Score within 10 seconds, maximum accuracy in answer analysis and huge savings • Pilot results for matriculation examination through an artificial intelligence system, stunned the Ministry of Education
The Ministry of Education recently conducted a pilot, in which artificial intelligence computers tested matriculation exams in history and literature - and reached similar grade results compared to exams tested by teachers.
This is what Israel Today has learned.
Photo: Yoni Rickner, Moshe Ben Simhon, Paz Bar, Newsenders
Despite the successful experiment, matriculation examinations by artificial intelligence will be carried out - if at all - only in the distant future.
The reason: the fear that the teachers will go to war, since the examination of the exams is a significant source of income for many of them.
The matriculation exams in history and literature are multi-word exams, so students write in handwriting an average of 18-17 pages in each exam.
Therefore the challenge is very significant, as the software must not only understand the students' handwriting, but identify the logic behind the text as well as analyze the answers taking into account some parameters like answer matter, wording, linguistic integration and other distinctions.
The experiment was conducted at the Ministry of Education's Matriculation and Final Examination Center (MARBD). As part of this, the Ministry of Education collected about 3,000 exam notebooks, including answers from students who have matriculated in literature and history.
These matriculation societies were examined by human examiners (teachers) and each exam was graded.
In the second stage, the exam notebooks containing the students' answers were scanned into the artificial intelligence system, with each grade entering the grade given to it by the teachers.
At this point, the understanding system has learned, using algorithms, to identify the most correct answer to each question and also the score on it.
Once the information about thousands of matriculation exams was already in the system, about a thousand new exam notebooks were collected (500 in history and another 500 in literature).
These notebooks were also reviewed by teachers in the field of knowledge, who gave them grades - but this time these were kept secret.
At this point, the exams were passed for testing to the artificial intelligence system, which scanned them and gave them scores according to the database kept by it.
The goal: to understand whether there is symmetry between the scores given by the professional examiners (teachers) and the scores given by the artificial intelligence system.
Point gap only
The conclusions reached after about three hours of testing stunned those present: the average results of the artificial intelligence were almost exactly the same as the average scores given by the human testers.
The gap, in case you were wondering, was only one point.
The artificial intelligence system is able to test each notebook in just ten seconds and create a uniform answer standard throughout the country.
If it enters the activity, it is expected to save the state millions of shekels every year, because today every matriculation exam is examined by two teachers, who receive between 60-30 shekels for each exam notebook.
However, as mentioned, due to the fear of widespread protest on the part of the human examiners, the Ministry of Education is likely to be very late in deciding whether to transfer the matriculation exam to the artificial intelligence system.
