chromebook for exams

[OLdMan99]

Hi

We need to set up some devices for some exams where the student can type instread of writing with a pen

Weve got plenty of chromebooks & would ideally want to use them for exams instead of laptops or taking up IT suites.

Spell check & internet have to be disabled (easy for windows ).

Anybody managed to do this ?

[paulkerton]

https://www.chromex.io

 

ChromEx, currently rebranding to Trelson Assessment.

[Synkrox]

If it's any help I use very old laptops running Windows 7 and jarte word processor - https://www.jarte.com/ - with which you can turn off all the spellcheck and it will take regular backups of documents as it goes.

[bigdpm]

we are evaluating Exam Write Pad at the moment, we use Chromebooks currently but I found Kiosk mode was too difficult to get "right", and creating an exam ou and "locking everything down" proves to be ok, but then Google keep changing the goalposts (ie keep changing and adding stuff), so you are constantly checking to make sure the Exam Google ids cant "do " anything they are not supposed to. Plus some kids get creative in exams (usbs are so last year, its micro sd cards now, blocking access to some things but allowing others etc on Google can be a pain, and can have unintended consequences!). I am sure it is possible to get it working in Kiosk mode, I just never had the patience/time. and there is little "guidance" out there for this.

 

Exam Write pad is free, runs on Windows, so any working Win laptop Win7 upwards, highly configurable and it seems to manage "everything", including Scribe cover sheets for the different exam bodies (for example). I understand a lot of schools use it.

https://sheldnet.co.uk/examwritepad/

 

Regards

[paulkerton]

Recommending Windows software for someone who wants to use ChromeOS? Well, it's something I suppose!

 

we are evaluating Exam Write Pad at the moment, we use Chromebooks currently but I found Kiosk mode was too difficult to get "right", and creating an exam ou and "locking everything down" proves to be ok, but then Google keep changing the goalposts (ie keep changing and adding stuff), so you are constantly checking to make sure the Exam Google ids cant "do " anything they are not supposed to. Plus some kids get creative in exams (usbs are so last year, its micro sd cards now, blocking access to some things but allowing others etc on Google can be a pain, and can have unintended consequences!). I am sure it is possible to get it working in Kiosk mode, I just never had the patience/time. and there is little "guidance" out there for this.

 

Its very easy - and when it comes to kiosk functions and locking down functionality with SD Cards and USB devices, Google haven't changed how they work in several years. It's certainly a lot easier to create an exam environment in ChromeOS than it is in Windows!

[pugrick_31]

Have to say we use ChromEx/Trelson Assessment and have had no issues. Exams Officer originally found it and I would say its cheap for licenses as well for what you get.

 

Quite useful as well that you can specifically set different student accounts to suit their needs such as extra time and spell checker (yep funnily enough I recently found out a spell checker can be used for exams!) without affecting any others.

[David44]

The problem with ChromEx is that it doesn't quite comply with the letter of the JCQ's Instructions for Conducting Exams (https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ICE_21-22_FINAL.pdf) so you need a brave Exam Officer or member of SLT to say, we are doing it this way anyway.

 

It could be argued that...

A word processor...

h) must not be connected to an intranet or any other means of communication;

rules out Chromebooks completely if you comply with the literal meaning of the rule.

 

A word processor...

e) must either be connected to a printer so that a script can be printed off, or have the facility to print from a portable storage medium. This must be done after the examination is over.

is another one. Few schools are going to have CBs connected to printers or have the means to save a document to a portable storage medium.

 

It would be so much easier if JCQ rewrote the rules to be less PC specific. The above rules could be replaced with "Students should not have access to any resources not made available as part of the exam" and "The exam script must be printed at the end of the exam and signed by the student" instead of all the nonsense about intranets and portable storage medium. It's not 1999 any more!

Edited January 27, 2022 by David44

[paulkerton]

The problem with ChromEx is that it doesn't quite comply with the letter of the JCQ's Instructions for Conducting Exams (https://www.jcq.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ICE_21-22_FINAL.pdf) so you need a brave Exam Officer or member of SLT to say, we are doing it this way anyway.

 

It could be argued that...

rules out Chromebooks completely if you comply with the literal meaning of the rule.

 

is another one. Few schools are going to have CBs connected to printers or have the means to save a document to a portable storage medium.

