News
In His Own Words - Dr. Edward Brent
Diverse, 11/30/2006
"When students revise, they will keep revising until they get to 90 percent. When you give people a chance to improve, they'll work to make up weaknesses..." Click here for a locally cached copy.
SAGrader Helps Lift Scores
KOMU, 7/27/2006
"For students' first essays, grades averaged 70%, a C-. After one or more revisions using SAGrader, grades averaged 90%, an A-. However, using SAGrader doesn't mean the computer does all the work. 'You have to teach these concepts and the relationships between them,' said Carnahan..." Click here for a locally cached copy.
AI Programs Grading Student Essays
PC Magazine, 7/21/2006
"Professors at colleges and universities across the country are giving their students an opportunity for academic advancement via a variety of Web-based essay grading programs..." Click here for a locally cached copy.
MU Students Jump Two Letter Grades With Help of Essay Grading Program
University of Missouri, Columbia, 7/3/2006
"Normally, teachers offer writing advice and grade essays. In Ed Brent's introductory sociology course at the University of Missouri-Columbia, writing tips and grades are generated by a computer program, which he credits with helping to improve student academic performance..." Click here for a locally cached copy.
New Website
7/10/2006
Idea Works launched a new website.
Writing Across the Curriculum: The Power of An Idea
2006 Writing Across the Curriculum Conference, 5/18/2006
"The feedback given by the program is on its content, not its mechanics—a good WAC [Writing Across the Curriculum] practice for a first draft. The student can revise the paper given the feedback and re-submit..." Click here for a locally cached copy of exerpts.
Grade-a-matic
Edutopia, 12/5/2005
"[S]tudents type a sociology essay about community, for example, into an input field on the assignment's Web site. Moments after students click on the Submit button, SAGrader assesses whether they have identified concepts such as urban renewal or gentrification and have used appropriate examples...." Click here for a locally cached copy.
Professor Develops Software to Help Grade Essays
Chronicle, 8/5/2005
"Computers routinely grade multiple-choice tests, but can machines be trusted to grade subjective exams, like a multipage essay? Ed Brent, a professor of sociology at the University of Missouri at Columbia, says yes, but that computers should not do it alone..." Click here for a locally cached copy.
All Humanists Will Be Assimilated
Chronicle, 5/31/2005
"I think my writing-intensive courses could be improved by a new program like SAGrader. It seems hard to deny that paper grading is often a poor use of time for faculty members with highly specialized professional training. Most undergraduate papers make the same mistakes over and over again: irrelevance of materials, misused vocabulary, citation errors, lack of conclusion, and so on..." Click here for a locally cached copy.
Professor believes software can determine quality work
The Associated Press, 5/8/2005
"Students in Brent's Introduction to Sociology course at the University of Missouri-Columbia now submit drafts through the SAGrader software he designed... And within seconds, students have a score..." Click here for a locally cached copy.
Essays marked by computer program
BBC, 4/9/2005
"The half-year sociology course at the University of Missouri usually attracts between 70 and 200 students, meaning a lot of essay-marking. The software system was adopted after a vote by undergraduates. They were asked to choose between marked essays or multiple-choice questions - less time-consuming for academics - as the main form of assessment..." Click here for a locally cached copy.