Using automated feedback to develop writing proficiency

AbstractMassive open online courses (MOOCs) provide hundreds of students with teaching materials, assessment tools, and collaborative instruments. The assessment activity, in particular, is demanding in terms of both time and effort; thus, the use of artificial intelligence can be useful to address and reduce the time and effort required. This paper reports on a system and related experiments finalised to improve both the performance and quality of formative and summative assessments in specific data science courses. The system is developed to automatically grade assignments composed of R commands commented with short sentences written in natural language. In our opinion, the use of the system can (i) shorten the correction times and reduce the possibility of errors and (ii) support the students while solving the exercises assigned during the course through automated feedback. To investigate these aims, an ad-hoc experiment was conducted in three courses containing the specific topic of statistical analysis of health data. Our evaluation demonstrated that automated grading has an acceptable correlation with human grading. Furthermore, the students who used the tool did not report usability issues, and those that used it for more than half of the exercises obtained (on average) higher grades in the exam. Finally, the use of the system reduced the correction time and assisted the professor in identifying correction errors.

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How automated feedback from a digital mathematics textbook affects primary students’ conceptual development: two case studies

ZDM ◽

10.1007/s11858-021-01263-0 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sebastian Rezat

Keyword(s):

Quantitative Research ◽

Conceptual Development ◽

Large Body ◽

Learning Processes ◽

Mathematics Textbooks ◽

School Students ◽

Mathematics Textbook ◽

Depth Analysis ◽

Probability Task ◽

Automated Feedback

AbstractOne of the most prevalent features of digital mathematics textbooks, compared to traditional ones, is the provision of automated feedback on students’ solutions. Since feedback is regarded as an important factor that influences learning, this is often seen as an affordance of digital mathematics textbooks. While there is a large body of mainly quantitative research on the effectiveness of feedback in general, very little is known about how feedback actually affects students’ individual content specific learning processes and conceptual development. A theoretical framework based on Rabardel’s theory of the instrument and Vergnaud’s theory of conceptual fields is developed to study qualitatively how feedback actually functions in the learning process. This framework was applied in a case study of two elementary school students’ learning processes when working on a probability task from a German 3rd grade digital textbook. The analysis allowed detailed reconstruction of how students made sense of the information provided by the feedback and adjusted their behavior accordingly. This in-depth analysis unveiled that feedback does not necessarily foster conceptual development in the desired way, and a correct solution does not always coincide with conceptual understanding. The results point to some obstacles that students face when working individually on tasks from digital mathematics textbooks with automated feedback, and indicate that feedback needs to be developed in design-based research cycles in order to yield the desired effects.

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Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions of Automated Feedback and Automated Scoring: Transforming the Teaching and Learning of Writing Using Automated Writing Evaluation

Computers & Education ◽

10.1016/j.compedu.2021.104208 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 104208

Author(s):

Joshua Wilson ◽

Cristina Ahrendt ◽

Emily A. Fudge ◽

Alexandria Raiche ◽

Gaysha Beard ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Elementary Teachers ◽

Teaching And Learning ◽

Automated Scoring ◽

Teachers Perceptions ◽

Writing Evaluation ◽

Automated Writing Evaluation ◽

Automated Feedback

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Objective Assessment Metrics for Central Line Simulators: An Exploration of Causal Factors

Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting ◽

10.1177/1071181320641487 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 64 (1) ◽

pp. 2008-2012

Author(s):

Jessica M. Gonzalez-Vargas ◽

Dailen C. Brown ◽

Jason Z. Moore ◽

David C. Han ◽

Elizabeth H. Sinz ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Central Venous Catheterization ◽

Objective Assessment ◽

Central Line ◽

Expert Interviews ◽

Central Venous ◽

Patient Case ◽

Causal Factors ◽

Venous Catheterization ◽

Assessment Metrics ◽

Automated Feedback

The Dynamic Haptic Robotic Trainer (DHRT) was developed to minimize the up to 39% of adverse effects experienced by patients during Central Venous Catheterization (CVC) by standardizing CVC training, and provide automated assessments of performance. Specifically, this system was developed to replace manikin trainers that only simulate one patient anatomy and require a trained preceptor to evaluate the trainees’ performance. While the DHRT system provides automated feedback, the utility of this system with real-world scenarios and expertise has yet to be thoroughly investigated. Thus, the current study was developed to determine the validity of the current objective assessment metrics incorporated in the DHRT system through expert interviews. The main findings from this study are that experts do agree on perceptions of patient case difficulty, and that characterizations of patient case difficulty is based on anatomical characteristics, multiple needle insertions, and prior catheterization.

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Critical Thinking and Clear Writing

News for Teachers of Political Science ◽

10.1017/s019790190000177x ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 46 ◽

pp. 1-4

Author(s):

Anne F. Lee

Keyword(s):

Critical Thinking ◽

Political Science ◽

Liberal Arts ◽

Writing Proficiency ◽

Science Students ◽

Writing Class ◽

Voluntary Commitment ◽

The University

As part of an on-going effort at West Oahu College (a small, liberal arts, upper-division campus of the University of Hawaii) I am experimenting with ways to help my political science students improve their ability to think critically and communicate clearly. For some time we have been aware of a large number of students having difficulties in writing and critical thinking. We have made an informal and voluntary commitment to use writing-across-thecurriculum (WAC) with faculty participating in workshops and conferring with the writing instructor who coordinates our WAC program.1In-coming students must now produce a writing proficiency sample which is analyzed, returned with numerous comments, and results in students being urged to take a writing class if there are serious problems. A writing lab is offered several times a week and students are free to drop in for help.

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