Electronic submission, calculation and checking of laboratory practical scripts

The traditional method of manually checking and grading student laboratory practical scripts has several disadvantages: manual checking is time consuming and therefore causes longer script turnaround times than necessary; it is labour-intensive, especially for non-uniform quantitative data; there is potential for inconsistency, and, for large student groups, a great deal of tedium for the checker. Automation of checking such scripts has the potential to alleviate these disadvantages. The School of Pure and Applied Chemistry, University of Natal, Durban, in cooperation with the School of Pharmacy and Biomolecular Sciences, University of Brighten, has adopted a procedure to automate the checking of practicals. This manuscript describes the method of checking one such practical; the Level Two practical entitled Determination of the Effectiveness of an Extraction. This is the first in a series of analytical practicals and is aimed at revising neutralisation titrations as well as introducing the concept of solvent extraction. The practical requires a number of calculations that are time consuming for the marker to check individually. The manuscript describes a web-based form into which students enter their results via the School Intranet. The students' results are downloaded by file transfer protocol (FTP) and imported into a Microsoft Excel(TM) spreadsheet. The spreadsheet then calculates the correct answer based upon the primary data used, compares them with the students', grades the students' scripts and is potentially able to add educators' comments for feedback to the student.