The positive potential impacts of the Test Tool as a test administration and test generation tool are increased convenience and reduced cost of testing and examination. In addition to the reduced cost, the increased efficiency of an electronic work flow saves time. The Test Tool's purpose is to replace current paper-pen test administration with a superior, easy-to-use electronic testing solution eliminating all the shortcomings of paper testing and providing all the advantages of electronic testing.
There are potential negative impacts of an electronic testing and examination solution such as the Test Tool. With all software, there is the possibility that the software may be hacked allowing students to cheat or sabotage others. Furthermore, even a well implemented testing application can be deployed in an environment for a substantial amount of time before some security issues arise in which case the trusted software can cause problems during critical testing periods such as finals week or during midterm exams.
Specifically, risks associated with deploying an electronic testing solution include cheating in the form of information sharing among test takers or test takers illegally accessing information during an exam. It is the responsibility of the test administrator to moderate the testing environment and prevent such transgressions that can not be monitored by the software. Measures can be taken to mitigate the risks associated with electronic testing; for example, lab machines can be locked down for the testing period so that only the testing application can be run on that machine.