On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.

Occassionally I get spam that attracts my attention. A notice from AskOnline.Net started out “We build online tutoring centers for colleges and universities where your students will work with YOUR tutors. Harvard, Duke and Berkeley College are already realizing the benefits of giving students access to tutors over the internet.”

Although systems like Blackboard, Instant Messaging, WebCT, etc, provide some of the underlying services, the online tutoring environment provides some nice administrative and support features that don’t come about with the “environmental” features to support a tutoring center. An online “tutoring” invironment might be an interesting addition to things like the CTL’s Dr is In program, the Library Reference Desk, the Writing Center, the Writing program, etc …

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Envision this: A computer tells students that their latest literary concoction doesn’t connect ideas logically. At Warren Central High School, in Indianapolis, English teacher Kathy Paris doesn’t have to imagine. She uses Criterion, a Web service that scores essays and shoots feedback out to students within seconds.
Article source and image source: “Grade-o-Matic : The red pen goes high tech”, Cheri Lucas, Edutopia’s Technology Intrgration, May 11, 2006. Edutopia, The George Lucas Educational Foundation. http://www.edutopia.org/magazine/ed1article.php?id=Art_1411&issue=dec_05
Article additional resources:
Criterion: http://www.ets.org/criterion
Grades That Mean Something: http://www.edutopia.org/1040
SAGrader: http://sagrader.com
Other resources:
Computer Software Grades Essays Just as Well as People, Profs Announce., University of Colorado, Boulder, 1998. (Science Blog, http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/1998/C/199802841.html)
Quote: “In one test, both the Intelligent Essay Assessor and faculty members graded essays from 500 psychology students at CU-Boulder. “The correlation between the two scores was very high — it was the same correlation as if two humans were reading them,” Landauer said.”