Method and system for importing hard copy assessments into an automatic educational system assessment

Abstract

This disclosure provides a method and system to create an educational assessment using an image processing system. According to an exemplary method, a preexisting printed assessment is scanned to produce an image file and the image processing system generates and executes a search query based on a user selected preexisting question. The executed search queries a Data Warehouse/Repository (DW/R) based on the search query to retrieve one or more predefined questions and associated metadata. The retrieved question and metadata are used to create the educational assessment.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method of creating an educational assessment using an image processing system, the created educational assessment including a plurality of questions associated with one or more predefined formats including metadata associated with each of the plurality of questions, and the created educational assessment administered to one or more students for completion, the method comprising:
 a) a user of the image processing system performing one or more of scanning a preexisting educational assessment into the image processing system generating a digital representation of the preexisting educational assessment which does not conform to the one or more predefined formats and does not include the associated metadata, and loading into the image processing system the digital representation of the preexisting educational assessment which does not conform to the one or more predefined formats and does not include the associated metadata;   b) the image processing system displaying the preexisting educational assessment on a display operatively associated with the image processing system;   c) the user selectably capturing an image of a single question associated with the displayed preexisting educational assessment;   d) the image processing system generating a search query including one or more items included within the captured image of the single question;   e) the image processing system executing a search of a Data Warehouse/Repository (DW/R) based on the search query to retrieve one or more predefined questions matching one or more search criteria associated with the search query, the one or more predefined questions associated with the one or more predefined formats including metadata associated with each of the one or more predefined questions;   f) the image processing system displaying the one or more matching predefined questions on the display;   g) the user selecting one or more of the displayed matching predefined questions including the metadata associated with each of the one or more predefined questions; and   h) the image processing system creating a digital representation of an educational assessment including the user selected one or more displayed matching predefined questions including the metadata associated with each of the one or more predefined questions.   
     
     
         2 . The method of executing an educational assessment according to  claim 1 , wherein steps c)-h) are repeated for a second user selected single question. 
     
     
         3 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 1 , wherein the user selectably captures the image of the single question using a bounding box. 
     
     
         4 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 1 , wherein step d) includes the image processing system performing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract text content from the captured image. 
     
     
         5 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 4 , wherein the extracted text is processed by the image processing system to generate the search query. 
     
     
         6 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 5 , wherein the search query is a SQL (Structured Query Language) query. 
     
     
         7 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 6 , wherein step e) narrows the search query if more than a predetermined number of matching predefined questions are retrieved from the DW/R. 
     
     
         8 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 1 , wherein step d) comprises:
 d1) performing OCR to extract text content from the captured image; and   d2) generating a SQL search query, the SQL search query generated using one or more of:
 dropping predefined stop words; 
 using only longest extracted words; and 
 splitting the query into a plurality of queries. 
   
     
     
         9 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 1 , wherein the associated metadata includes one or more of question content, question type, grade level, unit, correct answer, and associated one or more artifacts. 
     
     
         10 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 1 , wherein step c) includes the user selecting one or more items included in the captured image of the single question to be used to generate the search query. 
     
     
         11 . An image processing system comprising memory storing instructions for performing the method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 1 . 
     
     
         12 . An image processing system for creating an educational assessment, the created educational assessment including a plurality of questions associated with one or more predefined formats including metadata associated with each of the plurality of questions, and the created educational assessment administered to one or more students for completion, the image processing system comprising:
 a preexisting educational assessment processing module configured to perform one or more of receiving a digital representation of a preexisting educational assessment into the image processing system generated using an operatively associated scanner, and loading into the image processing system the digital representation of the preexisting educational assessment, the digital representation of the preexisting educational assessment not conforming to the one or more predefined formats and not including the associated metadata and the preexisting educational assessment processing module configured to display the preexisting educational assessment on a display operatively associated with the image processing system;   an image capture module configured to capture an image of a single question associated with the displayed preexisting educational assessment;   a search query module configured to generate a search query including one or more items included within a captured image of a single question associated with the displayed preexisting educational assessment, and execute a search of a Data Warehouse/Repository (DW/R) based on the search query to retrieve one or more predefined questions matching one or more search criteria associated with the search query, the one or more predefined questions associated with the one or more predefined formats including metadata associated with each of the one or more predefined questions; and   an educational assessment creation module configured to display one or more matching predefined questions, receive one or more of the displayed matching predefined questions selected by the user, and creating a digital representation of an educational assessment including the user selected one or more displayed matching predefined questions including the metadata associated with each of the one or more predefined questions.   
     
     
         13 . The image processing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the image capture module is configured to selectably capture the image of the single question using a bounding box. 
     
     
         14 . The image processing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the search query module is configured to perform Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract content from the captured image and the extracted text is processed to generate a SQL (Structured Query Language) query. 
     
     
         15 . The image processing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the associated metadata includes one or more of question content, question type, grade level, unit, correct answer, and associated one or more artifacts. 
     
     
         16 . The image processing system according to  claim 12 , wherein the search query module is configured to generate the search query using one or more user selected items included in the captured image of the single question. 
     
     
         17 . A method of creating an educational assessment using an image processing system, the created educational assessment including a plurality of questions including metadata associated with each of the plurality of questions, and the created educational assessment administered to one or more students for completion, the method comprising:
 a) a user of the image processing system creating and entering a question using a User Interface (UI) operatively associated with the image processing system;   b) the image processing system generating a search query including one or more items included in the user created question;   c) the image processing system executing a search of a Data Warehouse/Repository (DW/R) based on the search query to retrieve one or more predefined questions matching one or more search criteria associated with the search query, the one or more predefined questions associated with the one or more predefined formats including metadata associated with each of the one or more predefined questions;   d) the image processing system displaying the one or more matching predefined questions and associated metadata on the UI;   e) the user selecting one of the displayed matching predefined questions and/or selecting the metadata associated with one of the displayed matching predefined questions; and   f) the image processing system creating a digital representation of an educational assessment including the user created question including metadata associated with the user selected matching predefined question and/or user selected metadata.   
     
     
         18 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 17 , wherein step b) includes the image processing system performing Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract text content from the user created question, and the extracted text is processed by the image processing system to generate the search query. 
     
     
         19 . The method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 17 , wherein the associated metadata includes one or more of question content, question type, grade level, unit, correct answer, and associated one or more artifacts. 
     
     
         20 . An image processing system comprising memory storing instructions for performing the method of creating an educational assessment according to  claim 17 .