Handwritten Answers Research Articles

Grading assistance for a handwritten thermodynamics exam using artificial intelligence: An exploratory study

[This paper is part of the Focused Collection in Artificial Intelligence Tools in Physics Teaching and Physics Education Research.] Using a high-stakes thermodynamics exam as the sample (252 students, four multipart problems), we investigate the viability of four workflows for AI-assisted grading of handwritten student solutions. We find that the greatest challenge lies in converting handwritten answers into a machine-readable format. The granularity of grading criteria also influences grading performance: employing a fine-grained rubric for entire problems often leads to errors and grading failures, as the model appears to be unable to keep track of scores for more than a handful of rubric items, while grading problems in parts is more reliable but tends to miss nuances. We also found that grading hand-drawn graphics, such as process diagrams, is less reliable than mathematical derivations due to the difficulty in differentiating essential details from extraneous information. Although the system is precise in identifying exams that meet passing criteria, exams with failing grades still require human grading. We conclude with recommendations to overcome some of the encountered challenges. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Supporting Peer Feedback at Scale

Schneider et al. (2017) conducted a systematic review of 38 meta-analyses investigating 105 variables linked to student performance. They reported peer assessment is the most influential factor in explaining students’ achievement. The benefits are even more significant when combined with self-assessment as students' meta-cognitive capacity is exercised as they calibrate their level of understanding and confidence to that of their peers (Power & Tanner, 2023). Assessing a peer digitally has been shown to be more effective than in-person settings (Li et al., 2020). Winstone & Boud (2022) recommend improving students’ learning by focusing on providing and receiving high-quality feedback rather than on grades. Despite the potential of technology to help students assess each other, there is sparse research in commerce studies, let alone on large-scale subjects, where technology use is essential to leverage students’ learning and encourage interaction, which otherwise would be limited. Such a study can shed light on students' learning and engagement benefits. Technology can also aid in creating a structured learning environment, with students being required to complete multiple tasks throughout the semester and engage with the platform repetitively, reinforcing improved curriculum retention (Schwerter et al., 2022). Our project involved implementing five tasks (a practice task and four assessed tasks) in a large-cohort first-year finance subject at a leading Australian university. The tasks contributed 15% to each student’s final mark and utilised the Feedback Fruits platform (integrated with Canvas LMS). For each task, students scanned their handwritten answers to two questions, uploaded them into the platform as a PDF file, completed self-assessment and reviewed a randomly assigned anonymous peer using a rubric designed to mimic the rubric used to mark final exam questions. We configured the system so that students had at least one week to upload their answers and another week to complete the self-assessment and peer review. Statistical analysis of the Feedback Fruits analytics files, which include completion rates and performance, involved regression analysis and propensity score matching and indicates a significant positive relationship between platform engagement (measured by time spent on the platform, provided comments length and task performance) and final exam performance, even after controlling for a student’s finance aptitude. The study also involved an end-of-semester survey and focus groups to capture students’ perceptions. Students indicated the positive learning benefits they gained from reviewing their peers, being reviewed, and reflecting on their performance. Furthermore, we found a high correlation between the number of comments and the average number of words per comment students left themselves and those left for their peers. The innovation of our research is in the scale, continuous use of the platform throughout the semester with multiple access points per task and better exam preparedness by simulating exam conditions utilising rubrics and handwriting requirements. This poster describes the project’s implementation process map, including task setup, timelines, and the support provided, which is the technical part of the bigger project. We review fundamental mechanisms to improve participation and the quality of the reviews. In addition, the poster presents the challenges faced and offers practical steps to overcome them.

Design of automated model for inspecting and evaluating handwritten answer scripts: A pedagogical approach with NLP and deep learning

We address common challenges examiners face, such as accidental question skipping, marking omissions, and potential bias in assessment. These issues often arise due to the necessity of examining scripts in separate sessions, driven by the high volume of examination materials. In response, we propose the implementation of a self-regulating examiner, harnessing contemporary technology to reduce examiner workload and mitigate the possibility of errors. This automated approach aims to ensure fairness and accuracy in evaluating response scripts, offering a promising solution to the challenges encountered by examiners in the field Our study introduces an innovative approach that seamlessly integrates technologies, including Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for text ex- traction, Natural Language Processing (NLP) for keyword analysis, and ma- chine learning for grading. The results of our method are efficiently presented through a user-friendly web application, providing a streamlined and understandable means for examiners to evaluate response scripts.

