Speedwell Software
AI Marking and Feedback - supporting assessment teams to work smarter
This article explores how AI-assisted marking and feedback tools can support examiners, streamline workflows, reduce workload, and improve consistency while maintaining academic control, addressing the challenges often associated with marking written assessments.
Marking written exams has traditionally been one of the most time-consuming tasks for assessment teams. Unlike multiple-choice tests, which benefit from automatic scoring, exams with long written answers often require hours of reading and marking. Providing detailed feedback adds further strain and is often not feasible for many organisations.
At the same time, today’s candidates, having grown up in a digital world, are accustomed to accessing information quickly. They expect high-quality feedback, fast. These expectations increase pressure on assessment teams.
At Speedwell, we saw an opportunity to harness AI to tackle this challenge. By using AI to assist with marking written exams and generating relevant feedback, we can help teams work smarter, reduce time pressures, and improve the candidate experience.
Our AI module integrates directly with the eSystem and acts as a digital co-marker. AI provides suggested scores, justifications, confidence values, and candidate feedback for examiners to review. Markers retain full control. They can accept, adjust, or ignore AI suggestions, and only human markers allocate the final mark, ensuring that academic judgement always remains central. This reduces cognitive load, accelerates marking, and enables examiners to focus on ensuring candidates receive more detailed, high-quality feedback.
AI-assisted marking and feedback is emerging as a significant step in the evolution of streamlined assessment processes. By utilising these features, assessment teams can improve workflows without compromising academic standards. It supports scalable, high-quality marking and enables faster, more meaningful feedback, ultimately driving better outcomes for all.
