Is artificial intelligence on its way into Israeli schools? Perhaps, as the Education Ministry recently conducted a pilot for software that can review and grade test – as a teacher would – in a much shorter timeframe.
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The move aims to aid particularly in the review of literature and history exams, especially matriculation exams, which are handwritten and include open-ended questions. So not only does the software need to decipher each student's handwriting, but also to analyze the logic behind their answers, taking into various linguistic elements, such as context, syntax, thoroughness, wording, etc.
The software was developed in cooperation with Israeli teachers. In the first stage, matriculation exams were reviewed and graded by teachers, then scanned and added into the software. At this stage, the software learned algorithms to identify the most correct answer to each question and grade it.
In the second stage, teachers were given more tests to review and grade, but the answers were not uploaded to the software this time; rather, the tests were uploaded as is. The system scanned these tests and marked them according to its algorythm.
Three hours later, it produced results that were almost the same as the average grade that had been given by the teachers. The difference was merely one point.
Despite the success of the pilot, the program might not be implemented nationwide just yet, if at all, as there's fear that teachers might strongly oppose the program, as checking exams is one of the main sources of their income.
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