A textual question answering and handwritten answer evaluation system for hindi language

Textual Question Answering targets answering questions defined in natural language. Question Answering Systems offer an automated approach to procuring answers to queries expressed in natural language. The need for Multilingual Question Answering without performing machine translation is ever existing. Besides that, automating tasks with the help of technology to assist humans, has been the main aim of research in recent years. This paper presents an automated answer evaluation system for reading comprehension-based questions in the Hindi language without requiring translation in any other language. The system accepts text, question, and handwritten answer of a student in the form of an image for answer evaluation. This is accomplished by developing a textual question-answering system for reading comprehension. It is an extractive approach that utilizes RoBERTa transformer model and fine-tunes it for Hindi question-answering. The answer to the question is extracted as a span from the provided text. Further, a handwritten text recognizer model is developed employing a Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network with Connectionist Temporal Classification module along with two layers of Bidirectional LSTM. Experimentation is performed using existing as well as self-created datasets to show the effectiveness of the proposed approach. An accuracy of 98.69% is obtained on the self-created Hindi-QA dataset and the proposed system outperformed the other existing methods. The paper also discusses potential research directions in the field.

Automated Evaluation of Handwritten Answer Script Using Deep Learning Approach

Automatic Essay Grading (AEG) is one of the exciting research topics in the field of adopting technology in education. In the education system assessment of student’s answer script is a critical job of teachers; yet doing so consumes a significant amount of their time and prevents them from working on other tasks. In addition, evaluating a large number of exam scripts is error-prone, inefficient, and tedious. Natural Language Processing (NLP), has created such an opportunity to make the computer learn about written text data and make important decisions based on the learned model. Similarly, it is possible to make a computer be able to assess an answering script based on the model used to train our computer to learn about answers to predefined short questions. In this paper, we propose a deep learning architecture with a combination of Con- volutional Neural Network (CNN) and Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (BiLSTM) which has the ability to perform both handwritten answers recogni- tion and grading them as accurately as a human expert grader.

Issues and Concerns of Teachers in Mindanao State University-Sulu Towards Modular Distance Learning Approach: An Analysis

The purpose of this study is to determine the demographic profiles of the respondents which are the teachers in Mindanao State University–Sulu according to gender and college, to identify the issues encountered by the MSU-Sulu Teacher towards modular distance learning approach, to distinguish the concerns of the MSU-Sulu Teacher towards modular distance learning approach, to investigate the teaching preparations on the adaptation of modular distance learning approach, and to identify the significant difference of issues and concern of the MSU-Sulu Teacher towards modular distance learning approach when they are grouped according gender and college. Frequency and percentage distribution, weighted arithmetic mean and independent t-test and chi-square are the statistical tools used to answer the entire research question. The data gathered was computed using SPSS analyzed and interpreted with the aide of the statistician.
 Descriptive survey method was used as the research method. This study utilizes 40 teachers from different colleges/department. Convenience sampling was used to It is the recommended number of which it is the 30% from the total population of all the faculty of Mindanao State University-Sulu.; questionnaire is used by the researcher as a research instrument of the study.
 The findings of the study were: 1) There is no significant difference of issues and concern of the MSU-Sulu teacher towards modular distance learning approach when grouped according gender but in contrary; and 2) There is significant difference on the issues and concern among MSU-Sulu teacher towards modular distance learning approach when grouped according colleges.
 The issues encountered towards modular distance learning approach were communication failure like that of instructions or confusion of students on the modules, limited teacher guidance, student’s in discourteous approach to teachers, complaints on not understanding the module, and all of which results to misbehavior on students and failure to pass worksheet on time.
 In addition, the concerns of the MSU-Sulu teacher towards modular distance learning approach were; first, hidden expenses on modules; second, teacher’s lack of media literacy; third, poor internet connection which intercepts communication between teacher and students; fourth, time constraint among teachers due to overload paperwork; fifth, equipment problem and complexity of the discussion as well as measurement of student’s performance; sixth, managing student’s responses from time to time; seventh, teacher’s unavailability and lastly, difficulties of studying among slow learners.
 Moreover, on teaching preparations on the adaptation of modular distance learning approach, the issues were cater and set time for student’s inquiries and be flexible to allow extension in terms of passing worksheets as well as allow parents, relative or even friends to pass worksheets in their behalf to lessen transportation expenses. Teachers must appreciate/ recognize his/her students to boost their confidence and avoid favouritism while being considerate to students who are attention seeker or may have ADHD. Correspondingly, the concerns were. Teachers must encourage handwritten answers to lessen plagiarism, on the absence of teacher, the parents and elders must guide the students in their learning at home. Teacher and parent’s guidance must go hand and hand in today’s learning. Teachers must likewise be flexible in finding solutions on printing shortage. And lastly, alternative teaching strategies like modular learning should be hone to aid lack of media literacy of both teacher and students
 In view of the findings and analysis, the following are recommended: Teachers must be flexible with the present kind of teaching strategy at all cost and at all aspects, Set guidelines as to establish proper communication among students and teachers, learning materials must be affordable as well as easy to understand content, teachers must develop their media literacy skills and encourage teachers to be available to their students on allotted time and cater all their inquiries with patience at all times.
 Furthermore, the following are the recommended research agenda: Teacher’s training on media literacy and module development programs to allow teamwork in the making process.

