Online testing debacle in Wyoming provides a warning to other states

[exboyfil]

2. My daughter is taking college chemistry

this summer and part of her homework is an online system. Needless to say entering chemical formulas, scientific notation, etc is cumbersome on the computer. The software is also down for a period of time each week (not good for a college student). Also if it is not set up right by the teacher work can be lost (this happened to my daughter but she wanted to go through the questions anyway in anticipaiton of a test - she knew the system had a problem).

Often machine scored tests are just plain stupid (my daughter answered Consumer Price Index on an Economics question and got it wrong - the answer was Price Index).

Optical scan technology has worked for a long time. For mutliple choice it should still be the default choice (just like voting you have a paper trail). My daughter screen captures anytime she is uncertain to prove she answered the questions (or to address poorly worded questions).