Press Release - October 13, 2004
Vantage Learning Announces Release of E-Fence™, Advanced Detection of Non-legitimate Responses Submitted for IntelliMetric® Automated Essay Scoring
New legitimacy detection expands IntelliMetric® automated essay scoring accuracy
Newtown, PA, October 13, 2004 - Vantage Learning (www.vantagelearning.com) today announced the release of E-Fence™, a major advancement in detecting the legitimacy of essays submitted to IntelliMetric®. E-Fence is the product of several years of research by Vantage Laboratories' Natural Language and Text Processing Research and Development group.IntelliMetric uses a rich blend of artificial intelligence (AI) and the digitization of human expertise to accurately score and assess examinee responses to open-ended essay questions in a range of subjects. E-Fence improves IntelliMetric accuracy and functionality by identifying responses submitted to essays that are not legitimate. At times, IntelliMetric customers wish to restrict the submission of certain essay responses or types of responses for scoring. The E-Fence component ensures that pre-defined responses and/or classes of responses are restricted from scoring.
"E-Fence employs several natural language processing, machine learning, and statistical tools to restrict certain essay responses from being scored. E-Fence learns the characteristics of restricted responses and evaluates essays submitted in relation to what it has learned," explains Harry Barfoot, VP of Sales of Marketing for Vantage Learning. "It's as if a barbed wire fence is placed around IntelliMetric to keep out undesirable responses."
Research conducted by both Vantage Learning and several third party agencies shows that IntelliMetric scores typically match those assigned by human expert scorers 99% to 100% of the time and show correlations with expert human scorers in the .82 to .92 range.
"We expect to see the demand for automated essay scoring more than triple in the upcoming year. The volume of essays to be scored has increased dramatically, and we have responded by improving the accuracy and technical performance of the IntelliMetric engine," said Barfoot.
According to the company, E-Fence will be available to the market before the end of calendar year 2004. Initially, the E-Fence application will be offered to existing users of the IntelliMetric online essay scoring service.
About Vantage Learning
Vantage Learning (www.vantagelearning.com), an affiliate of Vantage Laboratories and the leading provider of online assessment and automated essay scoring, developed IntelliMetric® to meet the needs of business, education, and government agencies needing a comprehensive Internet-based test authoring, delivery, scoring and reporting platform. IntelliMetric administers and scores responses to open-ended questions over the Internet using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) technology. An individual can enter a response to a question posed, submit the response, and receive an immediate score with feedback within seconds.
Eduventures recently selected Vantage Learning as one of the eight most innovative educational technology companies. MY Access! earned a 2003 District Administration Top 100 Award, was included in Technology and Learning Magazine's Top 10 Smart Technologies for Schools, and was a Codie Awards finalist 2 years in a row. Vantage Learning provides services in all 50 states including Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, Oregon, and Texas and provides services to educational leaders such as The College Board, ACT, Harcourt Assessment, Inc., CTB/McGraw Hill and Thomson Learning, and industry giants such as Microsoft, Apple Computer, AOL, and Sun Microsystems.