Online Writing Assessment (eWrite)

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ACER Customer Service

Postal address:

Private Bag 55, Camberwell, VIC, Australia 3124

1800 338 402 (Toll Free)
+61 3 9277 5447
sales@acer.edu.au

All tasks developed for eWrite have been directly designed to appeal to the range of experiences and interests of students in Years 5 to 8. The tasks are interesting and engaging, inspiring students to develop creative individual responses based on their knowledge and personal experience.

Final e-Write writing tasks were selected after piloting and trialling with over 5000 students.  Tasks were marked using a criterion-referenced analytical marking guide.  The guide incorporates the following criteria:

• Orientation and engagement
• Register
• Text structure
• Ideas
• Vocabulary
• Paragraphing
• Sentences
• Sentence punctuation
• Punctuation in sentences
• Spelling

Marking

The tasks selected for eWrite were hand marked (double marked and adjudicated where necessary) using the analytic marking guide. The scores were also Rasch analysed and a measurement scale calibrated.  The scores were then loaded into the online marking system to create a computer model that replicates hand scoring.  The system is designed to 'mimic' the way human scores have been assigned to particular features of writing.

There are several clear advantages of marking student writing in this way:

1. validity of student scores is guaranteed due to the psychometrically-developed writing scale using Rasch measurement
2. marking is accurate, consistent and reliable
3. the effects of 'marker harshness' are eliminated 
4. instant marking provides students with increased opportunities to incorporate feedback into their school work
5. a reduced marking load allows teachers to focus on lesson planning and literacy teaching strategies 

Validity

Extensive research into the use of computer based marking of student writing has been undertaken.  Computer-based marking has been proven to be as, if not more consistent than traditional hand scoring.

View the article 'An Overview of Automated Scoring of Essays' recently published in the Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment.