Pearson onscreen platform installation woes

[Johnnny5]

Hi,

 

I am trying to get this hellish software to work and getting support from Pearsons is like blood from the proverbial stone.

Our support company have pushed out the MSI for the online test platform but how do I actually launch / administer the tests. I keep seeing mention of a invigilator and administrator dashboards but can't figure out if these are for LAN / offline tests (or where to download them from) to help top it off the Pearsons site talks about a pin for offline testing in the online testing setup videos.

 

Any help would be massively appreciated.

[booths]

1. You need to install a server side application with Internet access to allow comms to Pearson

2. On the student computers you install the 'testplayer' msi (pearson.pop.testplayer.msi)

3. On the Teacher workstation you install the 'invigilator' msi (pearson.pop.invigilator.msi)*

4. The Exams officer needs the Administrator application (pearson.pop.administrator.msi)

 

It has been a while since I did this so forgive me for my lack of totall recall!

 

The administrator downloads and sets up the tests via the server software so you specify this as your connection point.

Part of this process is to set-up Invigilator accounts and assign them to a room (where the test software is installed)

Once a test is downloaded you assign accounts for the students (again in administrator)

Once assigned the fire up the Invigilator and use the signon/password created as above.

The test students then connect to the Invigilator workstation and sign in using their allocated signon etc.

The Invigilator starts the test.

 

* In my setup the Invigilator software will not work properly unless it uses an AD account with a Roaming profile.

 

PS. I also hated this software!

[mavhc]

Does this thing work yet? Just downloaded the MSI and it's not even signed, can't see any reason to worry.

[mavhc]

Quick glance at the manual https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/Support/services/Pearson-Onscreen-Platform-POP/POP-LAN-Installation-Guide-2018-edition.pdf (took me a while to find this one, link on their own website was broken)

 

I'm assuming the software is written by the 80 year old painter

 

The Administaror Dashboard, Invigilator Dashbaord and Test Player communicate to the Exam Centre

Service over ports 52221 & 52222.

Port range to be open 52221 – 52250

 

What are the other 28 ports for, and can someone buy them a spellcheck program? A 2 year old PDF with spelling mistakes, glad they don't mark exams or anything.

 

"A normal ADSL connection is recommended (1MB)" - so 8Mb?

 

"Access to Internet (ADSL 1Mb minimum) via

reliable ISP 10/100 Mbps network interface

adapter"

 

No, 1Mb. Sadly I have a 1Gbps reliable ISP network interface adapter, whatever one of those is.

 

"Tethered mobile/tablet connections using 3G/4G/5G networks are not supported " -- wow, they've heard of 5G, but not Windows 10? Good job I'm using 2G.

 

"Disk space according to centre size and needs, a shared drive visible for all network users, with a minimum 1Gb of space to be used for installation, test and response packages. " -- So 128MBs? Is this another shared drive anyone can write to, with unsigned files anyone can read or alter? You know, for security?

 

"Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 (both x86 and x64 if 64bit Windows PC)" -- why both?

 

"It is essential that all PCs used are set to Greenwich Mean Time / British Summer Time" -- which, those are 2 different time zones.

 

"Hint: This is Windows based software and will not work on Apple Mac or Linux operating systems." or Windows operating systems.

 

"Warning! Mandatory log-ins/user profiles must not be used. Student users will require individual/local Windows log-ins." -- I know what they mean, however do they know what they mean?

 

No mention on how to deploy the software.

 

"In order to upgrade the software you should first uninstall the ECS and then re-install" What?

 

"Please note, the Test Player does not automattically find the new version of ECS when launched, this will need to be reinstalled from the Datastore/Apps folder using the pearson.pop.testplayer msi." That spellchecker has broken again. Also what?

 

No mention of https intercepting proxies, or proxies that use a sign in system

[maark]

only way to find the software is from the link in the manual above - uninstall the Exam center server from your server and then install new version.

Then in the datastore/apps folder on the server you will find msi's for the other 3 bits of software to make this arcane system work - administrator for exams officer, invigilator for invigiltor and test player for students

have it working at the moment for exams today - touch wood

instructions very poor

[mavhc]

Have people managed to deploy the test player without issues? Set it to uninstall before installing a new version?

[free780]

Yes but I always make SCCM install it from the share created on the sever.

[mullet_man]

Have people managed to deploy the test player without issues? Set it to uninstall before installing a new version?

 

I always use supersedence in SCCM and use the replace deployment. I haven't chose uninstall as I am assuming as it's an MSI it's upgrading the current version.

 

Worked fine for me in the past.

[foofighterjim]

This has just crossed my desk with just over a week to get everything set and tested. I'm opting for the Online POP method given the time constraints and the fact that I'd never be able to get myself let alone the invigilators up to speed on the many different elements. Can I ask why all of you are taking the LAN approach, is it due to the number of consecutive tests you are running or just to be cautious of Internet issues?

[mavhc]

How many people can do the test at once with the online pop system?

[foofighterjim]

How many people can do the test at once with the online pop system?

 

Doesn't mention a limit, I was going to run 4 or 5 test accounts together later this week to see what the bandwidth consumption is like. We are only running one exam, once for one subject, for a total of 15 students; the whole LAN setup seems a little unnecessary to me unless there is a good reason not to.

