Overview
The main purpose of FormReturn software, is to automatically capture people's hand marked responses made in the checkboxes of paper questionnaire forms and store the response information as readable data which can then be transferred to a spreadsheet for further analysis.
To do this, a FormReturn form template must be carefully designed and the completed forms must be clearly scanned so they can be identified and processed by the software.
Below is an outline of the process that must be taken, from designing a form template to getting the end results on a spreadsheet.
FormReturn detectes barcodes and checkbox response marks.
OMR Form Design is Streamlined with Data Capture
Because FormReturn is fully integrated, you can design, publish and print OMR response questionnaire forms or answer sheets and capture the response data by uploading scanned form images, all in the one easy to use program.
FormReturn software can only process OMR forms which have been designed with it's own form editors.
Because FormReturn uses barcodes for locating where the checkbox mark areas appear on the form page.
Because a Form ID Barcode added to each form page of a form template, is used to automate the process of linking the form pages for each form template together with the captured response data from each form page, in FormReturn's captured data.
FormReturn OMR Forms can have form identification added to each page, so you know who each form belongs to.
FormReturn OMR Forms can be made anonymous eg: for a general survey.
A form template must be recognition tested and then published before the template's information will be stored in FormReturn, otherwise you wouldn't be able to process the returned forms.
All forms published from a FormReturn form template need to link to a data table you have created in Source data.
If you want the returned forms to link to particular respondents you would add the responden't records to a data table before publishing the template it will be linked to.
If you don't want the returned forms to link to particular respondents (anonymous forms for surveys), you would create a data table which either doesn't have any records, or you can add records to the data table which are only numbers so you can determine that all the forms from the publication have been processed.
FormReturn OMR software uses Optical Mark Recognition to detect dark hand marks made by respondents in the checkboxes of the paper questionnaire forms. The forms are scanned and saved on your computer then uploaded into FormReturn from your computer.
The response data captured from the checkboxes which are also called mark areas or fragments, is stored in captured data, then exported to an external spreadsheet, eliminating time consuming and inaccurate data entry of people's responses to questionnaires.
Segments contain the checkbox Mark Areas.
The segment is the main part of a form template because it is the section that contains all of the checkbox Mark Areas. It is designed separately in the New Segment editor, as a self contained component of the form template, and then it is added to the form template. In most cases it will take up the major part of the page of a form template.
The Segment is a Separate part of each form page in the template, because it contains it's own barcodes for location of the mark areas. When
the forms are being processed. the Optical Mark Recognition processor needs to know
where to locate the mark areas before it can detect the marked
checkboxes.
If more than one segment is being created for the same form template, each mark
area on the segments must contain a unique Captured Data Fieldname (question
name). Matching fieldnames in the same form will cause captured
response data to be stored in the wrong columns.
A segment can be
what ever size you want as long as it will fit between the default
margins of the form template allowing for the Form ID Barcode added
somewhere outside of the segment.
Care must be taken when designing the segment if you
want accurate detection of the checkbox response marks,
by FormReturn.
Recognition Previewing the segment is an important
step of the form design, because it makes sure the segment, the segment barcodes and the checkbox mark areas can be
recognized, before the segment is added to the form template.
A Form Template
A FormReturn form template is a questionnaire or answer sheet, multiple choice response form, created using FormReturn's Form Editor. One form template is created for every publication and is printed into unique forms for each respondent, or published as a single form which can be photocopied or reprinted into as many forms as needed.
The FormReturn form template is designed, by adding a Form ID barcode and the Segment with the mark areas.
The Form ID Barcode on each page of the form template, links the captured response data to the Template Publication stored in FormReturn's database.
A FormReturn form template can contain as many pages as you need, with the option for each page to contain more than one segment (for randomizing questions which are suited to different people or to discourage cheating). The pages are linked to the template they belong to with the Form ID Barcode.
Form Identification - or who a form belongs to.
A FormReturn form template can have an identifying component added so you know who each form belongs to. Forms are identified by matching each form page to a record in your respondent's data table, by using either:
Template Variable Replacement (similar to mail merge) which replaces data table fieldnames typed on the form template, with the records from your respondent's Source Data table (FormReturn's database). The captured response data from each form page will reconcile with the record printed on it. This is the Form ID Method of publication.
A Key Field (which can be either (i.) an OMR ID Grid - made from checkboxes for filling in a respondent's ID number or (ii.) a Barcode Area - for affixing a barcode label of your own) is added to the segment. Key Field information will be captured using OMR, and used to reconcile the captured data with the data table record it belongs to.the form template allowing for the
Form ID Barcode and the default margins.
One page of a form template with the Form ID barcode (highlighted
in blue), segment barcodes (highlighted in light blue), the segment
(highlighted in green) and Mark area (highlighted in red).
Segment Editor
Form Editor
Testing the Form Template for OMR Recognition.
The recognition print preview checks the design of the form by looking
at the form template. This will show you, by highlighting barcodes and
mark areas, if all of the template's
elements can be detected by FormReturn.
