The automated scoring is done by ETS's e-rater engine.
It provides a holistic score for an essay as well as real-time diagnostic feedback about grammar, usage, mechanics, style, and organisation and development. This feedback is based on natural language processing research specifically tailored to the analysis of student responses, and is detailed in ETS’s research publications.
Read about:
- the Criterion Research Rationale
- the automated e-Rater engine.
- ETS Research into Automated Scoring of Writing Quality
Criterion also allows teachers to configure classes, training material and assignments, and provides extensive reports for teachers and administrators of student progress at individual & group levels - class, grade, school, district, and onwards.
The effectiveness of Criterion stems from combining automated feedback with a teachers expertise - providing instant assessment of a student's submission, easing the teacher's workload and freeing them to comment further - while providing extensive feedback on student and class progress.