Students at The University of Memphis might help conserve thousands of trees thanks to a new online testing center on campus.
A center is opening Wednesday on The U of M campus with the intention of making online testing open to all departments and students.
"It's open to everyone on campus," said U of M Provost Ralph Faudree. "There will also be training for students and faculty with some programs."
The center, located in room 430 of Manning Hall, will feature more than 70 workstations. These stations include laptops with mice so students can adjust easily. This is similar to an older setup the Loewenberg School of Nursing used, but this center is much less of a workload.
Marjorie Luttrell, interim dean of the nursing school, was one of the main people behind seeking out a way for the school to do testing online, said Paul M. Jones, local tech support provider II.
He said the older setup involved unpacking the laptops, setting them up by connecting wires around the room, taking the tests and then repacking the laptops.
"This is the same kind of setup, but just without the huge workload," Jones said. "Everything is already set up and wired already for the testing now."
Sandy Schaeffer, director of The U of M's Advanced Learning Center, said this signals a possible shift to online testing with this testing center moving over to a permanent position from the FedEx Institute of Technology.
"Clearly (online testing) is screamingly more efficient," Jones said. "There's obviously less paper involved, but there is no time to grade and there can even be a review right after the tests."
The nursing school used the setup, and the system is designed to help their program, but Faudree said the biology and business departments have shown an interest in the testing center.
"We're also putting students in a better position for the future because online testing is similar to other tests they may take later on," Faudree said.
Jones talked about the many positive aspects of this new setup, and feels the only plausible negative effect probably will not happen.
"The only thing that could really happen would be for a network problem, but I don't expect that to happen since it's never happened before," he said.
Schaeffer said he hopes faculty and students are more aware of online testing at The U of M with the opening of the center.