[maark]

we had issues with this yesterday and not sure why.

3 IT suites - one was fine.

2 lost connection between test players and invigilators machines as exams were about to start although they were fine period before when we set them up.

We have had a few glitches with internet connection but wouldn't have thought it should affect it once exam downloaded.

Fix was to login and out of exam admin console and then restart invigilator machines.

A load more to do today so hoping won't have same issue.

[mavhc]

How does a test player know which invigilator computer to connect to? Does it use a direct connection or is everything via the server?

[maark]

How does a test player know which invigilator computer to connect to? Does it use a direct connection or is everything via the server?

 

when you launch test player you select the invigilator machine - can either run auto-discover or add in manually. Because we have several rooms we need the test players to connect to invigilator machine in that room.

We had test players refusing to connect to invigilator machines until we logged in and out of admin console and then restarted invigilator machines - then all started working again.

Four IT suites to do later - wish me luck :-)

[mullet_man]

when you launch test player you select the invigilator machine - can either run auto-discover or add in manually. Because we have several rooms we need the test players to connect to invigilator machine in that room.

We had test players refusing to connect to invigilator machines until we logged in and out of admin console and then restarted invigilator machines - then all started working again.

Four IT suites to do later - wish me luck :-)

 

Are the invigilator machines laptops? We found that if the laptop went to sleep the clients would lose connection and then need reconnecting. It was a bad idea using a laptop in the first place but we learned never to use it again.

 

We just make sure we use a PC now and it's been fine. Although we never run more than 2 rooms at once just in case of issues.

[mavhc]

If so there's more than 1 room you need to manually connect every client?

[win]

If so there's more than 1 room you need to manually connect every client?

 

Depends how many invigilator machines you want. Normally if you have 1 invigilator PC in the room it will auto-connect. Otherwise it needs to be done manually, but it's not a big task to manually join them, just run around and click a few buttons per PC

[maark]

we had old PCs as invigilator machines - never had problem before but this year again one room lost connection half way through even though PC was not hibernating or anything. We restarted PC with invigilator on and most test players reconnected - not usre about a coupe that we need to get response files off server and upload them to exam board

[ICT-Joe]

Hi All

 

Sorry to revive an old thread (especially one about the Pearson Onscreen Platform!) but we've had a few issues recently when we've tried to run the tests here. The main issue is that about a minute or so into the exam, we get an error saying "Edi.Advance.Tdp.Client.exe has stopped working." This happens on every machine and usually only lasts a minute or so, but for some users, it will lock the PC completely, so only a reboot will fix it. Tried the Pearson online chat, they directed me to call them, and then went to their support page to see they were having issues with their phones! Any help appreciated as always!

 

Joe

[Mako]

Hi @ICT-Joe

 

If you look in C:\Program Files (x86)\Pearson\TestPlayer\Edi.Advance.Tdp.Client.exe.config , there'll be a line:

 

 

There's a timeout of 1 minute set there which would make sense based on your symptoms. Possibly you're having a proxy/firewall issue. I know the test player needs ports 52221 and 52222 to be open.

 

That's where I'd start looking - proxy/firewall.

[ICT-Joe]

Hi @Mako

 

Thanks for your reply! I'll take a look at that now!

[dpswatson]

Now we're back doing exams again I thought I'd add to this ever-growing thread.

I been plagued with the 'Cannot identify AD version' error all day (mentioned on page 22 above, I think.).

Pearson tech support site useless.

You have to make sure the folder that the share for the MSIs is read/write enabled so the Exam Service installer can edit the Versions.XML file. if it cant then its blank and although the MSIs for Admin, Invigilator and Test Player will install with no issues the programs (admin, invigilator or test player) won't load because it cant see what version it's supposed to be running.

Presumably if the app doesn't match the version in the XML then it will run the MSI to upgrade.

 

Hope this helps anyone having a similar issue.

 

(PS we've had similar issues with City & Guilds - their tech support more than happy to hide behind the 'it's something on your site' argument when in actual fact their console doesn't work with Edge, only Chrome.)

Edited April 25, 2022 by dpswatson

[3s-gtech]

Just been asked to install this in a suite - we already have it, but it feels like even more of a throwback now. Why on Earth are they still using it?!

 

Trying to get my head around unattended installation of it - I'm not doing it manually on 33 PCs. Times have moved on too much for that ****.

[Olliedawg]

Just been asked to install this in a suite - we already have it, but it feels like even more of a throwback now. Why on Earth are they still using it?!

 

Trying to get my head around unattended installation of it - I'm not doing it manually on 33 PCs. Times have moved on too much for that ****.

 

I had to set this up last year in a suite which contains 34 PC's.. PITA but got it working in the end. It does seem a bit dated for today's standards

[Aprice]

Just been asked to install this in a suite - we already have it, but it feels like even more of a throwback now. Why on Earth are they still using it?!

 

Trying to get my head around unattended installation of it - I'm not doing it manually on 33 PCs. Times have moved on too much for that ****.

 

I just have it as an Application in SCCM, just deploys nicely.

 

We did have issues getting it setup, but that turned out to be Pearson messing up the centre number.