About Speedwell

Speedwell is a company based in Cambridge which supplies a suite of software which enables the use of Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) exam papers, onto which students record their responses to (typically) multiple choice questions.

Within the Speedwell suite there are relevant modules for handling data about the questions, for capturing the students OCR markings into its database, and for enabling teaching staff involved in exams and assessment, to access and use the data in appropriate ways. The three Speedwell modules being used are: {QuestionBank, CliniQuest, MultiQuest} (see http://www.speedwell.co.uk).

For the purposes of this project we use the name “Speedwell” as an umbrella term for the three software modules listed above, and for the database in which they access and update their data. The term “Speedwell” is also used in the name of this project.

Business Use in MVM

“Speedwell” is used by clinical assessment staff, and by teaching and learning staff. When students are assessed, special paper forms (question response papers) are used to record their responses.

Between the Veterinary School, the Medical schools and Biomedical Sciences, in MVM there are of the order of fifteen users of Speedwell.  While it is used by only a relatively few members of  staff, student assessment is of course an essential part of MVM business and Speedwell software is essential in underpinning the processing of student’s marks.

Current position in using Speedwell for Medical Assessment

Medical Schools currently use an out-of-date version of Speedwell which is incompatible with Windows7. MVM have designed and produced bespoke question response papers. The key driver for this project is the need to upgrade to Windows7 which in turn requires upgrading Speedwell.

New version of the software has been bought for use by the Vet and Biomedical Schools, and includes support commitment from Speedwell for technical matters.It is likely but not finalised, that all users will be brought to the same current version of Speedwell.

Vet Requirements

In the Vet School, a newer version of the software running on Windows 7 is already in use. The MSSQL database has been locally implemented by the supplier, but has not been implemented in a suitably managed way. For example, database backups or recovery may not have not been considered as part of the implementation.

The requirements for the Vet School therefore are to ensure that the software being used stores its data in a properly managed database. They also require, that the transition to using a new database will fit with their own needs for scheduling work, and will not lose any data (this and previous years’) they have so far accumulated.

Biomedical Sciences Requirements

In Biomedical Sciences the use of Speedwell is essential for the running of exams but is currently used only to read MC/EMQ[1] cards and to analyse the results. Unlike the Medics and Vets they do not have a linked database of questions; they don’t run it on a networked/Win7 machine, and use the multiple choice module “Multiquest” rather than OCSE[2]-oriented “Cliniquest”.

Scope

MVM has identified the need for IS to host the Speedwell databases, and migrate existing data in consultation with Speedwell.

Objectives

To work with the software supplier to:

1.    set up Test and Live databases on IS shared server,

2.    migrate data from the existing Speedwell implementations,

3.    agree om-going support requirements for the service.

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[1]multiple choice/extended matching questions

[2]Objective Clinical Structured Exams