Printing and Scanning Answer Sheets

The device you need is a scanner, of course. It should be an auto feed one since the manual feed scanners take a long time to operate and render the scanning process rather laborious. To browse the list of recommended scanners, use the following path:

The computer connected to the scanner needs to have the program skenovani.exe installed. If this is not the case, contact your faculty's Computer Laboratory, or an e-technician, and ask them do install it for you. For the information on how to operate the scanning program, go to:

Below is a list of steps that must be taken and information about their approximate duration:

Preparation of questions making up the answers sheets:
Provided you have prepared your questions beforehand, entering one of these into the ROPOT form usually takes less than one minute (regardless of whether the question is in a text file or written on a paper).

Creating the ROPOT description:
This operation takes about ten minutes. Instructions on how to create a ROPOT description can be found below. Please contact your faculty e-technician and ask him/her about whether your description is correct.

Creating tests:
Creating tests in the Information System is not particularly time-consuming.

Printing test sheets, answer sheets, and dispatch form:
The time it takes to do these depends on the number of tests, type of printer (concerns mainly double-sided printing) and the fact whether you want the printer to collate the tests spanning several sheets or not.

Submitting tests to students and collecting them:
Here the time merely depends on you and the strategy you choose.

Scanning:
The time taken by scanning depends on the speed of the scanner used. Nevertheless, it usually takes a recommended scanner about 2 seconds to scan one answer sheet.

Optical recognition:
The process of optical recognition involving one answer sheet takes about five seconds.

Correcting optical recognition errors:
The overall time taken by this activity depends on the number of incorrectly recognized answer sheets. In practice, the percentage of these is very low.

Provided you need any assistance in this area, please contact your e-technician.

It is only the multiple-choice questions of two types that can be used in scannable tests. These are the questions of :r type (with one of the alternatives correct) and those of :c type (with more than one alternative correct). It is not possible to combine these two types in the same test, i.e. the test may only contain questions of one type.
For the information on how to prepare a test from the :r or :c questions, go to:

and

Provided your test consists of a large number of questions, it is convenient to upload them into the System from a text file. Users are recommended to consult their e-technician about this operation in order to avoid some possible problems.

It is also the tests marked by a teacher manually that can be scanned. What is specific about this use is that the questions making up such tests are not usually available anywhere in the Information System. However, if the teacher wants to store these in IS, he/she can either enter them manually or provide a copy of these questions on another sheet of paper.
Those who are familiar with LaTeX can download macros used for designing custom answer sheets from the page used for printing these and insert their text directly into the form supplied. To do so, please use the following path:

To start a new ROPOT application and create its description, use the following path:

Create a new description for a concrete examination date using Create a new ROPOT description. It is advisable to use a new set of questions for every new examination date.
Select a destination folder for the description; the most convenient one is that of Testbank since its default settings allow only the users of the Teacher's Notebook (of the selected course) to access its contents.

Provided you are creating a new ROPOT description that you intend to use for a test in which students are supposed to provide hand-written answers, please select the mode of scannable handwritten text and scores. You should also enter a name for the new ROPOT application, preferably the one containing the date of test or name of examination date.

When creating a description of another kind, please proceed as follows:

Enter a name for the new ROPOT application, preferably the one containing the name of examination date.

As regards the other options, we suggest that you select the following:

To print test sheets, use the following path:

Please select a ROPOT application (created for a concrete examination date). Now you can choose from the following two options. Select the one you think will suit you best.

• Printing from your browser:
  This way of printing does not allow you to make double-sided copies. After being printed, the page looks the same as it does in your browser, i.e. the tables, images, text, and the overall layout are the same as it is on the System page. Please specify the number of test sheets you want to print out, number of test sheets per page, and click on Prepare printing.
• Sending test sheets directly to a printer:
  This mode allows you to produce double-sided copies (the option must be selected for the printer to work in this mode, though). Provided the number of pages your test spans is odd, the number of these in the file used for printing will be even. The test sheets ID numbers are assigned automatically. It is advisable that you print the test sheets into a file first (specify the type using the drop-down menu - the most suitable format is the .pdf one - and click on Print). After being generated, the .pdf file will open automatically. Please ensure that the layout of your test sheets is the same as you wanted it to be. If it is, you can print them out by selecting one of the printers offered (using the drop-down menu again) and clicking on Print. If your test contains some graphical elements such as images, tables. etc., you should be aware of the fact that these might not get printed correctly.

