In an effort to save countless hours that would be spent reading
essays and grading papers for large undergraduate classes, a
professor at the University of Missouri has developed a computer
program to perform the work electronically.
The cost-saving program, called Qualrus, was developed over six
years by sociology Professor Edward Brent as a way to analyze large
amounts of unstructured data.
By analyzing sentence structure and searching for key words in
an essay, Qualrus assigns a numerical grade to papers based on the
weight professors give to certain aspects of an assignment.
By looking at sentence and paragraph structure, the program can
accurately determine the flow of ideas in an essay, Brent said.
Currently, Brent uses the program to grade rough drafts of his
assignments. Students submit papers to the program online and
receive nearly instantaneous feedback and corrections. They are
then able to resubmit papers an unlimited number of times.
Because the program searches for key words, it is possible for
students to find loopholes in the system, Brent said. However, he
added that because final drafts are graded by himself or teaching
assistants, students who find loopholes in the system and ignore
the program’s advice only hurt themselves.
Amid recent budget cuts to public universities around the
country, Brent said he helped to develop the program out of
necessity.
“I have a large introductory class, and we have so many
students that we couldn’t afford to have enough TAs,”
Brent said.
Brent gave students the option of taking a multiple choice exam
that can be graded electronically or having their essays graded by
Qualrus. His class chose Qualrus.
Some professors at UCLA are against using software to grade
student work, even with large introductory courses similar to those
offered at the University of Missouri.
Assistant history Professor Kelly Lytle Hernandez, who teaches a
course of 240 students and has several readers to grade exams, said
she would not consider using such a program at the present time and
does not believe using computers to grade papers would be very
beneficial to students.
Second-year sociology student David Lin agreed.
“I’d rather have TAs grade my paper because they are
subjective. … A computer would just be objective and would only
check for this or that,” he said. But Lin added that he would
support using such a program for rough drafts because it
“could check for all the things you need in the
paper.”
According to Brent, some students in his classes have had
objections to use of the program, but he said having humans grade
the final drafts addresses those concerns.
Qualrus is also used by businesses to make sense of massive
amounts of data. The program has been approved for use at the
University of Missouri and is available to other schools for $399
and to businesses for $699 a copy.