University of Delaware researcher Joshua Wilson is looking at possible benefits of using automated essay scoring software for more than just quick scoring after standardized exams; he's looking at how effective integrating the software into year-long instruction could be for struggling writers.

"The software Wilson used is called PEGWriting (which stands for Project Essay Grade Writing)," and it "algorithms to measure more than 500 text-level variables to yield scores and feedback regarding the following characteristics of writing quality: idea development, organization, style, word choice, sentence structure, and writing conventions such as spelling and grammar," according to Phys.org.

Wilson's research will be the first to analyze more than just how efficient automated essay scoring systems are at providing feedback and fair scores by looking at how efficient they are in year-long classroom instruction.

In a recent study, Wilson and other collaborators showed that use of automated feedback produced some efficiencies for teachers, faster feedback for students, and moderate increases in student persistence.

This time they brought a different question to their review. Could automated scoring and feedback produce benefits throughout the school year, shaping instruction and providing incentives and feedback for struggling writers, beyond simply delivering speedy scores?

In order to do so, he provided free software subscriptions to teachers in two elementary schools for use in the third, fourth, and fifth grade classrooms throughout the 2014-2015 school year and asked them to provide feedback.

According to the article, teachers responded with fairly positive reviews. The instant scoring on writing assignments motivated many students to work hard and improve their scores.

"Teachers said students liked the 'game' aspects of the automated writing environment and that seemed to increase their motivation to write quite a bit. Because they got immediate scores on their writing, many worked to raise their scores by correcting errors and revising their work over and over," the article said.

There were also some negative aspects, however, such as the instant scores discouraging students who consistently scored poorly and the software not detecting plagiarism.

Wilson doesn't think these things are all bad, though. He says this where the importance of teacher instruction comes in as they pinpoint and help struggling students and monitor and teach against plagiarizing.

Wilson will continue to research automated essay software in order to determine how the software can best help teachers do their job in the classroom. Stay tuned for more from him.

Read the full article here and comment your thoughts below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

07/10/2015