Abstract:
An on-line, computerized, software-driven system provides writing assessment of submitted essays with instructional feedback. The feedback incorporates comments and prompts provided to the user which are generated in response to the assessment evaluation of written text. Skill level and developmental level comments, remarks and prompts on various genre specific domain areas are provided in a real-time mode or in a request response mode, as elected by the user. Assessment and scores are provided by machine methods driven by a software engine. All appropriate comments and prompts are generated to the user by analysis logic software operating on a database of genre specific, educationally acceptable comments and prompts.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is related to the field of standardized and assessment testing, and specifically to essay evaluation and scoring. 
     The use of standardized testing has increased steadily over the past several decades. Standardized tests are now an essential part of almost every educational system. These tests are used for in-grade competency and achievement evaluation, as teaching aides, as measurements of student performance, and for admission and qualification procedures. 
     These tests were often designed to be scored by machine methods. As a result, multiple choice tests were prevalent in the past. However, there has arisen an ever increasing trend away from multiple choice tests in favor of tests that require open-ended responses, such as essay tests. The assessment and scoring of essay responses to essay test questions has created more labor intensive evaluation systems and systems with increased numbers of decision making parameters. 
     Generally in the past, essay evaluation systems have operated in the context of a particular test administration. The systems were used to collect, distribute and grade actual test responses for a particular test. Groups of human scorers were engaged to read and score tests working from computer work stations. 
     Early efforts were directed to essay responses which were “fill-in-the-blank”. This fill-in method of essay testing response is less structured and more open ended than multiple choice response, but is an extension of multiple choice answer scoring. Possible correct answers are withheld from the user/test taker. Optical character recognition (OCR) was utilized to read the one or two word answer. The user/test taker answer was compared against a preferred answer and a list of less preferred answers. A score was assigned according to the degree of closeness to the preferred answer. 
     As students have became more interested in practicing their essay testing skills, and as teachers have began to use essay testing as a teaching aid, there has arisen a need for systems which provided the capability of practicing essay test taking skills, demonstrating content mastery, and providing feedback to the use/essay tester. 
     A writing evaluation system has been developed by Educational Testing Service, Princeton, N.J. (ETS), which provides on-line evaluation of a constructed essay response to an examination question. A test taker submits an essay response via the Internet. The test response is assigned to a human scorer at a workstation and enters his scoring queue. The scorer evaluates the essay according to assigned calibrated grading guidelines to select an overall evaluation. The scorer can also select from a list of pre-defined generalized comments which characterize the user/test takers submission. A selected comment accompanies the score provided to the user/test taker. A given scorer&#39;s performance on a particular essay answer may be evaluated by a scorer leader or supervisor. 
     The pre-selected comments vary from such overall characterizations as: “your essay is well-developed”, to “You offer an analysis of how literary devices are used . . . The essay would be stronger if the analysis were more penetrating”. 
     Although ETS&#39;s system is a variable method of evaluating essays through a human process, it is too labor intensive in the scoring and evaluating stage to be an economical offering when evaluating essays for instructional purposes. Moreover, the type of feedback comments offered are intended to be generalized and to provide an overall characterization of the essay response, i.e., on a macro-level, and not to be focused on the mechanics of essay drafting and the mechanics of organization and presentation on a micro-level. 
     A desired approach and objective of the present invention, which departs from the prior art, is an automated tutoring system which is capable of: (1) scoring a user/test taker&#39;s essay response, and of real-time, on-line, micro-evaluations of essay mechanics and organization; (2) providing essay feedback while the user is drafting an essay, on an extemporaneous basis; (3) factoring an open-ended essay response from a user into a plurality of separate conceptual areas of inquiry, for scoring with feedback; and (4) providing for a modification of operation and feedback to a writing prompt from one of a plurality of essay genre. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The objectives of the present invention are realized in a software-implemented, computerized, on-line “tool” (i.e., a system) that delivers individualized instructional feedback and prescriptive content to an on-line user/student/test-taker, based upon artificial analysis (i.e., automated/machine analysis) of a submitted writing essay-type sample. The user has the choice to select essay drafting analysis on a real-time basis or on a request basis. In the real-time mode, the system analyzes and provides instructional feedback as the essay is drafted. In the request mode, the system analyzes the writing and provides instructional feedback when expressly requested. 
     The instructional content of the user addressed feedback is genre specific, such as to the following “domains” of writing: narrative, informative, literary, persuasive, and informational/text-based. Focus and meaning, content and development, organization, language use and style, mechanics and conventions are some of the domains of writing that are evaluated and provided to the end user for feedback thereto. A score on a selected scale, such as a 6-point scale or a 4-point scale, can be provided with feedback, but more often is provided when a score is requested or when analysis and instructional feedback is provided in the request mode. 