Automatic Scoring System for Handwritten Examination Papers Based on YOLO Algorithm

Written examination is an important way of measuring knowledge and ability, but manual scoring of papers is tedious and error-prone. Automated scoring is more fair, accurate and efficient. With the development of artificial intelligence, automatic scoring of papers through image recognition and object detection is becoming an achievable and promising technology today. The aim of this paper is to design an automatic scoring system for objective questions in the examination papers. The automatic scoring system uses YOLOv3 technique to detect and recognize handwritten numbers and characters on examination papers. It also addresses the problem of incorrect recognition due to scribbles. Compared to optical symbol recognition, it can recognize the handwritten answers without extra answer cards. In addition, there is no limit where the student can fill in the answer. The experiments show that the automatic scoring system performs satisfactorily and has good prospects for practical application in the future.

Issues And Concerns Of Teachers In Mindanao State University-Sulu Towards Modular Distance Learning Approach: An Analysis

The purpose of this study is to determine the demographic profiles of the respondents which are the teachers in Mindanao State University–Sulu according to gender and college, to identify the issues encountered by the MSU-Sulu Teacher towards modular distance learning approach, to distinguish the concerns of the MSU-Sulu Teacher towards modular distance learning approach, to investigate the teaching preparations on the adaptation of modular distance learning approach, and to identify the significant difference of issues and concern of the MSU-Sulu Teacher towards modular distance learning approach when they are grouped according gender and college. Frequency and percentage distribution, weighted arithmetic mean and independent t-test and chi-square are the statistical tools used to answer the entire research question. The data gathered was computed using SPSS analyzed and interpreted with the aide of the statistician.
 Descriptive survey method was used as the research method. This study utilizes 40 teachers from different colleges/department. Convenience sampling was used to It is the recommended number of which it is the 30% from the total population of all the faculty of Mindanao State University-Sulu.; questionnaire is used by the researcher as a research instrument of the study.
 The findings of the study were: 1) There is no significant difference of issues and concern of the MSU-Sulu teacher towards modular distance learning approach when grouped according gender but in contrary; and 2) There is significant difference on the issues and concern among MSU-Sulu teacher towards modular distance learning approach when grouped according colleges.
 The issues encountered towards modular distance learning approach were communication failure like that of instructions or confusion of students on the modules, limited teacher guidance, student’s in discourteous approach to teachers, complaints on not understanding the module, and all of which results to misbehavior on students and failure to pass worksheet on time.
 In addition, the concerns of the MSU-Sulu teacher towards modular distance learning approach were; first, hidden expenses on modules; second, teacher’s lack of media literacy; third, poor internet connection which intercepts communication between teacher and students; fourth, time constraint among teachers due to overload paperwork; fifth, equipment problem and complexity of the discussion as well as measurement of student’s performance; sixth, managing student’s responses from time to time; seventh, teacher’s unavailability and lastly, difficulties of studying among slow learners.
 Moreover, on teaching preparations on the adaptation of modular distance learning approach, the issues were cater and set time for student’s inquiries and be flexible to allow extension in terms of passing worksheets as well as allow parents, relative or even friends to pass worksheets in their behalf to lessen transportation expenses. Teachers must appreciate/ recognize his/her students to boost their confidence and avoid favouritism while being considerate to students who are attention seeker or may have ADHD. Correspondingly, the concerns were. Teachers must encourage handwritten answers to lessen plagiarism, on the absence of teacher, the parents and elders must guide the students in their learning at home. Teacher and parent’s guidance must go hand and hand in today’s learning. Teachers must likewise be flexible in finding solutions on printing shortage. And lastly, alternative teaching strategies like modular learning should be hone to aid lack of media literacy of both teacher and students
 In view of the findings and analysis, the following are recommended: Teachers must be flexible with the present kind of teaching strategy at all cost and at all aspects, Set guidelines as to establish proper communication among students and teachers, learning materials must be affordable as well as easy to understand content, teachers must develop their media literacy skills and encourage teachers to be available to their students on allotted time and cater all their inquiries with patience at all times.
 Furthermore, the following are the recommended research agenda: Teacher’s training on media literacy and module development programs to allow teamwork in the making process.

