Open-ended questions are a favored tool among instructors for assessing student understanding and encouraging critical exploration of course material. Providing feedback for such responses is a time-consuming task that can lead to overwhelmed instructors and decreased feedback quality. Many instructors resort to simpler question formats, like multiple-choice questions, which provide immediate feedback but at the expense of personalized and insightful comments. Here, we present a tool that uses large language models (LLMs), guided by instructor-defined criteria, to automate responses to open-ended questions. Our tool delivers rapid personalized feedback, enabling students to quickly test their knowledge and identify areas for improvement. We provide open-source reference implementations both as a web application and as a Jupyter Notebook widget that can be used with instructional coding or math notebooks. With instructor guidance, LLMs hold promise to enhance student learning outcomes and elevate instructional methodologies.
View on arXiv