PapagAI:Automated Feedback for Reflective Essays

TL;DR

PapagAI is an open-source hybrid AI tool designed to automatically provide feedback on reflective essays, aiming to improve student learning and support teachers by reducing their feedback workload.

Contribution

This paper introduces the first open-source automated feedback system for reflective essays based on didactic theory and hybrid AI, contrasting it with large language models.

Findings

System offers consistent feedback aligned with didactic principles

Compared to large language models, it provides more targeted and didactically sound feedback

Enhances learning outcomes and supports teachers in feedback provision

Abstract

Written reflective practice is a regular exercise pre-service teachers perform during their higher education. Usually, their lecturers are expected to provide individual feedback, which can be a challenging task to perform on a regular basis. In this paper, we present the first open-source automated feedback tool based on didactic theory and implemented as a hybrid AI system. We describe the components and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of our system compared to the state-of-art generative large language models. The main objective of our work is to enable better learning outcomes for students and to complement the teaching activities of lecturers.