September 2, 2020
North Liberty, IA – Marking open-ended item responses is one of the most expensive components of a quality assessment system. It takes an enormous amount of time and energy to achieve quality human marking. With pressure to meet deadlines and increasingly tight budget restrictions, marking standards can drop. The assessment industry is in desperate need of scoring innovation.
“We have paired today’s most sophisticated machine learning algorithms with recent advancements in natural language processing to create an automated assessment scoring platform that scores accurately in less time than ever before,” Said Miles Loring, CTO at MZD. “Designed specifically to help deliver on marking quality standards, EMMA enables extraordinary training and deployment speed without compromising quality control or scoring transparency.”
MZD designed EMMA around a flexible human-AI hybrid model of scoring. For every item, clients can adjust the human/AI mix. From 100% human scoring to 100% AI-driven scoring. This makes EMMA a great solution for scoring authentic assessments at any scale without losing control of scoring transparency or quality
EMMA is part of the MZD Family of assessment solutions. That means collaboration is in its DNA. Assessors can create the scoring model that works best for them and get instant reporting using MZD’s core product, OSCAR. OSCAR gives a holistic view of all human and AI performance. 
The MZD Family of assessment platforms saves time, money, and overall labor, especially when scaled across environments on a regional or national level. AI-assisted and hybrid assessment models have been shown to outperform human-only scoring for quality standards even in complex item environments. Moreover, EMMA is purpose-built for authentic assessment, enabling a broad range of complex item types to be quickly and easily quantified. The MZD Family cuts to the core of challenges in the education industry, allowing educators and assessors to free up their resources for what matters most – ensuring first-class education outcomes.
MZD’s CEO Zac Henrich, Said “What excites me most about EMMA is the control and transparency it will provide our clients. For too long the processes of training, deploying, and monitoring automated essay scoring have been “behind the curtain” activities. EMMA puts all the control in our clients’ hands and instantly provides 100% data transparency.”
About MZD
MZD was formed in 2015 by a group of assessment industry experts. They had one goal – to make high-performance testing a reality for organizations of any size. Since the release of their flagship platform, OSCAR, MZD has gone on to upend the status quo of the industry, delivering versatile new products that help educators and assessors perform better. They believe in the power of authentic assessment to align skills with real-world needs. Education must keep moving forward to address the challenges of tomorrow.
To discover more about EMMA, OSCAR, and the entire MZD Family, simply reach out to us for additional comments at contact@mzdevinc.com or you can give us a call at 319-855-7694.
Press Contact:
Zac Henrich, CEO
MZD
zac.henrich@mzdevinc.com
