Using artificial intelligence to rule on handball is a tantalising possibility | Jonathan Wilson

Comparative judgment used in marking essays could improve decisions in football and help restore common sense

How should an essay be marked? You might think a teacher should simply read it and make a judgment based on the impression it makes: logically coherent, offers evidence to back up its case, reads well, is original – feels like an A. But that, obviously, is risky. It’s subjective. What stirs one assessor might not appeal to another.

So maybe there needs to be an agreed rubric. The essay must cover certain key points, achieve certain goals. But the danger then is that essays become box-ticking exercises, that a student could doggedly go through the checklist and achieve top marks despite making little sense: or a brilliant essay might omit one point and so be marked down.

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