EduCoder: An Open-Source Annotation System for Education Transcript Data

Abstract: We introduce EduCoder, a domain-specialized tool designed to support utterance-level annotation of educational dialogue. While general-purpose text annotation tools for NLP and qualitative research abound, few address the complexities of coding education dialogue transcripts -- with diverse teacher-student and peer interactions. Common challenges include defining codebooks for complex pedagogical features, supporting both open-ended and categorical coding, and contextualizing utterances with external features, such as the lesson's purpose and the pedagogical value of the instruction. EduCoder is designed to address these challenges by providing a platform for researchers and domain experts to collaboratively define complex codebooks based on observed data. It incorporates both categorical and open-ended annotation types along with contextual materials. Additionally, it offers a side-by-side comparison of multiple annotators' responses, allowing comparison and calibration of annotations with others to improve data reliability. The system is open-source, with a demo video available.