5. Assessment Module

The Assessment module combines the Quiz questions with the students and classes. This module contains the scanner module and interprets the barcodes for the automatic marking of the assessment paper. Users can also manually mark non MCQ/MR questions and generate the report. The Marking and Report modules are described in the subsequent Chapters.

Figure 5.1 shows the main dialog box of the Assessment Module. The left hand side of Figure 5.1 manages the directories or folders to organize the assessments. Users can create, delete or rename directories with the respective buttons. The right side of Figure 5.1 lists the details of the assessments taken and the percentage of questions marked. For example, the figure shows that 60% of the questions in the assessment are automatically marked by the SMART system. The icons at the bottom of Figure 5.1 shows the other modules linked to the Assessment module for the convenience of the users.

Figure 5.1: Main Assessment Module

5.1 Assessment Functions

5.1.1 Creating New Assessments

a. Click on the “New …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. A dialog box (Figure 5.2) is displayed

c. Select and enter the details of the assessment

d. Click on the “Create” button

5.1.2 Editing Assessments

a. Click on the “Edit …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. A dialog box (Figure 5.3) is displayed

c. Change the details of the assessment if needed

d. Select the student and view the scanned paper by clicking on the “View Paper” button if necessary

e. Select the student and clear the scanned images by clicking on the “Clear Data” button if needed

f. Click on the “Load Image” button to rescan the student’s paper and a dialog box (Figure 5.7) is

displayed. Select the directory containing the images of the student’s paper. Click the “OK” button

h. Click on the “Edit Questions …” button to manually segment the images of the student. Please see

the section on “Manually Editing Student’s Results” in the Chapter more details

i. Click on the “Exit” button

Figure 5.2: Creating a New Assessment

Figure 5.3: Editing the Assessment

5.1.3 Deleting Assessments

a. Click on the “Delete” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. The assessment will be automatically deleted

5.2 Scanning Assessment Papers

It is important to note that image resolution must be at least 150x150 dpi (dots per inch). The recommended image scanning resolution is 300x300 dpi. To minimize file sizes and speed up the scanning process, the image mode should be set to Black and White. SMART supports nearly all scanners and imaging devices through the TWAIN (Technology Without An Interesting Name) standard. TWAIN is a standard software protocol and applications programming interface (API) that regulates communication between software applications and imaging devices such as scanners.

5.2.1 Scanning Procedure

a. Click on the “Scanner …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. A dialog box (Figure 5.4) is displayed

c. Click on the “Select Scanner” button to choose the scanner (Figure 5.5) and click on the “Select”

button

d. Select the Directory, file format and the check box to overwrite image files. It is recommended

that users use the default settings shown in Figure 5.4. Note that the scanned images will be

named sequentially (e.g. image0001.tif, image0002.tif, image0003.tif and so on)

e. Click on the “Acquire Image …” button and the scanner parameters dialog box is displayed (Figure

5.6(a) ). It is recommended that the scanning resolution be set to 300x300 dpi and the image mode

is set to “Black and White”. For double sided scanning, select the “ADF (Duplex)“ option (see

Figure 5.6(b) ) from the Scan Type option in Figure 5.6(a).

f. Click on the “Scan” button in Figure 5.6 to start scanning. After scanning, click on the “Close”

button

g. Click on the “Exit” button in Figure 5.4

Figure 5.4: Scanner Module

Figure 5.5: Selection of Scanner

(a)

(b)

Figure 5.6: Scanner Parameters (a) Main Setup Menu (b) Double-Sided Scanning

5.3 Data Processing of Images

If you have any questions or experience any difficulties in SMART, please contact us at support@picsalive.com and we will respond promptly

5.3.1 Extracting and Automatic Marking of Questions

a. Click on the “Process Images …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. A dialog box (Figure 5.7) is displayed. Note: If there are existing students’ data in the assessment,

a dialog box will appear to select whether to delete or retain the existing data.

c. Change the Source Directory and file format if necessary. It is recommended that users use the

default settings shown in Figure 5.7. The number of images detected is also shown. The image

filenames must correspond to the page numbers e.g. Page 1 of the assessment paper must be

saved as image0001.tif, Page 2 must be saved as image0002.tif etc. Note that filenames of images

MUST be in sequential order (e.g. image0001.tif, image0002.tif, … and so on). An error message is

displayed if the image resolution is less than 150x150 dpi

d. Select the File Format of the images (i.e. TIFF or JPEG formats)

e. Click on the “OK” button to start the extraction and automatic marking of questions

Figure 5.7: Process Images

5.4 Manual Editing of Student’s Results

Users can manually overwrite the student and question data obtained automatically from the SMART system.

5.4.1 Loading Student Images

a. Click on the “Edit …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. Select student ( see Figure 5.3)

c. Click on the “Load Images …” button and Figure 5.7 is displayed

d. Select the directory containing the scanned images of the student’s paper using the “Directory …”

button. Note that the number of images detected is shown

e. Click on the “OK” button. If the student’s Registration Number or the Assessment ID detected in

the images differs from the selected student and assessment, a warning message will be display.

