SMART Overview

Tests and Assessments (T&A) are an integral part of the teaching-learning process because they provide a framework in which educational objectives are set and the students’ progress charted.  Current T&A processes are inefficient, error-prone, tedious and time consuming.  Assessment papers are manually graded and marks are tediously entered into computer systems.

Smart Marking Assessment Reporting Technology (SMART) is a novel concept that combines the strengths of the paper-based T&A and  learning systems.  In the SMART system (see Figure below), the instructor first enters the questions into an Item Bank.  Item Banks enables questions to be reused at a later date.  Barcodes are then automatically inserted into the test or assessment papers. There is no change in the way tests (or assessments) are conducted. Questions are then scanned and automatically segmented from scanned test papers and stored as images.  Teachers only need to mark and grade non-multiple choice questions.  The system will reassemble the test papers, generate reports and sent the results to other administrative systems.  Results can also be exported to other software for analysis.  Administrative workloads of teachers will be reduced and students’ learning through T&A can be tracked by teachers, parents and all stakeholders.

Figure: Overview of the SMART system