 

It would be so much easier if JCQ rewrote the rules to be less PC specific. The above rules could be replaced with "Students should not have access to any resources not made available as part of the exam" and "The exam script must be printed at the end of the exam and signed by the student" instead of all the nonsense about intranets and portable storage medium. It's not 1999 any more!

 

We've had this discussion before, and JCQ have quite clearly communicated to me that it's a decision to be made by schools, not by JCQ. If you're connecting to a network in any way shape or form in order to print, then you're not complying with the literal letter of the rules.

[junz]

Have any schools used Chromex for real GCSE Exams. My current concern is that if the Internet goes down or there is an issue on Chromex's side (Server/data cente) we would not be able to submit/print the exams in a timely fashion.

 

For school's that use Chromex for real GCSE exams, how would you ensure the exams could be submitted/printed in the above scenario.

[pugrick_31]

Have any schools used Chromex for real GCSE Exams. My current concern is that if the Internet goes down or there is an issue on Chromex's side (Server/data cente) we would not be able to submit/print the exams in a timely fashion.

 

For school's that use Chromex for real GCSE exams, how would you ensure the exams could be submitted/printed in the above scenario.

ChromEx keeps a local copy of the document saved on the Chromebook itself and regularly uploads it to the cloud for retrieval from the admin panel. If the internet were to go down the exam would not be affected as the local copy will still be there.

 

I have had this happen before and you resolve it by logging into the admin panel and extending the finishing time of the exam to around the time you are retrieving it. Load up the Chromebook and you'll see the exam reappear (as they disappear when the exam time is up). Load back into the exam and submit it again.

[junz]

ChromEx keeps a local copy of the document saved on the Chromebook itself and regularly uploads it to the cloud for retrieval from the admin panel. If the internet were to go down the exam would not be affected as the local copy will still be there.

 

I have had this happen before and you resolve it by logging into the admin panel and extending the finishing time of the exam to around the time you are retrieving it. Load up the Chromebook and you'll see the exam reappear (as they disappear when the exam time is up). Load back into the exam and submit it again.

 

Yes but what if the outage lasted a while and the exam was finished bu the internet/server outage was not resolved. I believe the work needs to be printed as soon as the candidate is finished.

[pugrick_31]

Yes but what if the outage lasted a while and the exam was finished bu the internet/server outage was not resolved. I believe the work needs to be printed as soon as the candidate is finished.

That I am not entirely sure. When it happened to us the connection was re-established before the exam finished so I couldn't answer.

 

I would imagine your EO would be able to contact the exam board or JCQ to get a finalised answer but in my eye I would think that so long as the candidate is present when it is eventually printed then it would be ok?

 

Again though that would be something for your EO to find out, I was just asked to set up the system for us so never looked into the regs and so on as I expected they looked into it all.

[mcolbourn]

We use ChromeEx/Trelson Assessment and have not had any issues related to the platform, as it saves the files to Google drive anyway and it gracefully handles any network outage.

 

Personally I would be more worried at having a power cut rather than our Internet connection going down. We seem to have more of these in the last 10 years than internet outages. Even if our main leased line goes down it would just skip over to our backup link. But losing power we would be a little stuck.

[David44]

One of our mock exams coincided with a Google authentication outage so candidates couldn't even sign in to ChromEx to start the exam. Google outages are very rare so I think we were just unlucky but it is another thing that can go wrong and that you might need a plan for. If half the schools in the country were using ChromEx and there is a technical issue, the exam boards/JCQ would release a statement telling schools how they are going to handle it and you will probably be okay. If you are one of a handful of schools using it, you are going to be very much on your own.

 

I expect a lot of schools used to do what we did, use old staff laptops for exams but if the school has gone 100% Chromebook then than is not an option and the laptops being used for exams are getting older and less reliable each year.

[dmj]

It would be so much easier if JCQ rewrote the rules to be less PC specific. The above rules could be replaced with "Students should not have access to any resources not made available as part of the exam" and "The exam script must be printed at the end of the exam and signed by the student" instead of all the nonsense about intranets and portable storage medium. It's not 1999 any more!

 

It would be helpful if JCQ even just read through the rules they publish, they're so contradicting.

 

Must connect to a printer, must not connect to a printer, must not connect to an intranet, but no rules about internet,

must be cleared of stored data - what does that even mean? it's a computer!!!