Kyocera’s Teaching Assistant, a software application for automated printing and grading of multiple-choice exams, has been recognised as an Outstanding Education Solution by Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI).
Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa’s Teaching Assistant transforms a Kyocera multi-functional printer (MFP) into an on-demand test-creating, marking and analysis hub for popular bubble sheet test papers.
Designed for schools and training facilities wishing to improve their efficiency, Teaching Assistant enables a Kyocera MFP to automatically mark all student papers in seconds.
Instead of schools investing in more human resources with large overheads, for a capital outlay of between R16 000 and R25 000, Teaching Assistant can not only simplify, but also improve a teacher’s output.
JP Lourens, software product manager at Kyocera Document Solutions South Africa, says: “BLI’s recognition of Teachers Assistant validates our claims that the solution maximises savings for an institute and by not requiring any network resources, the offering is accessible to all.
“The offering brings technology to schools that have not had access before and extends technology usage for those schools that already use technology.”
Teachers can automatically print, scan, mark and analyse students’ tests and get detailed reporting on test results, which means areas of weakness can be identified and focused on. The software is very simple to use – teachers simply enter into the multi-functional printer the number of questions, possible answers and sheets needed for a class. To mark the test, the key sheet marked with the barcode label is completed and scanned before entering the students’ answer sheets.
The Kyocera MFP will then automatically assess the test according to the marker’s answers and various results charts can be printed, sent to the teacher’s email address, exported as a CSV file or simply saved on a USB stick. The whole process can be managed directly from the MFPs intuitive and easy to use touch screen menu.
“With teachers wanting to spend more time focused on educating students and less on paperwork, this solution is imperative for educators who want to have a snap shot of their student’s knowledge of subject matter prior to testing,” concludes Lourens.
