AI Grading Systems - Do They Work and Are They Fair?

The impact of technology and AI has affected our lives in surprising ways. From being able to perform intricate tasks to being able to write essays for your assignments, AI is capable of doing a variety of tasks. But have you ever thought about an AI grading the research paper that is due next week; or the high-energy physics final you will take this spring? One must question the effectiveness of using AI in educational settings. In this blog, we will try to answer these questions: Why this technology might be beneficial, how effectively it will work in real life settings and, is it fair to use this technology? Do they work? or are they even fair?

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Challenges With Traditional Grading

Grading exams has been always done manually, but it comes with some challenges.

Bias

When teachers grade assignments and tests, they carry the human tendency of unintentional bias. Certain experiences and perceptions of teachers can hamper their grading through biases, making the goal of fair grading unlikely.

Consequently, manual grading can also be hindered through mood. A teacher feeling a bit down on one day might grade harshly, compared to when she was feeling a little generous on the other day.

Tedious and Time-Consuming

It is reasonable to say that teachers have to grade hundreds of assignments, proving to be highly tedious and time-consuming. This time can be better used for educational tasks, like providing a more personalized experience to students.

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AI - Powered Grading

AI - Powered Grading, in other terms an artificial intelligence assesses student assignments based on a strict guide that the AI follows without any bias or subjectiveness.

Source: Data Science Central

Benefits of AI - Powered Grading Include: --

1. Consistency

Since AI - Powered grading systems will be automated so that they follow a fixed grading policy, there will be little error for any inconsistencies in any grading. This will eliminate any bias and personal preferences that teachers exhibited in traditional settings.

2. Speedy Feedback

A technological feedback system does not require hours of review that teachers practice when grading research papers. An AI-Powered system would instantly return feedback to the student. A simple scenario using this system would go like this: --

A student submits their following research paper in an AI-Powered grading system. The system takes forty-five seconds to review the research paper according to a specific rubric. The research paper is graded, and the student can now go through all the important feedback given by the AI in the form of fragments of notes and annotations on the research paper.

3. Efficiency

These automated systems can process graded assignments at high speeds, relative to manual grading. Suppose a teacher takes ten minutes to grade one entire exam. However, with an AI-Powered system, it would hardly take a minute to grade the entire exam.

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Conclusion

To conclude, Automated grading systems will transform the way assignments are graded. Because of their efficiency, speedy feedback and consistency, it would prove to be an excellent tool for students in the future. But we must ask if it's fair to use this in real-life settings. How will it impact the role of teachers in educational settings? If the students already know how they will be graded, will it be too predictable? Will it make the room for improvement narrower without the unique feedback that only a teacher can give?

To ensure we do not make anything worse, we should weigh the costs and benefits of using AI - Powered grading systems. AI is an excellent technology, but if we use it too much, it can lead to some unforeseen consequences.

Thank you for reading!