How to correct objective tests by cell phone

It is quite common to hear teachers saying that the worst part of the profession is correcting tests. But how do they prepare for this activity?

For me there are two alternatives: either you invest time in preparation and then you have a good correction; or you will have a real nightmare during this process.

In recent years, due to the type of discipline I started teaching and also due to the large number of students enrolled in the classes of the Faculty of Law of UnB, I decided to invest in the preparation of objective tests. I really think it was a good decision and that I learned to create tests that evaluate well the progress of each student throughout the course.

I have already published one post previously, explaining how I elaborate and organize the questions. In summary, I use the Bear for this, because it has the best hierarchical tag organization system I know. It is, in fact, a generic note-taking application, currently only available for Mac. If you are a Windows user, you may be able to solve your problem, for example, with OneNote.

Going back to the subject, let's say, for example, that I have prepared a test with objective questions, either in Bear, or in another text editor with less organizational capacity. Still, it would be necessary to edit and print this proof, which would possibly be done in Word.

So far, nothing new. But how could correction be made?

That's where a series of applications come in, whose mission is simply to generate an answer sheet for correcting objective questions through your cell phone. There are several options for this and most of them are free, if you just want to generate the answer sheet.

But that's not enough for me and I'd rather pay (a few cents per race) and have a number of advantages. My choice is the Gradepen , a Brazilian application that also shuffles the questions, generates the test for printing, hosts the answer on the internet and allows its correction by cell phone.

If you prefer another national tool with a more comprehensive purpose, it is worth taking a look at the Easy Proof or in the Quick Proof . I would say that both are more like an assessment automation platform than an exam generator. In other words, they include the possibility of applying tests in electronic media and, in the case of Prova Fácil, the entire management of the application of the test in several rooms.

Without a doubt, Prova Fácil and Prova Rápida are more complete and even cheaper than Gradepen. Nevertheless as I don't need the features offered by them, my choice is for Gradepen . In addition, I like to support independent developers, who develop software for small market solutions.

Among the foreign options, I would consider the QuickKey or ZipGrade or the Gradecam . I would not, however, consider the Lightning Grader Not even the Scantron , as they are much more expensive and compete exclusively in the corporate market. The following video illustrates how one of these options works:

Still as for my option, which is the GradePen, It is necessary to recognize that not everything is rosy . The development of the application has not been showing much breath and the user experience is not the best. The software has a very old-fashioned look. But if you just need to shuffle a few questions and correct everything on your phone, it's much more than enough.

With this strategy, I started to prepare and correct the tests with great agility. In addition, because I started to manage a very large base of questions, I started to have no problem in performing several exercises and allowing students to take the question book home. In other words, the cost of preparing a test has decreased considerably.

Thus, I believe that the planning and execution of evaluations became much more aligned with teaching activities. In this way, the course tends to become more predictable and more dynamic. And I am happier, because I spend my time preparing the questions, not correcting them .

On the other hand, I recognize that some disciplines are incompatible with evaluation by objective questions. But I also think that, with some effort, the teacher can learn to formulate objective questions in a more interesting way, which will reduce this limitation.

Finally, an additional positive point is that, in my case, I started to learn more about the content, which helps me to be a better teacher . In my view, this way of working can inaugurate a virtuous circle. For this it is only necessary that the teacher dedicates himself more to preparing than to correcting the tests, which seems to me to be a much smarter option.