Announcements

News pertaining to the Beyond Multiple Choice website or Automated Analysis of Constructed Response research group.

AACR research presented at AERA 2024

Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Research work from AACR using AI in automated evaluation of formative assessments will be presented at a few sessions at AERA 2024 conference


Paper Session at NARST 2024 Conference

Friday, January 5, 2024

Research work from AACR will be part of a related paper set at the NARST 2024Conference. The session is titled: Challenges of using AI for evaluation of knowledge-in-use assessments.

AACR paper featured on Physiology education podcast

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Recent work completed by Dr. Megan Shiroda was featured in an Advances in Physiology Education podcast.  Megan discusses her research using lexical diversity measures to examine how student written explanations change due to assessment item context.




SimBio webinar features AACR research!

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Dr. Juli Uhl recently presented at a webinar hosted by SimBio about her study published in CBE-Life Sciences Education about a SimBio online tutorial.

Models for scoring cell respiration explanations are accurate across institution types

Monday, September 13, 2021

In a study led by Dr. Megan Shiroda, the group compared model accuracy across responses provided by students at community college, primarily undergraduate institutions and research intensive universities and found that models scored new student explanations at similar accuracy rates as when developed and no significant differences between institution types.



Session at MSU Spring Conference

Friday, April 30, 2021

Researchers from the AACR group are hosting a facilitated discussion as part of the MSU Spring Conference on Teaching, Learning and Student Success. Come see how tools developed by our research efforts can be applied in your classroom and inform your teaching!


Sessions at NARST 2021 Conference

Friday, March 12, 2021

The AACR research group will be presenting some of their work at several different sessions at the NARST 2021 Annual International Conference. Come see what we've been working on!





Undergraduate Researchers at UURAF

Friday, April 13, 2018

Three AACR Undergraduate Research students presented posters of their work at the MSU 20th annual University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF) on April 13, 2018.

AACR Featured on Teach Better Podcast

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

Mark Urban-Lurain, AACR PI, was interviewed about the AACR project on the Teach Better Podcast.   Doug McKee and Edward O’Neill talk with Mark about how AACR uses machine learning to evaluate and analyze free text answers in order to shed new light on student understanding and misconceptions.

Machine Learning featured in Science

Thursday, July 13, 2017

Rachel Yoho, a postdoctoral researcher in the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response research group, was a contributor to a Science letters article about the possibilities of artificial intelligence and machine learning in science.  Rachel's contribution focused on the efforts of the AACR group to use machine learning to evaluate student writte

Active learning lesson at University of Maine supported by AACR

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Faculty at the University of Maine have developed active-learning lessons targeted at the central dogma of molecular biology.  This project was led by Michelle Smith, an AACR PI at the University of Maine, and involved faculty supported by AACR faculty learning communities!


AACR Research Group receives $450,000 NSF Award

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

On August 29, 2016, the Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) Research Group received $450,000 as part of a $1.5M NSF award for their proposal Collaborative Research: ArguLex - Applying Automated Analysis to a Learning Progression for Argumentation.  The 3 year award will support investigating applying the AACR techniques for computeriz

Alex Mazur awarded undergraduate research prize for AACR project

Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Congratulations to Alexandria (Alex) Mazur, an undergraduate researcher in the AACR research group!  Alex won a First Place Award for her oral presentation in the Education strand at the MSU University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF).

AACR at MSU Mid-SURE Event

Thursday, July 23, 2015

AACR undergraduate researcher Alex Mazur presented her poster Student Writing Reveals Misconceptions in the Central Dogma of Biology at the Mid-Michigan Symposium for Undergraduate Research Experiences (Mid-SURE) held at MSU on July 22.

AACR PI Paula Lemons presenting invited talk at King's College, London

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) Principal Investigator Paula Lemons (University of Georgia) is giving an invited talk, Designing Research-Based Learning Environments for Students and Faculty, on February 4, 2015 for the Science and Technology Education Group in the Department of Education and Professional Studies at King’s College, London, UK.

University of Maine AACR faculty featured in NSF Discovery

Friday, December 19, 2014

Michelle Smith, AACR PI, and Farahad Dastoor, AACR Faculty Learning Community member, both from the University of Maine,  are featured in an NSF discovery item:  Rules of engagement: Transforming the teaching of college-level science. Congratulations Michelle and Farahad!

$750K NSF Award for AACR and BSCS collaboration

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Members of the MSU AACR team (Mark Urban-Lurain, PI; John Merrill, co-PI and Kevin Haudek, co-PI) and collaborators from BSCS in Colorado have received an award totaling $750,000 from the National Science Foundation to extend the AACR work into reseach on K-12 science teachers pedagogical content knowledge. The project, Collaborative Research: PCK*Lex – Applying Computerized Lexical Analysis to Develop a Cost-Effective Measure of Science Teacher Pedagogical Content Knowledge runs for three years.

AACR paper in ASEE "Best of Computers in Education" Division

Monday, June 9, 2014

A paper describing the AACR research project has been placed in the "Best of Computers in Education Division" at the ASEE Annual Conference. The paper describes the AACR III research project and its future expansion plans. Mark Urban-Lurain, a principal investigator in the AACR project, presented this work in a conference session on Tuesday, June 17.

Initial national meeting of AACR FLCs

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

On the weekend of May 17-18, 2014, a total of 29 faculty participants, project principal investigators and post doctoral researchers participated in an AACR project "FLC kick-off" meeting and workshop in Detroit, MI. A goal of this meeting was to introduce faculty participants to one another and research project staff. By meeting in-person, the faculty have a basis for their future "virtual" connection with each other.

Weston wins undergraduate research award for AACR project

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Congratulations to Michele Weston, an undergraduate researcher in the AACR research group!  Michele won a First Place Award in the Education strand at the MSU University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF).

Recent paper from Nehm's group highlighted

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

A recent research article published from Ross Nehm's group at SUNY-Stony Brook is highlighted in the journals New Republic and Science. New Republic story: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/115840/computers-grade-essays-well-humans-study.

AACR III project kick-off

Monday, November 4, 2013

Members of the AACR research group met on Nov. 2 and 3 in Dearborn, MI  to kickoff activities of a recently funded NSF collaborative project (read more here).  In total, there were 14 attendees, which included all project PIs, from eight universities.

NSF grants awarded to AACR research group

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Automated Analysis of Constructed Response (AACR) research group has received two National Science Foundation grants totaling $5.7 million, funds that will utilize computer software to analyze student writing in science and engineering classes.