Natural language processing software evaluates middle school science essays

Students may soon have another teacher in the classroom, but from an unlikely source: artificial intelligence (AI). In two recent papers, computer scientists at Penn State vetted the effectiveness of a form of AI known as natural language processing for assessing and providing feedback on students’ science essays. They detailed their results in the publishing arm of the International Society for the Learning Sciences Conference (ISLS) and in the Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED).