The process of generating challenging and appropriate distractors for multiple-choice questions is a complex and time-consuming task. Existing methods for an automated generation have limitations in proposing challenging distractors, or they fail to effectively filter out incorrect choices that closely resemble the correct answer, share synonymous…

Assessing the difficulty of reading comprehension questions is crucial to educational methodologies and language understanding technologies. Traditional methods of assessing question difficulty rely frequently on human judgments or shallow metrics, often failing to accurately capture the intricate cognitive demands of answering a question. This…

Automated Essay Scoring (AES) is a well-studied problem in Natural Language Processing applied in education. Solutions vary from handcrafted linguistic features to large Transformer-based models, implying a significant effort in feature extraction and model implementation. We introduce a novel Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) pipeline…

Automated Essay Scoring (AES) is a well-studied problem in Natural Language Processing applied in education. Solutions vary from handcrafted linguistic features to large Transformer-based models, implying a significant effort in feature extraction and model implementation. We introduce a novel Automated Machine Learning (AutoML) pipeline…

The ability to express yourself concisely and coherently is a crucial skill, both for academic purposes and professional careers. An important aspect to consider in writing is an adequate segmentation of ideas, which in turn requires a proper understanding of where to place paragraph breaks. However, these decisions are often performed…

Assessments of natural language can provide vast information about individuals' thoughts and cognitive process, but they often rely on time-intensive human scoring, deterring researchers from collecting these sources of data. Natural language processing (NLP) gives researchers the opportunity to implement automated textual analyses across a…

We propose a framework designed to guide the development of automated writing practice and formative evaluation and feedback for young children (K-5 th grade) -- the early Automated Writing Evaluation (early-AWE) Framework. e-AWE is grounded on the fundamental assumption that e-AWE is needed for young developing readers, but must incorporate…

We propose a framework designed to guide the development of automated writing practice and formative evaluation and feedback for young children (K-5th grade) -- the early Automated Writing Evaluation (early-AWE) Framework. e-AWE is grounded on the fundamental assumption that e-AWE is needed for young developing readers, but must incorporate…

The present study examined the extent to which adaptive feedback and just-in-time writing strategy instruction improved the quality of high school students' persuasive essays in the context of the Writing Pal (W-Pal). W-Pal is a technology-based writing tool that integrates automated writing evaluation into an intelligent tutoring system. Students…

The present study examined the extent to which adaptive feedback and just-in-time writing strategy instruction improved the quality of high school students' persuasive essays in the context of the Writing Pal (W-Pal). W-Pal is a technology-based writing tool that integrates automated writing evaluation into an intelligent tutoring system. Students…

Automated writing evaluation (AWE) tools can facilitate teachers' analysis of and feedback on students' writing. However, increasing evidence indicates that writing instructors experience challenges in implementing AWE tools successfully. For this reason, our development of the Writing Analytics Tool (WAT) has employed a participatory approach…

Summarization enhances comprehension and is considered an effective strategy to promote and enhance learning and deep understanding of texts. However, summarization is seldom implemented by teachers in classrooms because the manual evaluation requires a lot of effort and time. Although the need for automated support is stringent, there are only a…

The benefits of writing strategy feedback are well established. This study examined the extent to which adding spelling and grammar checkers support writing and revision in comparison to providing writing strategy feedback alone. High school students (n = 119) wrote and revised six persuasive essays in Writing Pal, an automated writing evaluation…

Language is of central importance to the field of education because it is a conduit for communicating and understanding information. Therefore, researchers in the field of learning analytics can benefit from methods developed to analyze language both accurately and efficiently. Natural language processing (NLP) techniques can provide such an…

The purpose of this handbook is to provide actionable information to educators, administrators, and researchers about current, available research-based educational technologies that provide adaptive (personalized) instruction to students on literacy, including reading comprehension and writing. This handbook is comprised of chapters by leading…