RE: [school-discuss] paper test generation and answer scanning?

[Les Richardson <les@celery.richtech.ca>]

Hi,

> We would like to distribute and score about 30,000 paper tests next
> spring to the students involved in the projects.  The students are
> located in 250 different classrooms around the country.  I'd sure like
> to do it all via the web but other project folks are convinced that
> this would limit the collection of data because not all classes will
> have access to computer labs for testing.
> 
> With that volume of testing I'd like to process the tests with an
> automatic scanning system.  Will webwork output paper tests and answer
> sheets that can be scanned?
 
I would suggest that you use webwork to generate the tests, but use
standard scan forms (bubble sheet types) so that you can use a scantron
type of device to get the information back into a computer system. (since
you lack an online mechanism to do the testing). 

Webwork is designed to generate online tests from a specialized markup
system for questions. (ie. it generates HTML and images (I assume) for
math questions) and to give appropriate hints for solution, etc.) It may
be less appropriate for a more "normal" kind of testing system (rather
than online homework system). 

Les Richardson