"Imagine taking a college exam, and, instead of handing in a blue book and getting a grade from a professor a few weeks later, clicking the 'send' button when you are done and receiving a grade back instantly, your essay scored by a software program."
This suggestion, which was the opening paragraph to a front-page New York Times article last month, caught my attention. The article discussed the debate over computerization of education and grading, and it reported that a nonprofit enterprise founded to offer courses online has created such a system and plans to "make its automated software available free on the Web to any institution that wants to use it." The software uses artificial intelligence to grade student essays and short written answers, freeing professors for other tasks. So, what might such a system do to President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address?
"Four score and seven (EIGHTY-SEVEN) years ago our fathers (ANCESTORS is preferable) brought forth on (ONE PART OF) this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty (NO NEED TO CAPITALIZE), and dedicated (WHAT'S YOUR SOURCE FOR THIS?) to the proposition that all men (PEOPLE) are created equal.