To print your answer sheets, use the following path:

Select the question type used in your test sheets (:r - one correct answer per question, :c - several correct answers per question or handwritten text), choose the language version and the way the tests should be authenticated (the personal identification number is the preferred one). The other authentication methods are usually used in admission procedures (application ID) or in the situations where answers provided by people outside Masaryk University are evaluated (ID selected by me).
Next, specify the number of answer sheets you want to print. It is advisable to print out more copies of these than there are test sheets. That is, if a student marks his/her answers incorrectly, he should be given a new blank sheet to fill out instead of correcting his/her choice on the old one.
Finally, print the answer sheets out.

To print a dispatch form, use the following path:

Please enter the personal identification number (učo) (in most cases yours) of the person into whose Depository the scanned answer sheets should be uploaded and check recognize after uploading into Depository. Print the dispatch form and, before uploading the scanned copies into the System, ensure that the file containing the dispatch form is either at the beginning of the list of all the files that are to be uploaded or at its end. For more information on how to upload scanned answers sheets into the Information System, go to:

For the tips on how to proceed at the test proper, please use the following path:

After having scanned the answer sheets, use the following path:

Select the appropriate ROPOT application and locate the file containing the scanned answer sheets in your File Depository. Once the recognition process has been completed, click on Check. The application will offer you the answers sheets it has not been able to recognize, or had difficulties in doing so, for correction. This, for instance, applies to those where the number identifying the answer sheet or student's personal identification number (učo) is missing, or it is not clear which of the alternatives has been marked as correct, etc.

After clicking on correct, you can fill in the missing data by yourself provided these are on the answer sheet (but have not been recognized).

After you make all the necessary corrections, remember to click on Save and close the window loaded with the answer sheet.

The missing information (e.g. answer sheet ID number or student's personal identification number) can be traced with the aid of the ID numbers that have not been found

(displayed below the list of unrecognized answer sheets) and/or paper test sheets listing students' names and personal identification numbers. This, however, may turn out to be extremely time-consuming. That is why it is advisable that you point out to your students that they should remember to fill in the personal identification number (učo) and test ID number fields.

Unrecognized answers can be entered manually provided it is clear which alternatives the students have selected. If this is not the case, you should use the minus sign '-', which means the question(s) has (have) not been answered.

Provided the scanned answer sheet looks alright and legible, but the answers on it have not been recognized, enter them manually. These situations sometimes arise from errors occurring during the scanning process.

You may also encounter the situation where there are still some unfound answer sheets even though you have made all the necessary corrections. This may result from a student(s) not handing in their test and answer sheets (provided all the students have participated in the examination) or the scanner feeder loading the scanner with more than one sheet at a time (happens rarely, though). You can find the paper counterpart of the missing answer sheet by its ID number and then click on Create a new answer sheet manually, which will allow you to fill in the newly created electronic answer sheet with the answers written on the paper one. You can also use this option when the paper answer sheet has been damaged and its status prevents it from being scanned.

After making all the corrections, click on Check. Provided there are no more corrections to make, click on Upload scores, which will create a new notebook bearing the name of the ROPOT application and export the students' scores into it. Finally, you can have the scores converted into grades using the IS application the path to which is as follows:

You can also transfer the grades to the evaluation form of the course using the following path:

For more information on notebooks, please go to:

Students can view their scanned answer sheets and recognition records (containing question identification numbers, selected alternatives, and numbers of points awarded for the answers) using the following path:

NB: The scores of unauthenticated sheets and of those that contain the application ID cannot be uploaded into a notebook. Besides, the people who have taken such tests cannot browse their scanned copies or recognition records.

