A Latent Dirichlet Allocation approach to understanding students' perceptions of Automated Writing Evaluation.

Automated writing evaluation (AWE) has shown promise in enhancing students' writing outcomes. However, further research is needed to understand how AWE is perceived by middle school students in the United States, as they have received less attention in this field. This study investigated U.S. middle school students' perceptions of the MI Write AWE system. Students reported their perceptions of MI Write's usefulness using Likert-scale items and an open-ended survey question. We used Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) to identify latent topics in students' comments, followed by qualitative analysis to interpret the themes related to those topics. We then examined whether these themes differed among students who agreed or disagreed that MI Write was a useful learning tool. The LDA analysis revealed four latent topics: (1) students desire more in-depth feedback, (2) students desire an enhanced user experience, (3) students value MI Write as a learning tool but desire greater personalization, and (4) students desire increased fairness in automated scoring. The distribution of these topics varied based on students' ratings of MI Write's usefulness, with Topic 1 more prevalent among students who generally did not find MI Write useful and Topic 3 more prominent among those who found MI Write useful. Our findings contribute to the enhancement and implementation of AWE systems, guide future AWE technology development, and highlight the efficacy of LDA in uncovering latent topics and patterns within textual data to explore students' perspectives of AWE.

Predictors of middle school students' perceptions of automated writing evaluation.

This study examined middle school students' perceptions of an automated writing evaluation (AWE) system, MI Write. We summarize students' perceptions of MI Write's usability, usefulness, and desirability both quantitatively and qualitatively. We then estimate hierarchical entry regression models that account for district context, classroom climate, demographic factors (i.e., gender, special education status, limited English proficiency status, socioeconomic status, grade), students' writing-related beliefs and affect, and students' writing proficiency as predictors of students' perceptions. Controlling for districts, students reporting more optimal classroom climate also reported higher usability, usefulness, and desirability for MI Write. Also, model results revealed that eighth graders, students with limited English proficiency, and students of lower socioeconomic status perceived MI Write relatively more useable; students with lower socioeconomic status also perceived MI Write relatively more useful and desirable. Students who liked writing more and more strongly believed that writing is a recursive process viewed MI Write as more useable, useful, and desirable. Students with greater writing proficiency viewed MI Write as less useable and useful; writing proficiency was not related to desirability perceptions. We conclude with a discussion of implications and future directions.