Employees ‘sweet talk’ Pitt’s Scantron machine

‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Hidden on the ground floor of the Cathedral of Learning, a machine… ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘ Hidden on the ground floor of the Cathedral of Learning, a machine exists that determines the fate of many students each semester. ‘ ‘ ‘ Except for a small sign, the large metal doors of the office that holds the machine might seem, to a passerby, to lead to a closet or perhaps to a secret passage. Even the loud clanking of the machine cannot penetrate the walls of the office and drift into the hallway. ‘ ‘ ‘ Each Scantron test a student takes at Pitt must pass through this machine. ‘ ‘ ‘ Nancy Reilly, the director of the Office of Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching, has supervised this process for years. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘We’ve never lost anything,’ said Reilly. ‘ ‘ ‘ In a normal week, Reilly said, the office handles about 90 orders. During finals week, however, that number can rise as high as 130 orders. ‘ ‘ ‘ During finals week for fall semester, five people had the responsibility for processing the sheets. ‘ ‘ ‘ Luckily, the machine does most of the work. When it’s in good condition, it can handle 6,000 Scantron sheets per hour or 100 sheets per minute. ‘ ‘ ‘ On Dec. 12, however, the machine gave the staff some trouble. ‘ ‘ ‘ When this happens, Elaine Rubinstein, who works in the Office of Measurement and Evaluation of Teaching, tries a few tricks. Armed with a bottle of dusting spray, Rubinstein attempted to coax the machine back into working, but the sheets continued to pause midway through running under the scanner. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Most of the time, with a little patience, we can fix it ourselves,’ said Rubinstein. ‘ ‘ ‘ When these methods fail, Rubinstein calls in a repairman or tries a little ‘sweet talk.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Now, you should be on your good behavior. There are people watching,’ said Rubinstein to the machine. ‘ ‘ ‘ The office itself seems to run even more efficiently than the machine on which it depends. No one there said they could remember ever losing any tests, and the office workers keep all of the tests they receive organized in labeled folders.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ Typically, either the professor or a teacher’s assistant drops off the tests. After dropping them off, the person receives a card with a number on it, which he can use to retrieve the graded tests. This process is designed to keep students from having contact with their tests. In the absence of the card, the office will check for identification and call for verification from the professor before handing over the tests. ‘ ‘ ‘ Liz Wyman, who runs the front desk at the office, takes the delivered tests and places them into a line in order of time of delivery. If the professor delivers the tests before 5 p.m., the office will have them ready by 10 a.m. the next day. ‘ ‘ ‘ When the office returns the tests, it also includes information about how the students scored. The information tells the professor how many students chose each response and the average grade. It also gives instructors a number that measures the difficulty of the test. ‘ ‘ ‘ In addition to grading Scantron tests, the office handles teacher evaluations. The office has worked together with each school at Pitt, except for the School of Law, to create these evaluations. ‘ ‘ ‘ Because the office must complete most of these toward the end of the semester, these evaluations create even more work for the office in an already busy time. Reilly said the office processes evaluations for about 3,000 classes each term, and almost every student in each class turns in an evaluation. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘This time of year, it’s even crazier in here, because we have to finish up fall but gear up for spring,’ said Reilly late last semester.