New grading software may eliminate the need for professors to personally review students’ writing assignments.

Jay Parini, professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, discussed in a CNN blog the implications of the new EdX software, which uses artificial intelligence as well as professors’ guidelines to review student essays and instantly provide grades. The software would allow students to improve their previous work to attempt a better grade, according to Parini’s blog. Software proponents say the program would benefit teachers by removing the need to grade student essays individually, but some university professors are skeptical about just how much the program will improve the grading process.

English professor Edward Brunner said he does not see how EdX could help struggling students improve their work. Part of his job is to encourage critical thinking in his students, he said, and grading written assignments helps him gauge a students’ paper structure and writing development.

“I read papers seeking out the way students develop a very precise, but also personal and individual argument,” he said. “I can understand that a computer program would see certain broad elements of a work of writing, but I would be skeptical of whether it could appreciate subtle details.”

Brunner said the software could cut the amount of time professors spend on student papers at the expense of quality grading.

“I’d love to have more free time, but (with the program) it seems like I’m taking it from the people who I should find more time to help,” he said.

James Cole, a teaching assistant and graduate student in psychology from Wood River, said he is wary of how well the software understands essays.

“It can be very complicated to grade a qualitative paper because it might depend on the subject being researched,” he said. “I am just not sure how well a computer could understand what a student is focusing on in their work.”

Cole said he would be interested to try the program if the opportunity arose, but he would need to thoroughly test how well the software grades assignments before he implemented it in the classroom.

“I might try (the program) because computer processing does not take long,” he said. “If I let the software grade a few papers and then I grade five or 10 myself to see how the (computer’s) grading corresponds to my own, and if it matches up, that could be a real benefit.”

The program’s ability to let students edit graded work could be a good way for them to know, specifically, how the professor would like the final product to look, he said.

“If the program allows students to edit a paper all they want up until a deadline, I see that as a great benefit for students as long as the program is giving an accurate assessment of a professor’s grading standards,” Cole said. “Essentially, it gives infinite feedback without bothering a professor with a multitude of drafts.”

While staff members said they would need to research the program further before they considered using it, several students said the program leads to a disconnect between professors and their pupils.

Michael Tygett, a senior from Sesser studying speech communication, said one appeal of attending the university is the one-on-one interaction he has with professors. Grading software would severely impact the university’s quality instruction, he said, because students would not receive personal comments about their work.

Alex Hopkins, a pre-major freshman from East Saint Louis, said EdX would be a lazy alternative to the obligations professors have to their students.

“You already have machines doing Scantron (as well as students) taking tests online where a computer grades it automatically,” she said.”What is the professor really doing besides the lecture or handing out assignments?”