Decommissioning of Central OMR Service

The central Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) service is to be decommissioned. The move to digital assessment over the past 3 years has highlighted the need to move these assessments (mostly MCQ) online.  

Due to the pandemic the OMR service was not used, and alternative methods were sought, such as Moodle quizzes and FlowMulti in AssessmentUCL. In effect resource is now unavailable for this software and the hardware has not been renewed and can no longer be supported by staff centrally.   

Please note: This does not impact any internal department OMR services you are using which are managed locally.   

What are the digital alternatives to OMR assessments?   

With our focus on digital assessments, we recommend that you ask your staff to attend our workshops on “Designing effective multiple choice questions” to look at digital alternatives available in Moodle and Wiseflow. The next one will be held online over Zoom on 29th November.  

This workshop will explore the benefits and challenges of using MCQs in both formative and summative assessment and provide practical guidance on:   

• Constructing good MCQs (SAQs and EMQs)   
• The range of interactive question types available on digital platforms (e.g. Wiseflow, Moodle).   

Link to workshop: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/events/2022/nov/designing-effective-multiple-choice-questions-online-29-nov  

Other useful links:  

To find generic guidance on Moodle quizzes and set up please see our wiki guides: https://wiki.ucl.ac.uk/display/MoodleResourceCentre/M12+-+Quiz  

To find generic guidance on Flow Multi on AssessmentUCL please see our wiki guides:  https://wiki.ucl.ac.uk/display/WRC/Author.  

We also offer training for authoring questions on Wiseflow which can be found here: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/staff-training/enroll.php?code=DAUTHORA  

For advice on setting up assessments: assessment-advisory@ucl.ac.uk 

For general concerns regarding the OMR service: digi-ed@ucl.ac.uk