Get started with FormReturn OMR Software.
All you need is an image scanner (sheet fed document scanner preferably), a printer, a computer and a free 30 day trial of FormReturn.
This is how the system works:
1. Design your custom OMR answer sheet template.
Unlike many other OMR Software packages, FormReturn includes a visual answer sheet template editor. As you design and add questions to a page, you are also setting the definition of the field names and values (for the data you are exporting in step-4). Because many other OMR Software packages do not have an integrated visual editor, they require you to design the form first, print it out, scan the printed page and then define the page from the scanned image. FormReturn does it in one step instead of four. It saves both the template design and the definition as the same, reusable file.
2. Publish a template, print and distribute your OMR answer sheets.
Publishing your newly created template takes a snapshot of the template you created and saves it to FormReturn's database. Publishing also places a barcode on all pages to enable FormReturn to automatically identify each page that is later scanned in. Each barcode is a page identifier in FormReturn's database.
When publishing, pages can be a unique page (or set of pages) for a respondent, that identifies both the batch and respondent for a page (a Form ID publication). You could also publish a single page for the batch that does not uniquely identify the respondent unless there is a key field (such as a student id) on the page for them to mark as an identifier (a key field reconciles publication).
Form ID publications also allow you to pre-print recipient details on a page, such as the recipient's name. They can also enable you to select custom questions to ask based on the recipient's information, such as a skill level.
3. Collect papers, scan and let FormReturn OMR Software process the scanned images.
Collect any page at any time, scan it in and FormReturn's software OMR reader will detect the bubbles and save the results to FormReturn's database. Because of the page identifying barcode on each page you create, FormReturn will know exactly where the form belongs. You don't need to let it know about what template to use, or who the form belongs to... just scan and go. Later, once you're ready to export, simply review the scanned images that have already been processed in FormReturn's database and correct any errors that people have made with the page re-processor function.
4. Export the processed response information into a spreadsheet for further analysis.
The example above is a CSV file of exported result data from FormReturn OMR Software. Did you notice in the example that the names are already matched with the responses? This is thanks to the page identification barcodes... FormReturn will automatically reconcile recipient information with their responses.
Exporting information out of FormReturn OMR Software is a breeze. Simply select the publication whose result data you want to export from a list of publications and click the export button. Export data in delimited format (CSV or TSV), XML, XSL-FO PDF or connect directly to the database by following this tutorial.
Ready to try out this great OMR Software?
Now that you've seen the basic steps, it's time to give it a try. Download the free 30 day trial, watch some quick start guide videos and refer to the help manual. Any questions? Feel free to contact us for help!
