Starting next year, Rochester based Xerox Corporation will start loading their copy machines with something other than copy paper. The Xerox software and web-based service, Ignite, will turn their copiers/scanners/printers into paper graders.

Of course, computer graded tests have existed for quite a while. Scantron test sheets, a form of Optical Mark Recognition, have been used in grading tests since the 1930s.  Ignite, however, will be able to grade math problems by actually reading the numeric answer written by the student. So, while Scantron is limited to true/false and multiple choice tests, Ignite will actually read the students answers. Prior to grading, tests will have to be tagged with metadata  and entered into Ignite.  Ignite will then collect data from the tests in order to help the teacher better assess the classes’s overall retention. Xerox explains:

Once an assessment has been collected, Ignite pairs metadata associated with each question or item with analytics, so you can see where there was a problem-solving breakdown, get to the root of it and quickly customize instruction for individuals and small groups.

Xerox has already used a number of schools in the US and Canada as test sites. Penfield Central School in Penfield, NY, started using the software two years ago. The teachers involved are big fans.  Fourth-grade teacher Pat McDonald is thrilled with the results, “There are a lot of things out there that use computers as an assessment tool, but the kids have to be sitting at a computer monitor. This is in the kids’ own handwriting.”

Xerox will offer Ignite for the 2013-2014 school year.