At the end of an exam, completed answer papers are collected and the process of exam paper scanning begins. This involves digitising candidate responses, verifying scanned images, and submitting responses for marking.
We have three options, depending on your deployment.
The first option involves the on-site deployment of data capture software. Venue staff will collect completed answer sheets at the end of the exam and feed them into a high-speed document scanner to begin script capture, processing, and verification.
Secondly, if you opt for our document scanning services, we will arrange for the collection of the completed exam papers and process them accordingly.
Thirdly, for larger deployments covering hundreds of centres and/or many countries, an innovative distributed scanning client called eScan can be deployed to scan candidate responses via a Click-Once installer on the web portal.
eScan provides users with scanning, reconciliation, error rectification and transmission of scanned image batches into data capture software such as TeleForm for further processing. It is deployed through a browser for simple installation on any modern Windows PC.
The system is compatible with widely available scanning hardware from manufacturers such as Fujitsu, Kodak, and Canon. This allows users to use pen or pencil and enables them to locally source hardware, without the need to purchase or distribute expensive custom hardware such as OMR scanners.
The eScan App:
Some of the key features of the eScan app include:
eScan validates image quality through a combination of page identifying marks and brightness scales as well as checking page sizes, readability, and answer paper type in real-time as the images are scanned.
This reconciliation and image validation phase results in markers only viewing images that are linked to candidates and meet quality thresholds. If a scanned image fails to meet the required standard, the test centre will be alerted and asked to provide a re-scan.
To enable uninterrupted scanning, test papers are cached on the local PC and queued for background upload, making the system tolerant of poor internet connectivity.
The dashboard highlights sessions and components with outstanding items via a percentage-complete indicator with drill-down functionality to easily find details of missing scans.
A traffic light warning system instantly highlights incomplete scans and other warnings/errors to users. Batches containing errors are unable to be uploaded until all missing scans or ordering issues are resolved.
The system provides the following features to identify unmatched scans and resolve issues:
- A verification queue displays unmatched scans awaiting verification to operators in priority order.
- Return unmatched scans (e.g. if a candidate has written an incorrect number or the image is unreadable) to the centre dashboard for manual matching or rescanning where necessary.
- Reconciliation process to automatically highlight mismatched items as duplicate warnings when the correct items are processed.
- Scans are not released for marking until the session is complete for a centre, ensuring all mismatched items have been dealt with prior to marking.
A reconciliation process will automatically highlight mismatched items as duplicate warnings when the correct items are processed. Scans are not released for marking until the session is complete for a centre, ensuring all mismatched items have been dealt with prior to marking.
A batch reference number is generated to confirm the answer sheets have been transmitted successfully. This reference acts as proof of delivery and can provide a way of identifying a batch should any pages within it need re-scanning.
The system supports the capture of attendance and misconduct information from test centres including absentees, early exits, special requirements candidates, and unscannable candidate responses (damaged papers).
The invigilator report allows for unscannable reasons such as absence, malpractice, damaged papers etc. to be logged against individual candidates and components. A user can record all unscannable candidate data on the web portal or scan/upload the report with the answer papers.
The system includes a wealth of features to support quality assurance. In addition to checking for mismatches or mis-verified candidate responses, admin teams can monitor centre progress (e.g., number of forms to scan, scans pending review, completed scans, and scans escalated to a centre), chase outstanding actions, and download reports covering rescans, user access, system audit, user performance, and user accounts.
Some of the benefits include:
Once exam paper scanning is complete, the system will identify answer papers based on the original template type. These answer papers are intuitive for candidates and include essential features to guarantee high-quality images that are correctly aligned and accurately matched to enrolments. These features include:
After identifying a paper, document recognition technology extracts candidate responses. Optical mark recognition (OMR) scores multiple-choice questions (MCQ), intelligent character recognition (ICR) reads short written responses and optical character recognition (OCR) captures machine-printed text.
Distributed
Following a OJEU tender process, the British Council commissioned Civica as the prime contractor to deliver an on-screen marking (OSM) solution to mark up to 2.25 million ‘pen and paper’ IELTS tests each year.
As part of the agreement, Civica appointed ePC as its sub-contractor for the script capture, processing and verification work.
Enterprise
Expert in language assessment automates paper-based assessments with OMR exam processing and on-screen marking system.
Mid-volume
Leading UK university uses TeleForm to design, scan and verify OMR answer sheets from undergraduate and postgraduate examinations.
