Read how a large university saved time processing parent surveys and event evaluations after it switched from hand tabulation to automating their data collection with Remark Office OMR.
A large university currently offers a program that promotes post-secondary education for low income schools in rural communities. The program serves over 4,000 students from 13 different high schools. Every year, in an attempt to better the program and the results, the program sends a parent survey, as well as handing out event evaluations at the given events that occur throughout the year. The data from these paper-and-pencil surveys had to be entered into Microsoft Excel* by hand. The process was painstakingly long and definitely needed to be addressed.
After considering other solutions, the program took the advice of another Remark user and decided to use Remark Office OMR. They decided on Remark Office OMR after seeing how much time and labor would be saved. They also were impressed with the instant statistics and reports from Remark Quick Stats.
The program uses Remark Office OMR to process data from the annual parent surveys sent out to 13 high schools throughout the region. However, Remark Office OMR has been most helpful with the program’s event evaluation forms. Though the program receives over 4,000 evaluations annually from different events throughout the year, the data is processed quickly and easily thanks to a hard working staff, a printer that produces quality copies of the forms, a scanner, and of course, Remark Office OMR. Site coordinators at the events administer, collect, and scan the evaluations. They then send the form images to an offsite staff member, who reads them into Remark Office OMR and cleans the data. The staff member then runs all the necessary reports using Remark Quick Stats. The results are then sent to a site support specialist who interprets the different reports. The specialist then provides feedback to the different sites regarding the success of the event, incorporating the data from the evaluation forms as well as background information they have from the sites. The entire process, from the date of the event to the receiving of feedback from the site support specialist, usually takes about a month, a drastic improvement from their previous methods. The time that Remark Office OMR saves the program is invaluable, as the program now has appropriate time to make the necessary adjustments to make the events and the program more successful.
Aside from the fact that the university saves so much time using Remark Office OMR, their favorite feature would have to be Remark Quick Stats. The reports generated are very useful for analysis of the program. They also really like the ability to customize the report headers in Remark Quick Stats.
*Microsoft Excel is a registered trademark of the Microsoft Corporation.