     The instructional content is provided in various specific proficiency levels. In one implementation, the instructional content is provided in two readability levels: “proficient”, e.g., 6th grade or higher as determined by Flesh-Kincaid level index; and “developing”, e.g., readability less than 6th grade. 
     The system may also provide the feedback in the form of comments and feedback translated into the end users native speaking and reading language. For example, a natively speaking Chinese student writing in English may benefit from receiving tutoring feedback of an English essay in Chinese. It has been found that feedback on a language that someone is learning can be retained better and understood more easily if the feedback is communicated in the language best understood by the student/end user. An ELL (English learning language) student may submit an essay written in English and receive comments and prompts in English or in a selected foreign language. 
     The system may also receive inputs from a student peer, the student himself (herself), a teacher, a parent, an employment supervisor, or an administrator in order to configure the essay assignments and feedback more appropriately for each specific user, student, or test taker. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The features, advantage and operation of the present invention will become readily apparent and further understood from a reading of the following detailed description with the accompanying drawings, in which like numerals refer to like elements, and in which: 
         FIG. 1  shows a computer workstation display screen with separate fields of information; 
         FIG. 2  shows the workstation display screen of  FIG. 1  with the selection bar moved down between the two fields when the system is in operation; 
         FIG. 3  shows the workstation display screen of  FIG. 1  with an example of a typical prompting page; 
         FIG. 4  is a flow chart of the process steps in assigning, analyzing, scoring and prompting an essay; 
         FIG. 5  is a block diagram of the system macro-components for essay scoring and feedback tutoring; 
         FIG. 6  is a logic diagram for the entry selection upon entering the tutoring system; 
         FIG. 7  is a flow chart of the macro-steps of the tutoring process conducted by the system; 
         FIG. 8  shows an example of the workstation display screen with the editing and language selections available for on-screen selection; 
         FIG. 9  is a logic diagram for the revision feedback, report process conducted by the system; 
         FIG. 10  shows a workstation display screen example with grammar and text editing feedback; and 
         FIG. 11  is a block diagram of the system decision making algorithm and database segments interconnection. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is a system and a process for analyzing and editing an essay that is submitted on-line, and then processed by the system. The invention provides the user/student/test-taker with a single click feedback or with automatic writing editing feedback. A student logs-on at a workstation where the screen requests information about the student. This information is either entered by the student or by the teacher or administrator. The student is then assigned, or alternatively, selects a writing subject, with prompts or with pertinent instructions on what to focus the writing towards. The on-line system can be configured to customize the writing environment and the tools available in writing and essay. 
     A text area of the workstation display is dedicated to web-based word processing. This word processing essay is evaluated at a remote location when a tutor selection button on the screen is “clicked”. The entire text or a portion of it can be selected for evaluation and feedback. Feedback can be an inquiry or a suggestion or an instruction. The essay or portion thereof to be evaluated is passed through a computerized text scoring engine which provides one or more output scores. 
     These scores are used by the system to search a database of possible feedback comments and prompts. Feedback comments, being tutoring instruction are selected as a function of the character of the score, are sent to the student. These feedback comments and prompts appear on a separate dedicated portion of the student workstation display. 
     The mode and type of feedback will depend upon the level of instruction which in turn is determined by the proficiency level, demographics, and educational goals of the user-student. The student proficiency level can be manually entered (selected) by the teacher-administrator or determined automatically. Manual selection (by clicking an appropriate button on the display) can be between a “proficient” mode, i.e., readability at grade 6 and above, and a “developing” mode, i.e., readability below grade 6. In the automatic mode, analyzing software (software engine) detects readability (writing level) according to a Flesh-Kincaid scale. 
     The system also has input to it an indication of the language goals of the user-student. The teacher-administrator manually selects (by clicking an appropriate button on the display) between ELL (English language learner), English (English speaking student writing an essay in English), Chinese (Chinese speaking student writing an essay in Spanish), and Spanish (Spanish speaking student writing an essay in Spanish). For ELL students, the teacher-administrator can also manually select between English, Chinese and Spanish for the language in which the feedback comments and prompts are presented. The feedback can also be presented in both English and/or the selected foreign language that is most relevant to the student&#39;s native language. 
     With this input the essay analysis software is able to look for the most common mistakes made in grammar and sentence structure and comment on them in the order of importance or in the order of most occurrences. For ELL user-students, the analysis engine can access a database of most common mistakes made by each of various foreign language students writing in English. 
