A handful of schools will be testing the system this term where students email completed worksheets to a virtual marker with a randomly-created name and character.

The artificial teacher marks the work and passes on grades and comments to them and their school via the free Study-Buddy scheme.

The virtual markers, or “avatars”, handle only multiple-choice and simple one-word answers, and the only apparent variety in their characters is the mildly different comments they make on pupils’ work.

Younger pupils are given sad and smiley faces on their worksheets and comments like: “That was a hard one, wasn’t it?!” Older students receive sterner remarks such as: “You have made some basic mistakes that could have been avoided with more study.”

The program’s creators are working with the Open University on research into artificial intelligence, hoping it will lead to an online teacher with an individual personality who can deal with complicated questions and longer answers.

Former maths teacher Graham Barrett and his team created the program as a break from their work developing systems for banks, oil companies and other businesses.

“I remember how horrendous it was when you are teaching 10 classes, with 30 in each, and you have to face all the marking,” he said.

More than 200 pupils have tested the system at home with their parents, and the Guernsey Grid for Learning has found teachers who will use it with primary school maths pupils and AS-level psychology students.

But the National Union of Teachers said: “Marking lets teachers know how students are developing and where they need help. Automatic marking via a computer does not do that.”

Girls reject net learning, 16 www.study-buddy.com