The owner of Edexcel, one of England's three big exam boards,
will use artificial intelligence to automatically mark exam essays
in the UK from next month.
Pearson, the parent of Edexcel, plans to use computers for
reading and assessing English tests, according to the
Times
Educational Supplement (TES).
Pearson plans to use introduce the technology to mark
examination essays as part of the new Pearson Test of English
Academic (PTE Academic) from 6 October.
The company told the TES that the system had the same accuracy
as human markers, but eliminated human elements such as tiredness
and subjectivity.
Tim Oates, research director of Cambridge Assessment, which owns
the OCR examination board, said that it was only a matter of time
before automated systems would be deployed extensively in
education.
But teachers have raised concerns that automated marking will
not pick up the subtleties of English, and could put pressure on
students to write for the computer, rather than for human
readers.
The Pearson system uses computers that are trained to mark from
scripts marked by humans so they can learn to achieve the same
results on their own.
The PTE Academic, which is being rolled out in 20 countries, is
designed to help English-speaking universities assess the English
skills of potential students.