Public perception of palliative care: a survey of the general population.

Background:The public’s view of palliative care often involves its potential to improve of quality-of-life as well as its use as a last resource prior to death.Objective:To obtain an idea of the image of palliative care held by the public in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, the authors sought to understand (1) the perceptions of palliative care and the (2) elements important when thinking about their own end of life.Methods and Sample:A qualitative design with an inductive reasoning approach based on Mayring (2014) was chosen. Visitors at an exhibition about palliative care in six locations provided hand-written answers on provided cards to two statements: (1) if I hear the term ‘Palliative Care’ I think of … and (2) when thinking about my own end of life, the following is important to me …Results:Answers of 199 visitors (mean age 52, mostly in a good/very good health status) were analysed. In response to hearing the term palliative care, six areas were categorized: (1) the main focus; (2) ways of providing palliative care; (3) the best timing; (4) places where palliative care is provided; (5) who is seen as provider and (6) outcomes of palliative care. Five categories to the statement about their own end-of-life were identified: (1) the ability to look back on a fulfilled life and being satisfied; (2) maintaining trusting relationships until the end; (3) organizing affairs and having everything settled; (4) having their family being cared for and (5) relief of suffering with the support of knowledgeable people.Conclusion:Palliative care was mostly associated with positive terms acknowledging an interprofessional approach. Maintaining one’s dignity as well as dying without suffering pointed at the persisting stigma that palliative care is mainly limited to end-of-life care. The results may help healthcare professionals to better understand how the public view palliative care.

Socio-demographic aspects and characteristics of gambling and betting among Bosniaks in Bosnia and Herzegovina

In the last few years, gambling and betting opportunities have been increasing in Bosnia and Herzegovina, leading to an increase in pathological gambling. Pathological gambling is considered by experts to be an instinct control disorder, i.e. the inability to refrain from an instinct that at the same time causes pleasure to a person, but is also dangerous for them and the people around them as it seriously disrupts not only the physical, emotional, mental and material state of the individual, but affects their families and friends also. In order to examine the most common forms of gambling and betting as well as socio-demographic aspects and their characteristics among Bosniaks in BiH, in the period April-May 2019, on a sample of N = 1520 respondents, a survey was conducted in 62 municipalities in BiH. Respondents ranged from 18-77 years old, of whom 568 were women and 927 were men. While defining the sample for the purposes of this research, a two-stage stratification was performed, namely: stratification at the administrative level of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the type of settlement, respecting the principle of proportional representation of municipalities within entity/cantons. Data was collected via a structured face-to-face interviews with closed questions to which handwritten answers were given. The data collection was done through the Network of Youth and Directorate for Religious Affairs of the Riyasat of the Islamic Community in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The results suggest persisting differences in the perception of the most common forms of gambling and betting, where bingo, disposable lottery tickets/scrapers, lotto and sports betting are perceived to be the most common. The most widespread types of gambling are influenced by the socio-demographic variables such as gender, place of residence, level of education, age and monthly household income.

Adopting computer-assisted assessment in evaluation of handwritten answer books: An experimental study

The use of computers in educational assessment is a widely explored territory. Several studies have been performed to show the effectiveness of computer-assisted assessment (CAA) and it has been accepted in various education sectors. However, due to the lack of sufficient infrastructure and other issues, the paper-based examination is still being used for educational assessment in many countries including India. Existing CAA frameworks require the examination to be conducted on a digital platform. So, these do not apply to paper answer books. We propose a two-phase framework for automatic evaluation of handwritten answer books. The first phase converts the answers written on papers to a digital form using a neural network-based handwritten answer recognizer. The second phase evaluates the answer to generate a numerical score. For this evaluation, we use a model answer-based approach where various levels of similarities between the model answer and a student answer are computed. To assess the performance of the developed system, we apply it to the evaluation of class VII Social Science Geography answer books of an Indian school. The experimental result shows that the proposed approach is quite promising.