After scanning, recognizing, and evaluating answer sheets, the Information System associates these with the appropriate ROPOT application so that the final outcome is the same as if the students had answered the questions directly via the application. By default, the students cannot browse their answer sheets. It is only you that can do so using the following path:

Provided you want your students to be able to browse their answers, select the appropriate options in the ROPOT description. You can do so when configuring the ROPOT application for printing tests (or any time later on).

Period during which the ROPOT application can be accessed:

Users allowed to access ROPOT:

Posting a reference to the ROPOT application:

You may even want to scan those of your students' answer sheets that contain some handwritten answers (including, for instance, sketches, graphs, etc.) in order to be able to get them displayed to the students via IS later on. This option allows you to mark the sheets, write your comments and students' scores (grades) down on them and make all the information available for viewing. Every student may provide his/her answers on several sheets.
It is advisable that you instruct your students to write their answers on the front side of each sheet since it is only the front side that is to be scanned. Although you may also want them to use the rear side, they should be aware of the fact that this side will not be made available to them via IS.

Here is how you should proceed:

• Create a ROPOT description in the mode of 'scannable handwritten text and scores'.
• Print out your dispatch form (for further information, see 'Printing Test Sheets, Answer Sheets and Dispatch Forms').
• Print out a sufficient number of answer sheets (for further information, see 'Printing Test Sheets, Answer Sheets and Dispatch Forms').
• You may put your question(s) either on a separate sheet of paper or you may place it (them) below the header printed on each answer sheet. Provided you decide to do the latter, please ensure that you do not put anything into the section that is to be processed by the computer (the marked one). It is crucial that students always write their answers down on the answer sheets (containing the header), not other papers.
• Instruct your students to number their sheets (provided each of them is going to use, for instance, three sheets, the numbers on these must be different) and their personal identification numbers (učos). For further information, please go to the page the path to which is as follows:
  Help Teacher Tips on Examinations Based on Scannable Answer Sheets

• Mark your students' answer sheets manually. While doing so, you may want to include your comments (report) on their front side. Whatever you put on the rear side will not be scanned, though. You can choose to scan the sheets in color or grayscale modes. Provided you decide on the latter, you are recommended to use a thick black marker for marking the tests.
• Enter the student's score into the Score field of the sheet.
• Scan the sheets or have them scanned by your local Computer Laboratory staff (together with the dispatch form mentioned above). The dispatch form should be placed either into the very beginning of the batch or into its very end (i.e. it should either be the first sheet of paper to scan or the last).
  NB: Provided you have marked the tests in color, you should select the color mode in the skenovani.exe program before you begin the scanning.
• Get the tests recognized (unless the recognition process has already been started automatically) and checked (for further information, see 'Checking Results of Optical Recognition Process').
• After the completion of the checking process, the students' scores will be uploaded into automatically created notebooks (the number of notebooks will correspond to the number of answer sheets handed in by the students). In other words, the Notebook 1 will contain all the students' scores that have been copied from the Answer Sheet No. 1, the Notebook 2 those copied from the Answer Sheet No. 2, etc. Each score stored in a notebook will be preceded by an asterisk.
• To get your students' totals, add up the scores stored in the individual notebooks using the add up scores stored in different notebooks option (available in the Teacher's Notebook section of the Information System).
• You might also want to evaluate your students' performance on the basis of their totals using the evaluate on the basis of scores option (available in the Teacher's Notebook section).
• Inform your students about the fact that they can find the copies of their answer sheets in their Retrieval Box.

Yes, it is. You should proceed the same way as you do when scanning the sheets of people who have these numbers. The only difference is that you should specify the identification method in the ROPOT description section. To do so, please click on 'change identification method' situated next to the ROPOT mode menu. Provided you plan to scan applicants' answer sheets or those of people outside Masaryk University (in the case of the latter, you should create your own list of numbers and names associated with these), choose 'application No.' or 'ID number selected by me' respectively. If you want to scan answer sheets of different groups of people, e.g. MU students and people outside MU, please ensure that you create a separate ROPOT description for each of these groups.

NB: The scores of unauthenticated sheets and of those that contain the application ID cannot be uploaded into a notebook. Besides, the people who have taken such tests cannot browse their scanned copies or recognition records.