"We’ve been working on this for two and a half years, and now we have a solution that is stable and reliable", says Maj Schian Nielsen.
She is the AI coordinator for education at the University of Agder and has led the work on the tool. Both the Student Organisation in Agder and the Norwegian Data Protection Authority have been involved to ensure that the tool works as well as possible.
Read more about the development of the project here.
Faster and better
All students can request an explanation for the mark they have received in an exam. By law, they are entitled to a response within two weeks.
Every year, UiA receives up to 12,000 requests from students seeking such an explanation. This is labour-intensive for lecturers, and the learning benefit is also uncertain.
The new tool uses the exam question, the examiner’s guidelines and the student’s answer to draft an explanation for the mark awarded. The explanation is then quality-assured by the examiner before being sent to the student.
"The aim is to be able to provide faster and better justifications to students, whilst allowing lecturers to spend their time on things that have a greater impact on learning", says Nielsen.
One of these things is writing marking guidelines. These describe what is required of an answer to achieve different grades, and all students are entitled to receive them after the exam.
"We’ve found that the lecturers who have written good marking guidelines are the ones who benefit most from using the AI tool. And it’s a win-win situation, because if the marking guidelines are good, students are less likely to ask for an individual explanation of the mark they’ve been given", says Nielsen.
"UiA is leading the way"
“Thank you to everyone who has been involved in piloting the tool and providing us with crucial insights that have enabled us to develop it,” says Hilde Inntjore, Vice-Rector for Education.
She is pleased that the tool has now reached such a high standard of quality that the project can be concluded and the tool put into regular use.
"UiA is leading the way in the use of new technology in this area, and now we can gain experience in its application together", she says.
Easy to use
The AI tool is available to all staff who are logged in via Feide and connected to UiA’s network via either Eduroam or EduVPN.
Nielsen points out that the tool has primarily been developed for written school exams. It works less well for bachelor’s and master’s theses, which require more complex lines of reasoning from both students and examiners.
"We are ready to assist if people need help, but basically this is an intuitive and easy-to-use tool. If you can upload a file in a web browser, you can use this", says Nielsen.
- You can log in and use the tool here (for academic staff only)
- You can read the instructions here.