READING RELATED ARGUMENTATIVE ESSAY: SHOULD THE CORRECTION OF UNIVERSITY LEVEL ESSAYS BE LEFT TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE?

Thanks are due to my friends and colleagues Oya Özağaç and Kerem Özkan for sending me the text and allerting me to the possibilities

With the emergence in recent years of on line courses like Coursera (coursera.com) and edX and on line universities like Udacity (udacity.com), it was only a matter of time before attention turned to automating the correction of essays.  In an article published in The New York Times (nytimes.com), the latest innovations in the field as well as arguments for and against using artificial intelligence to correct essays is discussed. Read the essay, “Essay Grading Software Offers Professors a Break” by John Markoff , published on April 4, 2013  and annotate it . Once you have done so, research the online courses and university mentioned above to discover how they operate. Last of all; write an argumentative essay using the suggestions below. Link below:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/05/science/new-test-for-computers-grading-essays-at-college-level.html?_r=0

In your introduction, describe how exactly the software works briefly and write a thesis statement expressing your view. At this point, you have three options: you can completely support the software, be totally against it or consider it a second best which could exist in tandem with the classic system. A word of warning: use your notes to write the introduction but don’t be too long winded.

In your development, consider the points below:

Arguments for using the software:

1. Immediate feedback: students sometimes wait ages, learn faster with instant feedback
2. Turns essay writing into a game by letting student resubmit work until correct
3. With increasingly large classes, meaningful feedback impossible

Arguments against using the software:

1. Automated grading all right for T/F and multiple choice questions not essays
2. Software can be fooled
3. Software not compared to human correctors
4. Computers cannot ‘read’
5. Teaching students to think critically requires human graders

In your conclusion, make a restatement; alternatively, if you have decided on a compromise, state what it is. If you are against it but consider it unavoidable in certain circumstances, specify.
Refer to my second blog, The Essay Archive, for sample essays: https://theessayarchive.blogspot.com.tr/