SPSSX Discussion

Questionnaire Scanning Software

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Mark Webb-3

Questionnaire Scanning Software

I'm looking for software that scans paper based survey results into a data
file.
Any recommendations.

Mark

=====================
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ajayohri

Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

http://code.google.com/p/ocropus/
and http://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/

Regards,

Ajay
ps- If not getting good results , tweak the resolution a bit

www.decisionstats.com

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 4:05 PM, Mark Webb <[hidden email]> wrote:

> I'm looking for software that scans paper based survey results into a data
> file.
> Any recommendations.
>
> Mark
>
> =====================
> To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
> [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
> command. To leave the list, send the command
> SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
> For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
> INFO REFCARD
>

Muir Houston-2

Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

In reply to this post by Mark Webb-3

Get it done professionally - I looked into this and if you have a large
response (I had 6000), you could be scanning in surveys for months!

Some of the optical recognition software is pretty poor, and has to be
scanned a page at a time and must have been set up properly so it can
recognise all fields

Of course others may have had better experiences

Muir

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Mark Webb
Sent: 12 January 2009 10:35
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Questionnaire Scanning Software

I'm looking for software that scans paper based survey results into a
data file.
Any recommendations.

Mark

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list
of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

Daciuk, Tim

Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

In reply to this post by ajayohri

Hi all:
The software that SPSS recommends is ReadSoft (http://www.readsoft.com/). Additionally, we have a couple of complimentary products mrPaper (http://www.spss.com/mrpaper/) and mrScan (http://www.spss.com/mrScan/).

Tim Daciuk
Director, Worldwide Demo Resources
SPSS Inc.

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Ajay ohri
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 6:01 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

http://code.google.com/p/ocropus/
and http://code.google.com/p/tesseract-ocr/

Regards,

Ajay
ps- If not getting good results , tweak the resolution a bit

www.decisionstats.com

On Mon, Jan 12, 2009 at 4:05 PM, Mark Webb <[hidden email]> wrote:

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

Grant Robertson-2

Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

In reply to this post by Muir Houston-2

Hi,

I agree with Muir. The complexity of purchasing and installing a
scanning solution is often underestimated. You really need to do your
homework else your will regret the decision. They are lots of cheap
systems out there but they are often limited in terms of what
researchers normally need for high quality questionnaire scanning. The
more powerful systems are more expensive and often require some
specialist skills (especially upfront).

Regards,

Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Muir Houston
Sent: 12 January 2009 01:59 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Get it done professionally - I looked into this and if you have a large
response (I had 6000), you could be scanning in surveys for months!

Some of the optical recognition software is pretty poor, and has to be
scanned a page at a time and must have been set up properly so it can
recognise all fields

Of course others may have had better experiences

Muir

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Mark Webb
Sent: 12 January 2009 10:35
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Questionnaire Scanning Software

I'm looking for software that scans paper based survey results into a
data file.
Any recommendations.

Mark

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list
of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

James Wilson-24

Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

In reply to this post by Mark Webb-3

Let me just add another voice to the choir. Several years ago we
purchased a scanning solution and scanned approximately 800 completed
surveys. It was largely a disaster - the resulting datafile was
completely useless. Do the homework up front and make sure you know what
you're getting.

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Grant Robertson
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 7:53 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Hi,

I agree with Muir. The complexity of purchasing and installing a
scanning solution is often underestimated. You really need to do your
homework else your will regret the decision. They are lots of cheap
systems out there but they are often limited in terms of what
researchers normally need for high quality questionnaire scanning. The
more powerful systems are more expensive and often require some
specialist skills (especially upfront).

Regards,

Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Muir Houston
Sent: 12 January 2009 01:59 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Get it done professionally - I looked into this and if you have a large
response (I had 6000), you could be scanning in surveys for months!

Some of the optical recognition software is pretty poor, and has to be
scanned a page at a time and must have been set up properly so it can
recognise all fields

Of course others may have had better experiences

Muir

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Mark Webb
Sent: 12 January 2009 10:35
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Questionnaire Scanning Software

I'm looking for software that scans paper based survey results into a
data file.
Any recommendations.

Mark

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list
of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

Khaneja, Gurvinder

Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

In reply to this post by Mark Webb-3

Mark

You can try Remark OMR software from Principia products. I have been very satisfied with it.