Encountering complexity in collaborative learning activities: an exploratory case study with undergraduate health professionals

ABSTRACT An emerging challenge for educators of the health professions in undergraduate programmes is appropriately and adequately preparing students for the complexity they will encounter in practice. New graduate health professionals report increasing challenges transitioning to practice in contemporary health care environments due to the complexity encountered. Although literature on complexity science in health professional education is growing, research evidence on learning opportunities for students related to complexity remains sparse. This exploratory case study examined first-year health care students’ encounters with complexity in a student-driven collaborative learning activity taking place over one academic semester outside the classroom. Rather than reproducing complexity in a scripted simulation activity, these novices were stimulated to adapt and respond to authentic complexity through a challenging amount of independence and definition of only minimal enabling constraints i.e. basic ground rules of the learning activity and goals to be achieved. 67 students were assigned to small groups with four to five members to form 15 interprofessional collectives (laboratory technology n = 9; medicine n = 13; midwifery n = 1; nursing n = 28; physiotherapy n = 7; radiography n = 4; speech language therapy n = 5). Data was collected using a self-reflection form with narrative free text hand-written answers. Open coding and an inductive-deductive approach to qualitative content analysis of transcribed responses resulted in identification of two key themes: a) reflecting on interprofessional collaboration, and b) evaluating the interprofessional collectives. Our findings showed that rather than perceiving the learning activity in its cognitive and collaborative complexity and feeling overwhelmed, first-year health care students described rising to the challenge and stretching outside their comfort zones. Complexity was tacitly experienced but perceived as a stimulating challenge and successfully navigated within the interprofessional collectives as they collaborated together over time.

Signs of Aging or the Vague Symptoms of Ovarian Cancer?

To explore the feelings that occurred at the same time as the vague physical symptoms of ovarian cancer. Qualitative, descriptive methodology. University cancer institute in southeastern United States. 24 women (ages 39-78) diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Most were Caucasian, were diagnosed at stage II-III, had a college-level education, and had health insurance. Eighty-three percent did not know the signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer prior to diagnosis, and 91% had no family history of the cancer. SPSS (version 18.0) was used to summarize the demographic characteristics and qualitative descriptive content analysis to identify and summarize themes in the narrative data. Two themes were noted in the handwritten answers provided by the women: (a) "thought symptoms were aging" and (b) "felt or knew something was not right." Findings demonstrate and reinforce that a need exists for education regarding signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer among the general population as well as the common providers of women's health care. Education campaigns on signs and symptoms of ovarian cancer and normal aging are necessary so women are empowered with knowledge and healthcare providers can suspect and evaluate the symptoms.

University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

Exploring the potential of mobile phones for active learning in the classroom

Research has shown that educational technology can broaden and enhance the use of active learning in large classrooms. An educational technology platform often relies on students to bring laptops or specialized wireless devices like clickers to interact through the system. Mobile phones are an attractive alternative, as most students already possess them, they have more capabilities than dedicated clickers, and yet are small enough to minimize interference with note taking on a classroom desk.This paper presents the design and use of a mobile phone extension to Ubiquitous Presenter, which allows students to submit solutions to active learning exercises in the form of text or photo messages. In an exploratory study, students found that text messaging worked well for exercises with multiple choice or short answers. Entering symbols common to computer science was difficult. Many problems were more suitable to photo messaging of a handwritten answer, although image quality must be managed. The phone's small size left space for the use of a notebook. The students had concerns about the message charges that would accrue in use. In conclusion, we offer recommendations to instructors and system designers interested in leveraging mobile phones to increase communication in the classroom.

The Effects of Spaced Character Formats on the Production and Legibility of Handwritten Names.

Three alternative formats for handwritten answers were compared in terms of their case of use. Two of these formats were typical of those employed in the preparation of information for computer analysis. These formats involved subdivisions for spacing individual characters. The third format was a simple unspaced blank. Using speed as a dependent variable, spaced character formats were found to impair both writing and reading and to increase the estimated time required for reading. This impairment in writing and reading was greater with a format in which the characters were spaced by small equidistant vertical marks than with a format in which the spaces for individual characters were defined by a sequence of boxes.