THE TWO U’S IN THE FUTURE OF AUTOMATED ESSAY EVALUATION: UNIVERSAL ACCESS AND USER-CENTERED DESIGN

This handbook is representative of the evolution of automated essay evaluation (AEE) systems over the past decade, emphasizing their increased accuracy, reliability, and effectiveness in providing formative feedback to developing writers. It also highlights the broader impact of AEE on understanding the writing process and instruction. This chapter identifies two key objectives for the future of AEE: universal access and user-centered design. Universal access aims to render AEE available in multiple languages and domains, ensuring broad accessibility. The volume of work in this handbook reflects recent progress toward enabling universal access to AEE, including work to make AEE accessible in more languages, integrate AEE with speech and reading, extend automated writing evaluation to multiple genres and domains, and mitigate algorithmic bias in an effort to make systems culturally responsive. User-centered design prioritizes the user’s needs and involvement throughout the development process, improving system success and accessibility. The authors anticipate that generative AI advances will enhance the efficiency and affordability of user-centered AEE system design, making them more accessible within digital learning platforms (DLPs). In conclusion, the chapter calls on future researchers and educators to promote universal, user-centric access to AEE, fostering a global community of users.