The Recognition Print Preview can be used while you are designing the
segment and form template to test if the elements you added can
be detected by FormReturn. Use the detect barcodes, detect segments and
detect fragments to show if they have all been detected. Look at the
text to make sure it shows up in the preview. Sometimes text areas are
overlapping with other text areas or if the text area isn't big enough
for the text, it won't show in the preview and therefore won't be
printed.
The Recognition Test Preview tests a scanned image of the form and is used after
you have designed the form template but before it is published. This
will test your scanner and it's settings for producing a clear image that will be recognized by FormReturn.
A form is printed from the template and hand marks are made in the
checkboxes. Once you have done a recognition test
preview on your form template and it is accurately detected, you can
rest assured that your returned forms from your publication will also be
detected accurately.
FormReturn
detects the barcodes, the segment, the mark areas (fragments) and the
hand made marks made by respondents in checkboxes. To make sure all
these form components can be detected by FormReturn, before you publish a
form for distribution, recognition test the template first. This is
done by printing a form, filling it in yourself, scan the form and open
it in the Recognition Test preview window. If you scanner has produced a
clear image and everything has been added to the form correctly, the
barcodes, the segment, the fragments and the hand marks you made will be
accurately detected. This means you form is properly designed and can
be published a printed.
Recognition Testing
Data Tables and Records
FormReturn has it's own database called Source Data, where you can add data tables and your respondent's records.
Source Data links the form template with your respondents and can store many data tables each with their own records.
A form template is published into unique or anonymous forms.
-
Forms containing one of FormReturn's methods of Identification will link
the captured data to the records in an assigned data table, using the
Form ID Barcode on each page of the form.
- Anonymous forms will link to an empty data table.
Source Data
Publishing the Form Template.
Publication of the form template stores the Template's information in FormReturn, ready for captured response data to be stored with.
In the Publication process, a Source Data table is chosen for the captured data to link to. (In the case of anonymous forms, the data table can contain empty records to link the captured response data with)
A publication type is chosen, which tells FormReturn which way you want the captured response data to link to your respondent's records in Source Data. There are three publication types to choose from.
Distribute the Printed Forms
Depending on the Form Identification and the publication type used, the finished form template is published into a unique form for each record in the selected data table, printed then distributed to each recipient, or a single form is published and printed or photocopied into as many copies as needed.
Scan the Forms Completed by Respondents
When the completed forms are returned they are scanned using a document scanner with an automatic document feeder and saved on your computer. The images are uploaded into FormReturn, which needs a clear scanned image so it can detect and recognize the barcodes and capture the response marks in checkboxes. It will only process forms with recognizable Form ID barcodes and mark areas that were added using the form editor.
If you scan at a too high resolution, your form images will be slower to process in FormReturn - 150 to 200 dpi is recommended, but it will depend on the type of images the scanner produces.
If your scanned images are not clear and sharp enough, it will cause detection issues with the software.
Capturing Form Images
Upload and Process the Scanned Form Images
Scanned Form Images are uploaded into the Processing Queue, either manually or automatically from where they will be sent, one at a time, to the form processor in FormReturn's server. This process will be almost instant, depending on how many images you have uploaded at once.
Any images unidentified by FormReturn, will be put in the Unidentified Images folder and can be re-processed manually or re-scanned, depending on the reason why they weren't recognized.
The processing of images takes a matter of seconds which means hundreds of forms can be processed each day.
Form Processing Queue
Captured Data Management
Form template Publications are stored in Captured Data. Important: Don't delete Publication Names from Captured Data unless you are sure all the forms have been captured and exported.
When the forms from the Publication are scanned and processed, the captured data is stored with the publication the forms belong to.
The Captured response data from each form and form page along with the total (mark aggregation ) score for each form, is then available to be viewed in Captured Data.
Each form page also has a preview of the scanned image stored in captured data.
Captured response data is exported to a CSV file which opens in an External Spreadsheet, depending which office package you have installed on your computer.
Captured Data Management
Exporting Captured Data
Manage FormReturn OMR Software.
A sharp, perfectly scanned image of the form pages is important, because Optical Mark Recognition works by detecting only what it determines as black in the checkboxes and barcodes of scanned images of FormReturn forms.
FormReturn OMR Software reads and analyzes barcodes and checkbox responses from the scanned form images.
Each page of a form page is recognized by identification of the Form ID barcode.
The form processor captures and stores the response mark data from the checkboxes in the detected mark areas.
Captured response data is matched to the record it belongs with in the data table selected for the form template publication.
Capured data stores the value of the hand marked checkbox from each mark area and the score if mark aggregation was used.
Important: Don't delete Publication Names from Captured Data unless you are sure all the forms have been captured and exported.
Why Forms must be designed with FormReturn's editors.
FormReturn OMR is fast and accurate but can only process response data from form images that it recognizes. FormReturn uses:
- The Form ID barcode to recognize each form page and to reconcile the
captured data with the form template and data records it belongs to.
- The Segment barcodes to located where the checkboxes appear on the form.
- The unbroken checkbox borders to accurately detect the marked box or boxes.
Only forms designed using FormReturn's Template editors can be recognized by FormReturn.