Purchasing a supply of standardized answer sheets, 2. Completed surveys are then read by an optical scanner.
Many school systems have, or have access to an optical scanner as part of their testing program.
The data read by the optical scanner can be transferred to a desktop computer spreadsheet or database program for analysis. Publishers of standardized answer sheets offer programs which can be used to format questions to fit standard answer sheets. These programs save time and eliminate errors in preparing the questions. The publishers of standard answer sheets can also develop custom answer sheets. Another alternative is developing custom machine scannable answer sheets on a personal computer using Bubble Publishing Form Shop software.