grammar) errors increased coverage of Bloom’s Taxonomy include non-textual feature(s) develop –better feedback to the essayist –better feedback to the examiner –plagiarism detection mechanism(s)

If manual marking equals Da Vinci’s Helical Screw,

then does SEAR equal the first powered flight?

Is the future equal to the ISS?

Is this the future [for style and content]? EnglishThe cat sat on the mat. ItalianIl gatto era seduto sullo zerbino. GreekI gata ekatse ston kanape. RussianKoshka sidit na matrase. FrenchLe chat s’est assis sur le tapis. GermanDie Katze sass auf dem Teppich. DutchDe kat zat op de mat. SpanishEl gato se sent’s en la alfombra. etc

James R Christie The Robert Gordon University Faculty of Design and Technology School of Computing Room B23b St Andrew Street, Aberdeen ‘Phone +44 [0] Fax +44 [0] URL