Hi,
I was wondering if adding automated grading for Essay Type / Short answer questions has been considered. Also, is there any work being done in this regard?
Actually, I developed a system to grade English essays as part of a computer science course. For the past few months I have been thinking about improving the system and making it more usable. Today I came across moodle at slashdot.org and I think its a really great platform to promote learning and I think such a feature would be a good addition to moodle and so decided to inquire here and see what others feel about it.
How such a system would work:
When the teacher is setting up the quiz they would also provide some sample answers. Generally these answers would cover a range of scores. For example if a question has a maximum score of 10 points. The teacher will provide 4-5 sample answers: one answer for range 0-3, one for 4-5, one for 6-7, one for 8-9 and one for 10 points. These answers will then be used to grade the student response. Typically, the more sample answers the teacher provides the more accurate the system will be.
The system can also be setup to provide a range of score instead of an absolute score. This way the students get an instant feedback about their performance and the final grade will be given by the teacher when they grade the student response. This also ensures that the system does not result in giving incorrect grades to students.
A note: The system I developed was to grade GMAT essays on a scale of 0-6. So, I know it works pretty well for long Essay type questions. I have not tested it for shorter answers. But I am confidant that it can be extended to work with shorter answers as well. Please note that such a system is already used by ETS to grade GMAT essay responses.
Please let me know if this is something the moodle community would be interested in.
Regards,
Saiyam