Optical Memory Technology: How It Works and Its Application to Educational Measurement
Michael D. Hiscox, Evelyn J. Brzezinski · Applied Measurement in Education · 1988
Various forms of optical memory technology (OMT) have recently become commercially viable products and thus available for use by educational measurement professionals. A single optical disk can hold the equivalent of over a thousand floppy diskettes. Further, many optical media can also be easily and inexpensively reproduced. These two characteristics make optical media a promising technology for the distribution of test item banks, test reports and statistics, student records, and other educational data. Unfortunately, factors such as high initial cost, slow retrieval speeds, and the lack of standardization of formats mitigate the use of OMT. In addition, the enhancements offered by OMT over competing media (such as magnetic disks) come into play in relatively few educational measurement situations. The article calls for a careful consideration of the true merit of such technologies and cautions against adopting the technology without an unbiased assessment of the practicality of the venture.