Pearson onscreen platform installation woes

[themightymrp]

we are starting the installation of all this software this week! wish me luck!

 

Good luck!! We STILL haven't got the video to play in the demo test!!! Only recently discovered the bit about the Certificate too as mentioned above.

[booths]

.. Good practice with this type of software is to maybe disable any virus checking!, oh and make sure that Microsoft Visual C++ 2012 redistributable is installed.

[internetuser]

Do, just before I get confused.

I need to install the software on a server

The Admin console on a exams member of staff desktop

The invigilator software on one machine in each room

The exam software on machines in each class room, and point it by hand (?) to relevant invigilator machine

 

 

 

Does all this need to be on the same VLAN / IP Range ?

[booths]

ECS on a server/workstation which can access the internet (and has the appropriate ports unblocked)

Admin on the Exams Officer workstation

 

I put the Invigilator software on the teacher's workstation in a couple of suites on the same VLAN. The exam software works better (I found) if it is on the same VLAN as the Invigilator.

 

Make sure that Invigilator is active before connecting the Exam workstations (again a funny I discovered when playing around with it!)

[free780]

Ah pearson vue. You may need to use fiddler to see whats getting blocked. It may struggle with the proxy auth. You may have to allow it unauthenticated.

[jonspurs]

Before I start creating my CC4 packages, are there any permissions I need to set?

 

No. Well we didn't need to.

Running an actual exam at around 11 today...see what happens.

[FishCustard]

Just found out that we'll need to use this software soon - oh dear god.

[internetuser]

Well after the stories on here I thought I would have problems. But it seems to have just worked.

 

main software is installed on a server on the none proxy vlan.

AD software deployed to exams department

Invigilator software to whiteboard machines in each room

Exam software to the clients in rooms.

All three above via MSIs

 

Invigilator account is set as a roaming profile otherwise it does not load

exam test account is set as a mandatory profile

 

Only problem is that when the AD user or the Invigilator user uses t he software they need to point the client to the server as its on a separate vlan.

 

When the exams take place the invigilator logs on the exam accounts and make sure it points to the correct invigilator for computer for the exam.

[jonspurs]

We done the test and it kinda worked.

For some reason, it crashed out totally and wouldn't let the admin login.

Quick call to Pearson, they done something their end, and we were away.

Next time will be summer...

[darthpaul]

Can anyone help me with the copying the files to the user profile using Group Policy Prefs? I have created a policy thats applied to the exam user and added the 6 files into the files section of the GPO as create but they dont appear when the user logs in. Does it create the folder if its not there just by copying files? Am I doing something obviously stupid! My destination for the files is C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\TdpClientData

[howartp]

Well, I've just been through this lot. Can't say I was looking forward to it, but it wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated.

 

I did everything the install guide said (port 443, btecng pearson endpoints, opened two ports for communication), plus opened extra ports 52222-52250 as per a post from aliaspeter earlier in this thread, and all seems to be working. Not sure whether I needed the extra ports, as I think I put them in before realising a different issue.

 

My proxy is set as proxyaddress="http://192.168.x.y:port/" - I know there's been discussion on the required format, with or without the slash, but it works for me like this.

 

I had missed one step but using their Diagnostics tool told me where I'd gone wrong - fair play to them for creating this, and to those people on this thread who read that paragraph in the install guide and mentioned it here; I'd completely missed it several times. Note you do need to stop the ECS service on your server before it will run.

 

One thing to make sure you're all aware of - make sure you force a Test Violation when you are testing, so that you and your exam team know how to resolve it. To force one, press Ctrl+Esc (which would usually bring up start menu). You'll get a pretty screen saying you've lost focus during your test, and to call your invigilator - who won't have a clue what to do and nor will you if you haven't experienced it. There is a super secret process to unlock the test and allow you to continue, which I WON'T post here as it is a public forum - Pearson want you to ring their support line in the middle of the exam and get straight through to a very helpful person who will immediately help you. Of course, you will always get this when you ring Pearson so there's no problem, is there?

 

Also one to note, if you do find the test crashes or suchlike, if you force a Test Violation you then have an option (following the super secret process) to terminate the test - this does allow the candidate to re-login to the test. In my minimal testing, I was able to restart the test from the beginning with another 60 minutes on the clock (whilst other candidates only had 57 minutes left) - not sure what happens if you crash out 45 minutes in with 75% of the test complete, whether you get another 60 minutes and have to restart all questions again.

 

With regards the TestPlayer deployment, my experience (RM CC4 network) is that it doesn't matter where a test user logs on, whether they've already used TestPlayer in another Room/Invigilator or not - the settings stick with the PC (albeit in the users' AppData folder) - maybe to do with how RM set up Roaming Profiles, I don't know.

 

We are therefore deploying one copy of TestPlayer wherever it's needed, without setting the MSI properties. The first time it is run on a PC, it searches for the Invigilator PC - as long as the exam team, invigilator, whoever you choose selects the right Invigilator PC in the room once, then next time anyone logs on to that PC it will use the same Invigilator PC. If you need to change the Invigilator PC used for an exam in a given room, that's when a problem occurs and you need to delete the config files*. If a user moves to another room for a resit another day, they get the settings of the PC they've moved to - if it hasn't been used before, it searches for an Invigilator. If it has been used, it uses the Invigilator in the room. It doesn't, in my experience, try and use the Invigilator in the old room.

