2021 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Open-source English ability test with automatic grading of speaking and writing
| Project/Area Number |
19K00829
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| Research Institution | Kochi University of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
Bateson Gordon 高知工科大学, 共通教育教室, 教授 (00340018)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2023-03-31
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| Keywords | four-skills / online test / essay auto-grade / speak auto-grade / open-source |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
(1) The main research achievements for 2021 were to participate in and give a keynote presentation and workshop at GLoCALL 2021 which is an international conference baesd in Asia. The title of the keynote presentation was "Testing 4-skills online: What is possible?". It described some of the current options for online testing, and then introduced the Essay and Speeach auto-grade question types which form the central development proposal for this kaken proposal.
(2) As a result of significant changes to the question API, the rendering API and Javascript requirements for the latest versions of Moodle, namely versions 3.11 and 4.0, it was necessary to enhance the Essay and Speeach auto-grade question types to be compatible with the latest versions of Moodle.
(3) The prevalence and power of mobile phones has made the necessity for Moodle question types to be compatible with the Moodle Mobile app more urgent, so this functionality was added to Essay (auto-grade) question type.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
4: Progress in research has been delayed.
Reason
(1) Because of the on-going Covid-19 pandemic, my time and energy at university continues to be spent modifying activities for online delivery, delivering online classes, and supporting students and part-time teachers to use the new course materials.
(2) In addition, the release of the recent versions of Moodle (3.11 and 4.0) have required that I spend time updating current question-type plugins, including the Essay (auto-grade) question type, to be compatible with those versions.
(3) Furthermore, my university has requested that I spend my time and effort more on teaching and less on research, so I have taken on several new classes which has reduced the time and effort I can spend on research.
(4) Lastly, my family situation has changed significantly in the past 12 months, which has reduced the time I can spend on research outside of my normal work hours.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
1. I will renew my efforts to implement the audio-to-speech functionality using my own code, rather than that developed by Poodll.com
2. I will create a preliminary test using Essay and Speech questions and collectdata at my open university about their performance and reliability
3. I will participate in the GLoCALL 2022 conference and the MoodleMoot Japan 2023 conference to report the results of steps (1) and (2).
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| Causes of Carryover |
I was not able to use any funds during 2021, because of travel and time restrictions. However, in 2022 I will use the funds to participate in conferences and generate test materials as per the original research plan.
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Research Products
(2 results)
