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New AI Technology Lets Students Evaluate Professors by ‘Chatting’

时间:2018-03-18 15:18:22

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Artificial intelligence, or AI, has slowly begun to influence higher education around the world. Now, one new AI tool could change the way university students evaluate their professors.

The tool is called Hubert. It is a teacher evaluation1 tool that appears as an AI-powered chatbot. Instead of filling out a form, students use a chat window to give feedback on the course and their professor. Afterwards, Hubert categorizes the students’ comments for the professor to review.

The beta version of Hubert launched about seven months ago. It is free for educators to use. More than 600 teachers use it already.

Making evaluations2 easier, and more human

The goal of the new Hubert program is to improve education by giving teachers detailed3, organized feedback from students.

Viktor Nordmark, from Sweden, started the company in 2015, with several friends. Before creating Hubert, the founders4 asked teachers what would improve their teaching skills. The answer, Nordmark said, was qualitative5 feedback from their students. In other words, teachers wanted students to write detailed answers to open-ended questions about their experiences in class.

Qualitative feedback is different from the survey responses students are often asked to provide at the end of a class. “This kind of data takes a lot of time for professors to collect and analyze6,” Nordmark said. And for the students, it can also be “really boring to fill out.”

So Nordmark and his friends designed Hubert as a compromise between a traditional survey and a personal interview. “You can reach a really large crowd, but you can also get really qualitative data back,” Nordmark said.

First, they ran a program to train Hubert to understand human conversation. Hubert learned different types of comments, and how to respond to them. Then Hubert learned how to organize the comments it received into categories.

Now, when Hubert receives comments from students, it compares them with the information already in its system to organize the data.

This idea, Nordmark says, is that Hubert will continue to get smarter as it receives more comments.

How it changes classrooms

What makes Hubert special is its similarity to communicating with a human. For some professors, this feature helps them receive higher-quality feedback.

“It allows students to zero in on things that are of interest to them… of concern to them, and a chance to say something good… they can essentially8 present what their concerns are…and it’s not threatening,” said John Munro, an associate professor of business at the University of the Virgin9 Islands.

Munro believed traditional methods of evaluating professors were not very helpful. They happened only at the end of the course, and the questions were formed around a four-part ranking system based on traditional lecture classes. These kinds of surveys, Munro said, did not give him the right information to make effective changes in his classroom.

In contrast, professors can offer the Hubert evaluation anytime they want. The chatbot asks students four questions: What could the instructor10 do to improve the course? Is there anything the instructor should stop doing? What's working well? How has the class been over all?

Munro thinks the “chat” format7 of the evaluation helps get more information out of students.

“Everyone, both students and professors, are already comfortable with chats,” Munro said.

If students respond with no information, Hubert knows to try again by asking follow-up questions. For example, if a student responds with “no,” Hubert might ask, “Are you sure there is nothing that could be different?”

Hubert evaluations might also be helpful for English language learners. Samuel Adams is an instructional technology specialist in English language programs at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He tested Hubert with his English teacher training course.

“On average, we get very little written feedback from language learners,” Adams said.

Adams found that Hubert was effective in getting written feedback about his course. But it did have its limitations. Adams found that the pre-set interview questions made it impossible to get information about other parts of his teaching. And the feedback is also organized into pre-established categories.

An artificially human future

Nordmark says he and his co-founders have plans to make Hubert more flexible and accurate. They would like to give teachers the possibility of selecting their own evaluation questions. And they will teach Hubert to create its own categories, so that it can more correctly organize information. This feature would also allow Hubert to be used outside of education systems.

Its creators also want to make Hubert more human-like and possess qualities such as humor in the interviews.

Another goal is to let Hubert users share the information they are learning. If teachers are discovering strategies that work well in their classrooms, Nordmark wants to develop a way for them to share that advice with other Hubert users.

I’m Phil Dierking.

Words in This Story

accurate - adj. free from mistakes or errors?

analyze - v. to study (something) closely and carefully?

artificial intelligence - n. an area of computer science that deals with giving machines the ability to seem like they have human intelligence?

boring - adj. dull and uninteresting ?

categorize - v. to put (someone or something) into a group of similar people or things?

chatbot - n. a computer program designed to simulate conversation with human users, especially over the Internet.?

contrast - v. to be different especially in a way that is very obvious

course - n. a series of classes about a particular subject in a school

comfortable - adj. not causing any physically11 unpleasant feelings

data - n. facts or information used usually to calculate, analyze, or plan something

essential - adj. extremely important and necessary

evaluate - v. to judge the value or condition of (someone or something) in a careful and thoughtful way?

feature - n. an interesting or important part, quality, ability, etc.

feedback - n. helpful information or criticism that is given to someone to say what can be done to improve a performance, product, etc.?

flexible - adj. an interesting or important part, quality, ability, etc.

format - n. the form, design, or arrangement of something (such as a book, magazine, or television or radio program)

lecture - n. a talk or speech given to a group of people to teach them about a particular subject

interview - n. a meeting at which people talk to each other in order to ask questions and get information

instructor - n. a person who teaches a subject or skill

ranking - adj. having a high position or the highest position in a group or organization

response - n. something that is said or written as a reply to something

review - v. an act of carefully looking at or examining the quality or condition of something or someone

select - v. to choose (someone or something) from a group

strategy - n. a careful plan or method for achieving a particular goal usually over a long period of time?

survey - n. ?an activity in which many people are asked a question or a series of questions in order to gather information about what most people do or think about something

type - n. type

zero in - phrasal v. to direct all of one's attention to (someone or something)


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点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 evaluation onFxd     
n.估价,评价;赋值
参考例句:
  • I attempted an honest evaluation of my own life.我试图如实地评价我自己的一生。
  • The new scheme is still under evaluation.新方案还在评估阶段。
2 evaluations a116c012e4b127eb506b6098697095ab     
估价( evaluation的名词复数 ); 赋值; 估计价值; [医学]诊断
参考例句:
  • In fact, our moral evaluations are merely expressions of our desires. 事实上,我们的道德评价只是我们欲望的表达形式。 来自哲学部分
  • Properly speaking, however, these evaluations and insights are not within the concept of official notice. 但准确地讲,这些评估和深远见识并未包括在官方通知概念里。
3 detailed xuNzms     
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的
参考例句:
  • He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
  • A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。
4 founders 863257b2606659efe292a0bf3114782c     
n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
  • The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句
5 qualitative JC4yi     
adj.性质上的,质的,定性的
参考例句:
  • There are qualitative differences in the way children and adults think.孩子和成年人的思维方式有质的不同。
  • Arms races have a quantitative and a qualitative aspects.军备竞赛具有数量和质量两个方面。
6 analyze RwUzm     
vt.分析,解析 (=analyse)
参考例句:
  • We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
  • The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。
7 format giJxb     
n.设计,版式;[计算机]格式,DOS命令:格式化(磁盘),用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据;v.使格式化,设计,安排
参考例句:
  • Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
  • The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。
8 essentially nntxw     
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上
参考例句:
  • Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
  • She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。
9 virgin phPwj     
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的
参考例句:
  • Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗?
  • There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。
10 instructor D6GxY     
n.指导者,教员,教练
参考例句:
  • The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
  • The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。
11 physically iNix5     
adj.物质上,体格上,身体上,按自然规律
参考例句:
  • He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服,心绪也很乱。
  • Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

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