The history of educational learning assessment has continually evolved to match the times and utilize modern advancements. The changes are most often made both to enhance student learning outcomes and to increase accuracy and efficiency. As the 2024-2025 school year progresses, schools like Mater Dei vacillate between a variety of exam platforms. Scantrons and online tests are two of the most widely used forms of formal testing. As technology reshapes itself, different quizzing and test taking methods have been utilized. There are varying opinions on which is the most proficient way to take a test.
Geometry and Trigonometry Teacher Taylor Cooper prefers scantrons for math. Despite scantrons being used for over thirty years, she believes that this method is the most foolproof. But online tests could be the future of assessment if cheating was better restricted or highly monitored.
“I prefer scantrons because of the cheating and the better element of free response,” Cooper said. “Yet, for me an online test is usually more convenient because it typically grades itself, so that’s really easy, and then the scantrons have to be put through the machine,” Cooper said.
Freshman Jeanette Schultz has been taking online tests since her academic career began as a young child. Her first online test was at the start of kindergarten when she needed to take the STAR (Standardized Testing and Reporting) exam. It is not until more recently, during her high school career, that she has had experience with Scantrons.
“Scantrons are easier [for me] because I can physically see my answers on the page,” Shultz said. “Scantrons are better for stuff like the [High School Placement Test] (HSPT) but for other tests and minor quizzes we should use online.”
Senior Christian Sotomayor disagrees with Schultz and prefers online tests over paper and scantron tests due to the convenience of technology.
“I like online tests more than Scantrons because they’re easier to understand and maneuver,” Sotomayor said.
Sotomayor believes that the Scantrons are becoming outdated and that the advancing technology of AI is hard to beat. He also believes that online tests would be more convenient for teachers because they can be self-graded.
Taking online tests may increase students’ test scores, according to Science Direct.com. Yet according to Future-ed.org, students who take tests on paper have better results. The research is still in the earlier phases. Some of this may be due to experience with computers vs. the paper formats. For the Mater Dei community it seems that both testing formats will continue in classrooms at least for the next few years.
