Copy machine reduces teacher workload by hand-grading student papers

If you think back to your school days, teachers often spent a lot of time grading your tests. What could they do if they weren’t consumed with this task?

XEROX, the well-known company famous for its document management technologies, has unleashed software that can actually hand-grade student tests, homework, and even essays. This technology goes way beyond the fill-in-the-bubble tests you may already be familiar with.

When confronted with developing a technological solution that would help increase the amount of individual attention teachers could give their students (especially with tight budgets and large class sizes), researchers at the XEROX Research Center Webster in New York invented the XEROX Ignite Educator Support System.

 
(Image via copierscopiers.com)

This new type of software can be installed into copy machine to actually hand-mark student papers. Once they are graded, the results can be pushed into a digital analytics domain that allows teachers to evaluate trends and find better ways to cater lessons toward students that experience a common struggle in specific learning areas. Ignite uses advanced “image capture” technology and the software can analyze students’ work in just minutes.

For example, after a teacher teaches a lesson, he or she can scan the students’ homework through Ignite in order to determine how well the students caught on to the concepts.

A graded homework or exam would look like this. (Image via XEROX Coprporation)

A teacher can receive a number of reports to determine class statistics. For example, Ignite offers an “at a glance” summary that pinpoints which student needs extra help in specific area and a “context” summary that shows where a student’s skills have improved over time.

The technology affords teachers more free time to gear lesson plans toward student needs, as well as spend extra time with them. Ignite also creates a more uniform standard of grading and evaluation based on a school’s academic goals.

The new system is already available and some schools are preparing to implement the software for the 2013-2014 school year.

Learn more about XEROX Ignite.