Exam Reader Pen

[SteveBentley]

(This seemed to be the best forum for this, but it doesn't really fit anywhere neatly)

 

We saw these devices at BETT C-Pen Exam Reader and now have one on trial. I like the potential for cutting down on staffing and room resources for exams, and the benefits to students being able to be more independent and more comfortable in the exam scenario.

 

In general it's a great bit of kit, however they don't seem very good at reading numbers - it detects decimal points and displays it on the screen but doesn't read it out - and for things like equations and chemical formulae, forget it. Sadly as I work in the Science department of a University that's a bit of an issue.

 

I can see a potential workaround in printing a word by word version that the student can scan (as we're a University we write our own exam papers, so we can probably get approval to do it) but has anybody else come up with workarounds? Or is it a non-issue? Do students with dyslexia and related challenges tend to be ok with things that are not words?

 

Cheers

 

Steve

[Ditto]

@SteveBentley - I know this thread is a year old..., but I only just learnt about these Pen reader today when looking at access arrangements with our exams officer and only this and one other thread came up! We're potentially looking at this option for GCSE English mocks and beyond. A year on, are you able to give any more thoughts on the device and did you ever overcome the number reading issue?