January 12, 2012
Hackensack, NJ – Buyers Laboratory Inc. LLC, the world’s leading independent evaluator of document imaging hardware and software, today announced that Lexmark Hosted Testing and Grading has been named “Outstanding Vertical Market Solution: Education” in its Winter 2012 “Pick” awards. Selected by the editors of BLI, the awards honor the top-performing solutions evaluated in BLI’s lab during the previous six months.
Hosted Testing and Grading allows teachers to administer multiple-choice and open-response tests more quickly and more cost-effectively than traditional optical mark recognition (OMR)
“bubble sheet” test systems. Developed in-house by Lexmark, this cloud-based platform integrates a school system’s existing student/teacher records systems to deliver an end-to-end solution that offers test-sheet creation, grading and analysis—all from the control panels of off-the-shelf Lexmark MFPs, with no PC software required.
“In this time of slashed school budgets and teacher layoffs, the timing couldn’t be better for a product such as Lexmark Hosted Testing and Grading,” said Jamie Bsales, senior product editor, solutions, at BLI. “The two key benefits the solution delivers—improved student achievement and increased teacher class time—speak to the priorities of every school district.”
One key benefit of Lexmark HTAG is that it enables teachers to test more often, without the hassle and costs associated with traditional bubble-sheet test platforms. A few minutes in the office at the MFP before and after a class is all it takes to create answer sheets and then grade a test. This allows educators to get a quick assessment of how well students have comprehended a topic area before moving on to the next one. Lexmark HTAG also offers an impressive array of reports that analyze student performance from many angles. This enables educators to quickly drill down into which topics the class as a whole, and individual students, need help with.
“Lexmark is honored to receive this recognition for our Hosted Testing and Grading Solution from BLI,” said Marty Canning, Lexmark executive vice president and president of Imaging Solutions and Services. “Lexmark's deep expertise in the education market, when coupled with our award-winning hardware and software, enables the company to provide solutions that can make a difference for both educators and students alike.”
About Buyers Laboratory LLC
Buyers Laboratory LLC (BLI) is the world's leading independent provider of analytical information and services to the digital imaging and document management industry. For over 50 years, buyers have relied on BLI to help them differentiate products’ strengths and weaknesses and make the best purchasing decisions, while industry sales, marketing and product professionals have turned to BLI for insightful competitive intelligence and valued guidance on product development, competitive positioning and sales channel and marketing support. Using BLI’s web-based bliQ and Solutions Center services, 40,000 professionals worldwide create extensive side-by-side comparisons of hardware and software solutions for over 15,000 products globally, including comprehensive specifications and the performance results and ratings from BLI’s unparalleled Lab, Solutions and Environmental Test Reports, the result of months of hands-on evaluation in its US and UK labs. The services, also available via mobile devices, include a comprehensive library of BLI’s test reports, an image gallery, hard to find manufacturers’ literature and valuable tools for configuring products, calculating total cost of ownership (TCO) and annual power usage. BLI also offers consulting and private, for-hire testing services that help manufacturers develop and market better products and consumables.
For more information on Buyers Laboratory LLC, please call (201) 488-0404, visit www.buyerslab.com, or e-mail info@buyerslab.com.