Click on “Yes” in the warning message to proceed. The student’s questions will be automatically

extracted from the images

5.4.2 Viewing Student Images

a. Click on the “Edit …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. Select student ( see Figure 5.3)

c. Click on the “Clear Data” button

5.4.3 Deleting Student Data

a. Click on the “Edit …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. Select student ( see Figure 5.3)

c. Click on the “Clear Data” button

Figure 5.8: Main Assessment Module

Figure 5.9: Main Assessment Module

5.4.4 Editing Student Questions

a. Click on the “Edit …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. A dialog box (Figure 5.3) is displayed

c. Click on the “Edit Question …” button and Figure 5.8 is displayed

d. Click on the “New …” button to insert a question or “Edit …” button to make changes to the

question. Figure 5.9 is displayed. To insert a new image, use the “Browse New Image …” button.

To redefine the Start and End location of the question in the image, click on the “Question

Location” button. The first click on the image defines the start line (green) and the second click on

the image defines the end line of the question. Question parameters like type, question marks,

student marks and comments can also be changed (Figure 5.9)

e. Select the question and delete it using the “Delete” button if necessary

f. Click on “Save and Exit” button in Figure 5.9 to save changes

5.5 Creating Reports

5.5.1 Procedure to Generate Reports

a. Click on the “Report …” button in the Assessment Module (Figure 5.1)

b. A message (Figure 5.10) is displayed after the report is successfully generated

Figure 5.10: Report Generated

5.6 Marking Module

In the Marking Module, all questions individually extracted and presented to the user. All MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions) and MR (Multiple Response) questions are automatically marked. The Marking Module allows other questions types to be manually marked by presenting individual questions to the user and storing user data back into the question. To access the Marking Module, Select the Assessment Module and click on the Marking Module icon.

Figure 5.11 shows the main user interface of the Marking Module. The image is shown on the left hand side while the marking parameters are displayed on the right side. The icons at the bottom of Figure 5.11 are short-cuts to the functions of the Marking Modules. A list of functions denoted by the icons is shown in Table 5.1.

Notice the Progress field of 66.67% at the top right corner of Figure 5.11. This indicates the percentage of the questions already marked. A list of the questions, students and classes are displayed on the right side of Figure 5.11. Note that the question type and the correct answer are also detected by the system from the barcodes.

A useful feature of the Marking Module is to sort and mark the paper by questions as shown Figure 5.12. Select “Unmarked” from the List field and all unmarked questions will be displayed. Next, select “Questions” from the View field. Marking by questions increases efficiency and marking productivity.

Comments can be added into the image by first typing into the comments box. There are some pre-programmed comments in the drop-down list. Insert the comments into the image using the Insert Text icon . To view the original image, click on the icon. Figure 5.13 shows the user interface to view the original images.

Figure 5.11: Extracted Question Automatically Marked by System

Figure 5.12: User Inserted Comments

Icon	Function	Description
	Correct,Save & Next	Insert tick, Save Data and View Next Question
	Wrong,Save & Next	Insert Cross, Save Data and View Next Question
	Save & Back	Save Data and View Previous Question
	Save & Next	Save Data and View Next Question
	Back	View Previous Question
	Next	View Next Question
	Save	Save Data into Image
	Delete	Delete Image
	Clear	Clear All Data in Image
	Correct	Insert Tick
	Wrong	Insert Cross
	Insert Text	Insert Text into Image
	Zoom In	Zoom In Into Image
	Zoom Out	Zoom Out Into Image
	Rotate 180 degrees	Rotate Image by 180 degrees
	Overview	Pre-assigned Settings and Marking Parameters
	Original Image	View Original Image
	Exit	Exit Marking Module

Table 5.1: Marking Module Icons

Figure 5.13: Original Image

5.7 Assessment Directory

Assessment can be organised into directories as shown on the left hand side of Figure 5.1. Users can create, edit or delete directories. All directories create in the Assessment Module will also appear in the Report Module. Similarly, the report will also appear in the same directory as the assessment.

5.7.1 Creating a New Directory

a. Enter the name of the new directory in the text box at top left of the Main Assessment Module as

shown in Figure 5.1

b. Click on the “New” button. An error message will appear if there is another directory with the

same name

5.7.2 Deleting a Directory

a. Select the directory to be deleted from the left of the Main Assessment Module (see Figure 5.1)

b. Ensure that all assessments in the directory is removed.

c. Click on the “Delete” button

5.7.3 Renaming a Directory

a. Select the directory to be renamed from the left of the Main Assessment Module (see Figure 5.1)

b. The name of the directory will appear on the text box. Edit and change the name of the directory

c. Click on the “Rename” button