Examination Scanning

Instructors and Teaching Assistants in the Faculty of Social Science are welcome to use the scanning service offered by Social Science Technology Services (SSTS). This is a free service which is restricted to main campus Social Science courses. 

Please read carefully:

  • Pre-count your sheets and separate them into piles of 50. There will be no counting and sorting in the SSTS office.
  • Complete and print the Scantron Submission Form or Gradescope Submission Form in advance. If you don't have access to a printer, please complete the form online in advance and we will print it for you. 
  • Place a copy of the Submission Form on top of your exams.
  • Deliver your exams to the SSTS main office (SSC 1228).
  • We will no longer be scanning exams while you wait. Exams will be scanned once in the morning and once in the afternoon.

Part-time instructors: If you are teaching outside of our regular office hours, you should arrange with your department to have someone deliver the exams on your behalf. Please complete and print the Scantron Submission form in advance and include it with your exam sheets.

*Exams for classes of size 500 or more may take up to 3 days.

Note:  Exam hard copies should be picked up promptly after you receive an email indicating that your scanning results are ready.

Prepare Your Exam Sheets For Scanning

Please pre-count your sheets into separated piles of 50. This helps us ensure that the right number of sheets are scanned. In addition, keeping the exam sheets in the same piles of 50 makes it easier for you to find individual sheets when checking for errors during the marking process.

Retrieve Your Scanned Exam Files

Your scanned exam files are saved to a secure folder on the SSC Network. Instructions for retrieving them are included in the email that is sent to you when your scanned exam files are ready. For most instructors working on the SSC Network, you will have an X: drive on your computer in which you will find a folder named with your Western username. Your ScanExam DAT or Gradescope PDF files will be contained within that. You should copy the DAT or PDF files to a secure location on your computer. We recommend using your H: personal storage drive. * Exam files on the X: drive will be purged after one month.

Windows Computer on SSC Network

  1. If you do not see the X: drive, please reboot your computer.
  2. Alternatively, copy and paste \\ssc-venus.uwo.pri\sscexams$ to File Explorer.

Other Computer, On or Off Campus

  • You can download your exam files from our SSL secured site.
  • Click on the link below, or copy and paste it into your browser
  • Log in with your Western credentials when prompted.

Mac Users

Gradescope is web based and it works well regardless of your choice of OS. For ScanExam, we recommend that Mac users use the SSCRemote Remote Access service since ScanExam does not work on a Mac.

Scoring Your Exams

After the exam sheets have been scanned, instructors are encouraged to use Scan Exam-II scoring software to grade their exam. There are Scan Exam-II Help Notes and Frequently Asked Questions available to help as well as embedded help in the software. Overall, the scoring software is straightforward to use and provides very useful feedback to the instructor regarding the performance of the students and the exam questions themselves.

For Gradescope, there is more information and links to videos to help you get started on our Gradescope page.

Best Practices for ScanExam

TA's, professors, and students need to avoid any extra markings on the Scantron sheet. Only complete the information requested above the lines at the top of the sheet, and bubble in the answers, the student number, or the 9's for the Master Key. For example:

  • Be careful not to have signatures extend into bar codes when signing your name
  • No doodles or notes should be made on the Scantron sheet.
  • No stapling the corners, as this can also interfere with the bar codes and cause the Scantron machine to reject exams
  • Exam codes for multiple versions of the exam should be coded and bubbled in as 111, 222, 333, ....999. No other marks should be necessary.
  • If the professor or TA wishes students to note something else on the Scantron sheet, it should ONLY be written in the front top right hand corner.
  • Everyone should use HB pencils to mark their sheets (no pens or markers).
  • White erasers are recommended for changing answers.
  • To speed up the scanning process, it would be helpful if any marks that interfere with bar codes could be erased by the professor or TA before submitting for scanning.

Best Practices for Gradescope

TA's, professors, and students need to avoid any extra markings on the Gradescope Bubble sheet. Only complete the information requested above the lines at the top of the sheet. For example:

  • No doodles or notes should be made on the Gradescope sheet.
  • No stapling the corners, as this can also interfere with the timing marks used to identify the orientation of the page.
  • If the professor or TA wishes students to note something else on the Gradescope sheet, it should be written in the Other blank.
  • Multiple versions of the exam must be scanned separately and coded and bubbled as A, B, C, D or E.
  • Students are recommended to use HB pencils to mark their sheets (however, pens will work).
  • White erasers are recommended for changing answers.