Who uses the e-rater engine and why?
Companies and institutions use this patented technology to power their custom applications.
The e-rater engine is used within the Criterion® Online Writing Evaluation Service. Students use the e-rater engine's feedback to evaluate their essay-writing skills and to identify areas that need improvement. Teachers use the Criterion service to help their students develop their writing skills independently and receive automated, constructive feedback. The e-rater engine is also used in other low-stakes practice tests include TOEFL® Practice Online and GRE® ScoreItNow!™.
In high-stakes settings, the engine is used in conjunction with human ratings for both the Issue and Argument prompts of the GRE test's Analytical Writing section and the TOEFL iBT® test's Independent and Integrated Writing prompts. ETS research has shown that combining automated and human essay scoring demonstrates assessment score reliability and measurement benefits.
For more information about the use of the e-rater engine, read E-rater as a Quality Control on Human Scores (PDF).