 

(*Config files: c:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\TdpClientData)

 

Hope this helps anyone else setting up this software.

 

Peter

Edited January 30, 2014 by howartp

[Latham]

Funnily enough, found this thread when Googling the software. Have a learnt a couple of things.

 

So did people have to end up installing the test player manually and inputting the name of the PC that the invigilator is at? Is there a way of automating this process via the msi and push it out via Impero or group policy?

 

With regards the TestPlayer deployment, my experience (RM CC4 network) is that it doesn't matter where a test user logs on, whether they've already used TestPlayer in another Room/Invigilator or not - the settings stick with the PC (albeit in the users' AppData folder) - maybe to do with how RM set up Roaming Profiles, I don't know.

 

(*Config files: c:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\TdpClientData)

 

Hope this helps anyone else setting up this software.

 

We have students' temporary folders on the C drive delete after logging on - so that tdpClientData would get deleted. For other exams like Pearson's ALANTests and exam access software from WJEC - we log on to machines with the same AD user account and give that one account local admin access to write to the C drive per machine. From the sounds of it that sounds like what will happen.

[booths]

C drive is access is punishable by death! LOL

[deanrawlings]

Wow sounds like you've all been having problems with this for a while, just started using it at our place and the problems have already started!

 

I've installed ECS service on the server and with the MSI's that the ECS service creates I've installed the Administrator Dashboard successfully and the server is showing in the admin dashboard. When I come to install the Invigilator Dash it looks to install fine but when I come to launch the program from the desktop sc I get the attached error (see attached screenshot)

 

ECS, Administrator, Invigilator and player dashboards are all on the same network and all ports are available to these.

 

I have tried re-installing the ECS service on a different server and I've also re-installed the Invigilator Dash to try and resolve the issues.

 

Also made sure the PC has visual C++ and framework 4 installed.

 

Anyone got any ideas? or seen this before?

 

I've been on the phone to them twice, they asked for a screenshot I emailed one over, on the 2nd phone call I found they lost my email so doesn't give me much confidence that 3rd line support will be ringing me anytime soon!

 

Thanks in advance.

 

[ATTACH=CONFIG]22745[/ATTACH]

[themightymrp]

I can't view your attachment - comes up as an invalid type!

[Latham]

I can't see the attachment - it's giving me an error.

 

We haven't installed the test player software yet as I haven't had an opportunity to get to the rooms we're using (that's my half term week sorted). But It's looking like running the install manually (or at least trying to use mimic scripts from Impero) after I got the helpful "we only support what we tell you in the userguide" response from support. Yup.

[deanrawlings]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]22746[/ATTACH]Just tried installing as domain admin and it runs now, looks like some kind of mandatory profile problem, will have a read back through this tread.

 

All users - pupils and teachers load a mandatory profile, if theres anything I should know about running this sw in this environment would be grateful for any advice.

 

Thanks in advance,

Edited February 6, 2014 by deanrawlings

[themightymrp]

We are running yet another demo test tomorrow to see if we can get this c**p software working. Been at since before Christmas!!!!!!!!!!! It still won't play the video in one of the demo questions, which is required for the test the school wants to run.

 

Hate it with passion, my last 2 emails to support have gone unanswered - I think I may have annoyed them to death

[internetuser]

That account needs a roaming profile.

[FN-GM]

I hate to day it but i got mine installed in about 2 hours without issues. The lack of silent install for the test player is a major let down. There where also some steps missing from the documentation.

[Latham]

I hate to day it but i got mine installed in about 2 hours without issues. The lack of silent install for the test player is a major let down. There where also some steps missing from the documentation.

 

Which steps? If you don't mind me asking....

[themightymrp]

Just to update anyone who cares, my demo test today worked fine!!

 

The difference? Changing to an IT suite that runs Windows 7.

 

I know we should be using that across the board anyway but we aren't and also, we have one room laid out specifically to be able to do onscreen exams (there are flip up wooden screens to isolate users into mini cubicles )

 

I think its worth pointing out that throughout the documentation it says that this software is fine on Windows XP. Their technical support told me the same thing. It's all a pack of LIES!!! Windows 7 - no issue at all.

 

Frustrated and angry..... but also mildly relieved as SLT were starting to breath down my neck

[jamin100]

We're the opposite. Couldnt get it to work on 7, whereas XP worked fine

[le4ne]

Has anyone else found out just how shocking the test player software is to use?

It crashes so easily!

 

For example, try pressing crtl + alt + del and the test player dies in the middle of the exam.

 

We also had problems with students inadvertently pressing the calculator button on the keyboards which immediately stopped the test player running as it wasn't the 'main focus'.

Pearson's advice: un-program the 'special keys' on the keyboard... ummm... what!

[Steve21]

lol it's a joke Had to run it last week for the exam, and yeah shockingly bad... Silly system.

 

Steve