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Title: Leveraging Auxiliary Data from Similar Problems to Improve Automatic Open Response Scoring
As computer-based learning platforms have become ubiq- uitous, there is a growing need to better support teachers. Particularly in mathematics, teachers often rely on open- ended questions to assess students’ understanding. While prior works focusing on the development of automated open- ended work assessments have demonstrated their potential, many of those methods require large amounts of student data to make reliable estimates. We explore whether a prob- lem specific automated scoring model could benefit from auxiliary data collected from similar problems to address this “cold start” problem. We examine factors such as sam- ple size and the magnitude of similarity of utilized problem data. We find the use of data from similar problems not only provides benefits to improve predictive performance by in- creasing sample size, but also leads to greater overall model performance than using data solely from the original prob- lem when sample size is held constant.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1903304
NSF-PAR ID:
10331803
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Educational Data Mining,
Page Range / eLocation ID:
in press
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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    Objectives

    In this paper, we seek to develop, evaluate, and examine machine learning models that support automated open response assessment and feedback.

    Methods

    We build upon the prior research in the automatic assessment of student responses to open‐ended problems and introduce a novel approach that leverages student log data combined with machine learning and natural language processing methods. Utilizing sentence‐level semantic representations of student responses to open‐ended questions, we propose a collaborative filtering‐based approach to both predict student scores as well as recommend appropriate feedback messages for teachers to send to their students.

    Results and Conclusion

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