Can AI Assess Essay Samples Fairly?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technological breakthrough across various spheres, including education. Yet, its role is still uncertain for people with a strong prejudice about such instruments being integrated into the educational system. Many teachers still rely on old-fashioned approaches to assessing students. They prefer evaluating student work based exclusively on writing skills, even ignoring the use of plagiarism detection tools. However, many other educators prefer delegating this vicious task of reviewing piles of student work to anyone or anything (here we mean AI) to free up time for actual teaching and interacting with students. The dilemma is: Can AI be trusted to evaluate student work and efforts?

Surely, AI is an innovation for many, and new things are often cautiously accepted. However, according to Swiecki et al. (2022), standard assessment methods can be regarded as old-fashioned and outdated because they provide ineffective assessment of skills and focus on skills and knowledge that is becoming increasingly irrelevant and obsolete. In this regard, AI ensures that assessment is done fast and with greater attention to detail, all while preserving focus on actual student effort.

In reality, AI tools have been used in education long enough, proving their efficiency and value in checking original thoughts in student writing. AI tools such as EduLegit have the potential to facilitate the grading process, reduce teacher workloads, and provide consistent evaluations without delays. While many educators still wonder whether AI can be trusted, others enjoy the advantages of such tools while also keeping human oversight to explore all the potential and limitations.

The Potential of AI in Grading

AI is increasingly being implemented in education for grading assignments, tests, proctored exams, and more. According to studies, unlike many teachers, students already support the use of AI and perceive it as a more objective tool. Chai et al. (2024) indicate that AI may be a better assessment tool because it ensures more information transparency and less bias compared with teachers. Platforms that use AI, namely EduLegit, provide reports that explain the grade in detail, increasing students’ perception of fairness.

EduLegit is a fast and efficient tool that generates reports on the use of plagiarism, AI generated content, as well as performance reports. Having such information ready reduces the time it takes for educators to upload texts online to different platforms and get the results. This is particularly helpful in large classes that focus on giving students many writing assignments to complete. Moreover, EduLegit has great potential because it is an objective and consistent tool that uses clear criteria and algorithms. Students and teachers receive reports without having to wait for them, allowing more time for analyzing mistakes and getting a better idea about their academic performance. The EduLegit reports contain various data that include lexical diversity, attention span, active work time, and more. As such, teachers and students have access to all information in one place. They do not need to use other platforms to obtain necessary reports for grading.

These benefits are impressive and have the potential to transform the educational system from within. However, one of the best things about EduLegit is that it can be used to prove the authenticity of papers as well as evidence of genuine student effort. This aspect helps learners maintain their credibility and avoid potential conflicts and misunderstandings with teachers based on false accusations in copy-pasting material or asking others to write essays instead of them.

Reaching Maximum Potential for Fair Grading: Prove Authenticity with a few Clicks

EduLegit is a platform that guarantees a safe environment for students and ensures all assignments are done authentically due to non-intrusive monitoring features, which provide opportunities for fair grading and assessment. As such, it takes screenshots and records history of changes during the writing and editing stages that can be used to verify the research and writing process. Moreover, EduLegit provides opportunities to use two cameras for 360-degree view, which can be critical for test taking to ensure that verified students work on their exams or assignments without unauthorized external assistance. The approach of utilizing all-encompassing AI tools for non-intrusive monitoring is used to support students and allows being a trustworthy and unbiased instrument for their academic success.

EduLegit: AI Precision for the Best Results

EduLegit, an innovative platform, seeks to address the limitations of AI in grading by combining AI-powered assessments with human oversight. Such an approach is the most promising when it comes to ensuring accuracy, fairness, and balance. Here’s how EduLegit guarantees adhering to the high standards in grading:

• AI for Preliminary Evaluation: EduLegit employs AI to perform preliminary grading on the writing. This initial assessment ensures speed and consistency across all student work and shows whether a text is original and has any other issues such generated content, not hitting the word limit, and more. It also helps to stress the areas where human intervention might be necessary.
• Bias Mitigation Strategies: EduLegit actively works to identify and reduce bias in its AI algorithms. By training its systems on diverse datasets and regularly reviewing grading outcomes, it ensures fair and equitable grading for students from all backgrounds.
• Transparent Grading Criteria: To foster trust, EduLegit provides clear explanations of all processes, metrics, and algorithms used in the grading process. Students understand how both AI and human reviewers arrive at final grades, promoting transparency and reducing concerns about unfair treatment.

The Future of AI in Grading: Striking a Balance

AI’s role in grading is still evolving, and its true potential has yet to be fully realized. While AI has clear advantages in terms of efficiency and consistency, it is not meant to replace human judgment. EduLegit’s approach to grading is based on ensuring that students submit original papers, do not cheat, and can use reports to see how they may improve and progress in the future. We guarantee fairness and accuracy in every individual case, so that AI can be trusted in terms of grading assignments online.

Sources Used:

Chai, F., Ma, J., Wang, Y., Zhu, J., & Han, T. (2024). Grading by AI makes me feel fairer? How different evaluators affect college students’ perception of fairness. Frontiers in Psychology, 15, 1221177.

Swiecki, Z., Khosravi, H., Chen, G., Martinez-Maldonado, R., Lodge, J. M., Milligan, S., … & Gašević, D. (2022). Assessment in the age of artificial intelligence. Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence, 3, 100075.