Using ChatGPT to grade essays and give detailed feedback: For Teachers

Summary

In this thought-provoking video, a teacher named Mr. Storm explores the potential of AI language models like ChatGPT in grading written assignments. He tests the system's ability to evaluate and provide feedback on three essays (excellent, average, and poor) based on a standard rubric. Surprisingly, ChatGPT not only grades the essays accurately but also offers detailed, constructive feedback tailored to each essay's strengths and weaknesses. The teacher is amazed by the AI's ability to provide kind, diplomatic, and encouraging feedback, which he admits is something he often struggles with due to time constraints. This experience inspires him to reconsider his approach and strive to provide more detailed, supportive feedback to his students.

Takeaways

• 😲 The teacher was initially nervous about using ChatGPT to grade written assignments, unsure if it would work effectively.
• 📝 Three sample essays were used: a great award-winning essay, a middle-level essay with some errors, and a poor-quality essay with significant issues.
• 🤖 ChatGPT was able to successfully grade the essays based on a provided rubric, assigning appropriate grades and providing feedback.
• 💯 For the great essay, ChatGPT recognized its clarity, focus, and effective presentation of the writer's perspective on racism.
• 🅲 For the middle-level essay, ChatGPT identified issues such as lack of detailed support, weak introduction and conclusion, and limited word choice and grammar errors.
• 🅓 For the poor essay, ChatGPT noted its unfocused topic, lack of organization, and numerous grammar, mechanics, and spelling errors.
• 📝 ChatGPT provided constructive and encouraging feedback for the poor essay, highlighting areas for improvement while maintaining a positive tone.
• 🤩 The teacher was impressed by ChatGPT's ability to provide detailed, personalized feedback that encourages students to improve their writing skills.
• ⏳ The teacher acknowledged that providing such feedback manually would be time-consuming, but ChatGPT made it more feasible.
• 🌟 The experience motivated the teacher to want to provide better feedback to students and inspired them to potentially rewrite the poor essay based on ChatGPT's suggestions.

Q & A

What was the motivation behind testing ChatGPT's ability to grade written assignments?

The motivation was to explore the potential of using ChatGPT as a tool for grading written assignments, particularly essays. The person in the video (Mr. Storm) was curious to see if ChatGPT could effectively evaluate and provide feedback on essays based on a standard rubric.

What types of essays were used for testing ChatGPT's grading capabilities?

Three different types of essays were used: (1) an award-winning essay (considered a 'great' essay), (2) a mid-level essay with some grammar errors and basic quality (predicted to be a low B or high C grade), and (3) a poorly written essay (predicted to be a D grade).

How did ChatGPT perform in grading the 'great' essay?

ChatGPT was able to effectively evaluate the 'great' essay and provide positive feedback, recognizing its clear focus, well-supported ideas, strong organization, and the writer's extensive knowledge on the topic.

How did ChatGPT handle grading the mid-level essay?

For the mid-level essay, ChatGPT identified its clear topic but noted that the main ideas were not well-supported by detailed information. It also pointed out issues with the introduction, lack of a conclusion, limited word choice, and grammatical/spelling errors that interfered with understanding.

What was remarkable about ChatGPT's feedback on the poorly written essay?

Despite the essay being of poor quality, ChatGPT provided constructive and encouraging feedback. It acknowledged the writer's passion but also identified areas for improvement, such as focus, organization, grammar, and spelling, while maintaining a positive and motivating tone.

What impressed Mr. Storm the most about ChatGPT's performance?

Mr. Storm was impressed by ChatGPT's ability to provide detailed and personalized feedback while maintaining a kind and diplomatic approach. He felt that the feedback was more encouraging and supportive than what he typically provides to students due to time constraints.

How did ChatGPT's feedback compare to Mr. Storm's usual approach?

Mr. Storm acknowledged that he often struggles to provide detailed feedback to students due to time constraints. However, ChatGPT's feedback was not only thorough but also kind and encouraging, motivating students to improve without feeling attacked or discouraged.

What was Mr. Storm's overall reaction to the experience?

Mr. Storm was blown away by ChatGPT's performance and felt encouraged by the potential of using such a tool to provide high-quality feedback to students. He expressed feeling bad for not providing similar levels of feedback in the past and was motivated to explore incorporating ChatGPT or similar tools in his teaching practice.

What did Mr. Storm suggest would be a typical workflow for using ChatGPT's feedback?

Mr. Storm suggested that he could use ChatGPT's detailed feedback as the basis for an email to the student, adding a short personal statement and offering his availability for further guidance. This would save time while still providing thorough and personalized feedback.

What broader implications did this experience have for Mr. Storm?

The experience with ChatGPT made Mr. Storm realize the potential of AI tools in education, specifically for providing high-quality feedback to students. It encouraged him to explore incorporating such tools in his teaching practice and potentially rethinking traditional approaches to feedback and grading.