     The feedback comments also address various genre, including the essay areas of: narrative; informative; literature based; and persuasive. The analysis engine has access to a database of trained models for each writing assignment. These models contain essays accumulated on the assignment subject that are considered most exemplary. 
     Grammar, spelling, syntax, parenthetical phrases, pronoun use, participial phrases, organization and flow are also some of the areas an editing engine in the system addresses. The each area of inquiry is scored. The feedback comments and prompts may be prioritized to those areas with the lowest scores. 
     Once the student indicates that he/she is submitting the final draft, the entire essay is scored and the score is stored in a database available to the user-student and the teacher-administrator. 
     The system has the capability of selective writing assessment and tutoring both as to a portion of an essay selected by the student and as to the mode in which the feedback portion of the system operates. In one mode, the essay is evaluated in real time, as the essay is typed. In another selected mode, the essay is evaluated when a request is made for evaluation. This is affected by “clicking” a evaluation request button on the display. 
     The essay/text scoring engine scores the essay based on historical data of previously scored essays on the same topic. 
     The feedback selection engine implements a decision making algorithm based upon student characteristics first input and upon the respective scoring of the essay/text scoring engine. 
     Multiple evaluations for feedback are at the student user&#39;s discretion. Partial evaluations or an evaluation of the essay as a whole are also selectable. 
     The user-student workstation display  21 ,  FIG. 1 , is divided into two areas, the top portion for the assignment  23  on which the student is to write, and the bottom portion for word processing  25 . A top tool bar  27  contains a number to tutor specific pull-down screens  29  Once the student enters the tutoring phase of the process, the display  21  changes  FIG. 2 . In this phase the tool bar  27  now separates a top portion for feedback comments and prompts  31  from the bottom portion for word processing  25 . 
       FIG. 3  shows the workstation display  21  with a typical prompting page with prompts  31  and essay  25 . The process for tutoring,  FIG. 4 , includes entering the tutor program, step  35 , selecting between ELL, foreign language, English, step  37 , then selecting between developing automatic and proficient, step  39 . A further selection is between continuous feedback and request mode feedback, step  41 . 
     Once the selections are made, the student receives the assignment, step  43  and begins to type the essay, step  45 . Thereafter feedback comments and prompts are sent to the student, step  47 , which enables the student to redraft the essay step  49 . In this regard, the student can highlight a portion of the essay and request tutoring on the highlighted portion. 
     The student receives additional feedback comments and prompts, step  51  after redrafting. Steps  49  and  51  are repeated until the student considers he/she is finished or the time period for drafting that has been set by the teacher-administrator expires. When the time is up or the student expressly requests a score, step  53 , a score is provided and the tutor is exited, step  55 . 
     The system,  FIG. 5 , includes a user-student work station  57  which is situated at any convenient location and connected to the Internet or a LAN (local area network)  59 . A network server  61  is connected to the Internet or LAN to receive the essay from the test station  57 . In the server  61  the received text is operated upon by essay analysis software engine  63 . 
     The language selection, the proficiency level, and the feedback frequency instructions  65  are received by a feedback comments and prompts analysis software engine  67  within the server  61  and by the assignment engine  69  (software and database) within the server  61 . The assignment engine  69  then sends an assignment via the Internet or LAN connection  59  to the workstation  57 . 
     The essay analysis software  63  accesses a trained model database  71  containing model essay responses for each essay assignment. These are used by the essay analysis engine  63  in analyzing and scoring the essay effort of the student. 
     The essay analysis engine  63  produces domain scores  73  and editing scores  75  which are each sent to the feedback comments and prompts analysis engine  67 . This engine  67  determines the appropriate feedback and priority order of the comments to be sent to the workstation. This engine accesses a database of pre-constructed comments and prompts  77  for every combination of scores, instructions, and student particular facts. 
     When the main student menu is entered, step  79 ,  FIG. 6 , it is determined if the student profile is to be modified, step  81 . Then the workstation is queried for a selection of the native language of the student, step  83 . A selection is made between many languages, but not limited to English, Spanish and Chinese, step  85 . Depending upon the selection, the system is adjusted to detect grammar and other text drafting errors that native speakers make and offer corrections, step  87 . The workstation is queried on preference of language for the grammar feedback, step  89 . 
       FIG. 7  is a flow chart of the macro-steps implemented by the system of  FIG. 5 . The process is entered, step  91 , a selection of ELL is queried  93 , and a selection of English or foreign language is queried  95 . The scoring scale is selected for either a 6 point or a 4 point scale, step  97 . A genre prompt is then made between the various domains, step  99 . It is then determined if the feedback prompts and comments are to be provided in real-time while the student is drafting the essay or when a score request is submitted, step  101 . The feedback analysis engine then locates the prescribed feedback response as a fact of the score and grammar analysis statistics in each of the domains examined, step  103 . 