I have used it at our institution and other universities I have worked before and it has worked very well with student evaluations and surveys.

Also the data can easily be saved in SPSS and many other analytical software data types. I would highly recommend the same.
Gurvinder

________________________________

From: SPSSX(r) Discussion on behalf of Mark Webb
Sent: Mon 1/12/2009 5:35 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Questionnaire Scanning Software

I'm looking for software that scans paper based survey results into a data
file.
Any recommendations.

Mark

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

Stevan Nielsen

Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

In reply to this post by James Wilson-24

Dear Colleagues,

We have been using Remark Office OMR to scan surveys and questionnaires since 1998. We have scanned at least 200,000 questionnaires and surveys of our own design during that time.

We are a large university counseling center. We needed a quick, inexpensive way to manage intake questionnaires, visit-by-visit outcome questionnaires, satisfactions surveys, and other specialty questionnaires designed by members of our counseling center faculty and staff. Scantron forms and their dedicated scanning machines were prohibitively expensive, so we made Remark work for us.

While the high 90%+ accuracy of OCR technology of modern scanning, Remarks OMR (optical mark recognition) algorithms produce 99.9%+ accuracy for detected full or empty closed circles and squares. It worked very well for us.

All of our scanning has been accomplished using upper end, hobby grade scanners with automatic form-feed options driven by Windows software. Though these machines were purchased through university purchasing, all could have been purchased at Best Buy, a comparable store, or at internet discount sources.

We have been able to store our data for research purposes, access the data using SPSS or Excel, and respond to counselor questions within a week of receiving the raw, paper surveys.

We now prefer to use web-based information gathering developed through university information technology resources or developed on Zoomerang.com. We still occasionally develop and scan specialty questionnaires or surveys and still find ourselves scanning old surveys that have been completed by clients with limited access to the internet.

The biggest challenges were:

First, we had to be careful in the production of our to-be-scanned forms. Our forms had to be printed on the same copy machine from a set master or printed on the same laser printer to ensure accuracy. Poor quality copies and printing yields inaccurate scanning. Survey color also has to be managed carefully, as some colors are opaque to some optical scanners.

Second (very distant second), we had to keep a supply of undergraduate and graduate research assistant geeks around to run the day-to-day scanning. The technological challenges were small and easily solved, but it takes a geek's patience to persist at this. I have always able to serve as geek-in-chief, and finding interested undergraduate and graduate student geeks to work as research assistants has never been much of a problem at our large university. My guess is that most users of this list would easily handle the technological details involved.

I am included a link to the publishers of Remark OMR:

http://www.gravic.com/remark/officeomr/index.html?gclid=CJj01MTSiZgCFRxNagodd0_IDQ

Cheers,

lars

Stevan Lars Nielsen, Ph.D.
Clinical Professor
Clinical Psychologist
Counseling and Career Center
1500 WSC
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602

801-422-3035; facsimile 801-422-0175

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of James Wilson
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 6:19 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Let me just add another voice to the choir. Several years ago we
purchased a scanning solution and scanned approximately 800 completed
surveys. It was largely a disaster - the resulting datafile was
completely useless. Do the homework up front and make sure you know what
you're getting.

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Grant Robertson
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 7:53 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Hi,

I agree with Muir. The complexity of purchasing and installing a
scanning solution is often underestimated. You really need to do your
homework else your will regret the decision. They are lots of cheap
systems out there but they are often limited in terms of what
researchers normally need for high quality questionnaire scanning. The
more powerful systems are more expensive and often require some
specialist skills (especially upfront).

Regards,

Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Muir Houston
Sent: 12 January 2009 01:59 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Get it done professionally - I looked into this and if you have a large
response (I had 6000), you could be scanning in surveys for months!

Some of the optical recognition software is pretty poor, and has to be
scanned a page at a time and must have been set up properly so it can
recognise all fields

Of course others may have had better experiences

Muir

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Mark Webb
Sent: 12 January 2009 10:35
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Questionnaire Scanning Software

I'm looking for software that scans paper based survey results into a
data file.
Any recommendations.

Mark

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list
of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

Craig Wood

Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

I concern with Remark Office. We originally purchased it when it was sold by SPSS back in the early '90s. It was dropped by SPSS some years ago, but we have kept up with the version updates from Remark since then.

We run about course evaluations, student satisfaction, employee surveys and numerous other surveys through the system.

The biggest problem is ensuring the forms are printed on the same machine. If they are misaligned by a millimetre it can cause problems.

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of Stevan Nielsen
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 11:51 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Dear Colleagues,

We have been using Remark Office OMR to scan surveys and questionnaires since 1998. We have scanned at least 200,000 questionnaires and surveys of our own design during that time.

We are a large university counseling center. We needed a quick, inexpensive way to manage intake questionnaires, visit-by-visit outcome questionnaires, satisfactions surveys, and other specialty questionnaires designed by members of our counseling center faculty and staff. Scantron forms and their dedicated scanning machines were prohibitively expensive, so we made Remark work for us.

While the high 90%+ accuracy of OCR technology of modern scanning, Remarks OMR (optical mark recognition) algorithms produce 99.9%+ accuracy for detected full or empty closed circles and squares. It worked very well for us.

All of our scanning has been accomplished using upper end, hobby grade scanners with automatic form-feed options driven by Windows software. Though these machines were purchased through university purchasing, all could have been purchased at Best Buy, a comparable store, or at internet discount sources.

We have been able to store our data for research purposes, access the data using SPSS or Excel, and respond to counselor questions within a week of receiving the raw, paper surveys.

We now prefer to use web-based information gathering developed through university information technology resources or developed on Zoomerang.com. We still occasionally develop and scan specialty questionnaires or surveys and still find ourselves scanning old surveys that have been completed by clients with limited access to the internet.

The biggest challenges were:

First, we had to be careful in the production of our to-be-scanned forms. Our forms had to be printed on the same copy machine from a set master or printed on the same laser printer to ensure accuracy. Poor quality copies and printing yields inaccurate scanning. Survey color also has to be managed carefully, as some colors are opaque to some optical scanners.

Second (very distant second), we had to keep a supply of undergraduate and graduate research assistant geeks around to run the day-to-day scanning. The technological challenges were small and easily solved, but it takes a geek's patience to persist at this. I have always able to serve as geek-in-chief, and finding interested undergraduate and graduate student geeks to work as research assistants has never been much of a problem at our large university. My guess is that most users of this list would easily handle the technological details involved.

I am included a link to the publishers of Remark OMR:

http://www.gravic.com/remark/officeomr/index.html?gclid=CJj01MTSiZgCFRxNagodd0_IDQ

Cheers,

lars

Stevan Lars Nielsen, Ph.D.
Clinical Professor
Clinical Psychologist
Counseling and Career Center
1500 WSC
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602

801-422-3035; facsimile 801-422-0175

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of James Wilson
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 6:19 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Let me just add another voice to the choir. Several years ago we
purchased a scanning solution and scanned approximately 800 completed
surveys. It was largely a disaster - the resulting datafile was
completely useless. Do the homework up front and make sure you know what
you're getting.

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Grant Robertson
Sent: Monday, January 12, 2009 7:53 AM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Hi,

I agree with Muir. The complexity of purchasing and installing a
scanning solution is often underestimated. You really need to do your
homework else your will regret the decision. They are lots of cheap
systems out there but they are often limited in terms of what
researchers normally need for high quality questionnaire scanning. The
more powerful systems are more expensive and often require some
specialist skills (especially upfront).

Regards,

Grant

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Muir Houston
Sent: 12 January 2009 01:59 PM
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Re: Questionnaire Scanning Software

Get it done professionally - I looked into this and if you have a large
response (I had 6000), you could be scanning in surveys for months!

Some of the optical recognition software is pretty poor, and has to be
scanned a page at a time and must have been set up properly so it can
recognise all fields

Of course others may have had better experiences

Muir

-----Original Message-----
From: SPSSX(r) Discussion [mailto:[hidden email]] On Behalf Of
Mark Webb
Sent: 12 January 2009 10:35
To: [hidden email]
Subject: Questionnaire Scanning Software

I'm looking for software that scans paper based survey results into a
data file.
Any recommendations.

Mark

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list
of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD

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=====================
To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to
[hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the
command. To leave the list, send the command
SIGNOFF SPSSX-L
For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command
INFO REFCARD