       FIG. 8  shows the workstation instruction screen  105  for selecting the student data on English and foreign language ability for grammar and text editing analysis. 
     Writing control platform logic for interfacing with a student workstation is shown in  FIG. 9 . The process executed by the software begins with the display of an assignment instruction, step  107 . It is then determined if a refresh is needed, step  109 . If feedback instructions are available, they are provided for viewing, step  111 . This screen is refreshed as needed, step  113 . A student response, being a text offering is then searched for and received, step  115 . 
     If the text offering is a first draft, step  117 , the draft is matched against the student&#39;s assignment information, step  119  and the draft is stored in a portfolio established for the student, step  121 . 
     If the text offering is a revision, step  123 , it is analyzed to determine if there exists an untrained prompt  125  or a trained prompt  127 . Untrained prompts address grammar and editing issues. Trained prompts address genre domain issues. 
     If the revision  123  is in response to an untrained prompt  125  then the history is evaluated to determine if there are additional times remaining for such revisions, step  129  and this information is matched against the student&#39;s assignment information, step  119 . 
     If there is a trained prompt  127 , a feedback report is generated for an overall score and fore scores germane to each genre domain, step  131 . The genre feedback information is then stored in the student&#39;s portfolio, step  121 . If there are additional times remaining for further genre domain issues, step  133 , that information is match against the student&#39;s assignment information, step  119 . 
     If there is a trained prompt  127 , the student data is read to determine if a feedback mode (real-time mode) has been selected, step  135 . This information is matched against the student&#39;s assignment information, step  119  and it is also stored in the student&#39;s portfolio, step  121 . 
       FIG. 10  shows a workstation display screen  137  the editor active and the editing comments and prompts above the student&#39;s text essay. 
     When a student/test taker identification is entered (log-in ID)  137 ,  FIG. 11 , this information is sent to “smart” (search processor driven) prompt demographics database (history of prompts for that student)  139 , a “smart” database for performance level, language information (ELL, foreign language, English), and other selected data such as school district and other similar information  141 , and a “smart” performance history, history of topics, feedback history and other similar information database  143 . 
     The data from the prompt history database  139  undergoes a student and prompt demographics algorithm  145  with additional information from a machine scoring  147  of the text. The data from the performance level, language information database  141  undergoes a grade and performance level determination algorithm  149  with additional information from a machine scoring engine  147  which scores the student text. The data from the past performance, topics and feedback database  143  undergoes a profile performance and other factors algorithm  151  with additional information from a machine scoring engine  147  which scores the student text. 
     The outputs from these three algorithms  145 ,  149 ,  151  is input to a feedback search algorithm engine  153 . This engine  153  also receives the scores provided by the machine scoring engine  147  and performs a search algorithm on a database  161  of pre-determined feedback comments. 
     The student ID  137  information, and the prompt demographics from the database  139  are used to provide a topic about which the student is to write. This is accomplished by a select topic engine  155  operating upon a predetermined topic assignment database which is incorporated with it. The assignment statement is then displayed on a display portion  157  dedicated to information provided to the student at his workstation. This information is either the assignment or tutoring feedback about the essay written at the workstation by the student. The student word processing is displayed on a display portion  159  dedicated to word processing. The data on both display portions  157 ,  159  is input into the student workstation computer from the system processor through a LAN or an Internet connection, as the connections may be. The output from the feedback search engine  153  to the student workstation can be in many formats such as “XML”, text, image, audio, video, or multimedia animation. 
     It is to be understood that the system may be implemented in discrete circuits such as decoders and the like. The system may also be implemented in discrete components, such as dedicated processors, modems, interface registers and the like. The system may also be implemented on a PC workstation, handheld computer, cell phone/communications device or on a server large enough and operating fast enough to serve the client base and the “visitation” density. 
     The tutoring mode can be selected to operate automatically or on a selection bases when the student generates a “tutor elect” instruction to the scoring engine  147  from a tutor elect button  163  on his workstation display screen. The tutor elect button  163  is generated on the student workstation screen by instructions from the system after log-in. This signal/instruction is linked to the machine scoring engine  147  and the feedback comments engine  153 . 
     Many changes can be made in the above-described invention without departing from the intent and scope thereof. It is therefore intended that the above description be read in the illustrative sense and not in the limiting sense. Substitutions and changes can be made while still being within the scope and intent of the invention and of the appended claims.