ExamWritePad

[ass17]

I thought the regs prevented you from doing this? My understanding is that once the file has been printed and signed by the student, the electronic copy must be deleted. It's certainly how we operate here anyway. Plus if you keep old documents on the laptops, students will be able to open these by browsing to the documents area where they are saved and simply double clicking them?

 

You are quite correct, it’s either up to the student or exam invigilator to remove all traces of saved documents.

 

But what we do is we have a user account that auto logins in and sets the home directory folder name to a date/time stamp plus computer name. So in theory it’s always going to be unique.

 

This we the only thing they have to remember is to log off. And then the laptop autologins back in with a fresh desktop/user home directory.

 

It really up to the end user and exams staff to see that traces have been removed, but also don’t forget that once that exam is done it will not take place ever again so therefore if something is left behind it’s pretty useless.

[BlueScreen]

We've just had our PPEs and our Exams department and students love the application (because it feel familiar that's one less stress for them).

 

A couple of quick questions,

 

Does the coversheet include Form 2 (scribe coversheet) when the spell check is enabled (JCQ, ICE 2019-20, 14.25 k)?

Is it possible to have the settings as registry keys so it's easier for us to control who has access to certain features if we install the software around the school, (I find gpo controlled registry keys are easier to manage than gpo controlled files).

[Rob_D]

Is it possible to have the settings as registry keys so it's easier for us to control who has access to certain features if we install the software around the school, (I find gpo controlled registry keys are easier to manage than gpo controlled files).

 

Personally, I would rather EWP stay portable, which I assume is easier with the settings file.

[ass17]

Personally, I would rather EWP stay portable, which I assume is easier with the settings file.

 

Yes, which, given the settings file is going to be migrated from XML to JSON the long term plan is to remain as portable as it can be.

[ass17]

Does the coversheet include Form 2 (scribe coversheet) when the spell check is enabled (JCQ, ICE 2019-20, 14.25 k).

 

No, but will be in the next version. It’s on the list to do.

[ass17]

Can this also include page background colour?

We've had a few pupils this year that have been entitled to blue or yellow pages because it's difficult (or at least, more difficult) to read black-on-white. I don't really know the specifics of it, but the exams officer assures me it's a thing, so I'm going to take her word on it lol.

IIRC loading an .examtext file that had had its background colour changed didn't load the change in colour. No big deal for me printing them out, probably not even a big deal for the kid writing the script, just one of those "If you're doing similar, what about..." things

(Sorry if I'm wrong, though, working from memory and don't have the files in question to hand any more!)

Just read through the whole EWP thread to pass the time before watching the Spurs game @ 12:30, I noticed your request and initially I said it couldnt been done, but since I released v3 in September by default any page colour is automatically saved to the document.

[ass17]

Does anyone have any feature requests for 2020? For example you want to 'brand' EWP with you school logo etc...

 

Please go to www.examwritepad.com/?page_id=265 and submit a request or vote for features you wish to see.

 

(If you post a new feature request and get a submission error, dont worry it will have been submitted)

[Garacesh]

Just read through the whole EWP thread to pass the time before watching the Spurs game @ 12:30, I noticed your request and initially I said it couldnt been done, but since I released v3 in September by default any page colour is automatically saved to the document.

 

I question your use of leisure time but I appreciate the update. Thanks

[ass17]

I question your use of leisure time but I appreciate the update. Thanks

 

Torture is watching Spurs this season so I’ve been keeping myself busy with the v3.5 update of EWP. It will be released by the end of Jan.

[browolf]

Does anyone have any feature requests for 2020? For example you want to 'brand' EWP with you school logo etc...

 

Please go to www.examwritepad.com/?page_id=265 and submit a request or vote for features you wish to see.

 

(If you post a new feature request and get a submission error, dont worry it will have been submitted)

 

 

it would be handy to have a whole other program that's an 'exam clock' because we have laptops for exams that can't go on the internet and then we have to find other laptops with internet access to act as exam clocks. We'd just like to have the same laptop be multipurpose without needing internet access.

[ass17]

it would be handy to have a whole other program that's an 'exam clock' because we have laptops for exams that can't go on the internet and then we have to find other laptops with internet access to act as exam clocks. We'd just like to have the same laptop be multipurpose without needing internet access.

 

In terms of exams clocks, are you referring to a normal analog clock or a countdown timer?

 

EWP has the date and time displayed on the ribbon interface bar. What more do you need?

[browolf]

In terms of exams clocks, are you referring to a normal analog clock or a countdown timer?

 

EWP has the date and time displayed on the ribbon interface bar. What more do you need?

 

This is for laptops that get connected to projectors in the exam rooms. Currently we have to find other laptops and use https://www.online-stopwatch.com/online-digital-clock/ and then remember to set sleep/screensaver settings, etc

 

Yesterday, the laptop we had to find for a clock, in the exam went to sleep and rebooted twice for updates.

 

 

But our non internet connected exam laptops have a login that automatically runs ewp as the shell and another login that runs media player for the shell. It'd be super handy to have another login for a clock program and all the desktop settings preconfigured in the image that we deploy these laptops with.

 

So even if we had to find a random spare laptop, we can bang the exam image onto it and there won't be any problems.

[noelmm]

We use https://www.examscreen.co.uk/ to have a live clock display on our TV screens. We benefit of this is apart from being able to have multiple exam information shown on the same screen it can add the extra time for access arrangements. You do need an internet connection for the initial connection to the website but once your connected to the site the internet is no longer required. Using this you can update the exam info each day without having to connect back to the internet so Windows updates won't be a problem.

 

As for the laptop going to sleep we just play a video in the background on loop with the sound muted on both the laptop and TV screen.

 

This method has been used for the last 2 years by us with no problems, if you do look at this option I suggest using Google Chrome as your browser as IE can have issues.

[Garacesh]

As for the laptop going to sleep we just play a video in the background on loop with the sound muted on both the laptop and TV screen.

Does browser F11 not prevent sleep?

[bald_pig]

Does browser F11 not prevent sleep?

 

Don't think so, but it's trivial to disable sleep etc.

[Rob_D]

As for the laptop going to sleep we just play a video in the background on loop with the sound muted on both the laptop and TV screen..

 

We use Caffeine https://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/caffeine/ when we need to stop PCs from locking/sleeping (doing it through power settings GPO isn't hugely reliable on our Windows 10 builds for some reason)

 

One of the issues we've come up against with software "exam clocks" is that they need both a digital and analogue clock available for the students that "don't like" one or the other. In the end we set up a xibo layout for exam clocks.

[ass17]

We use https://www.examscreen.co.uk/ to have a live clock display on our TV screens. We benefit of this is apart from being able to have multiple exam information shown on the same screen it can add the extra time for access arrangements. You do need an internet connection for the initial connection to the website but once your connected to the site the internet is no longer required. Using this you can update the exam info each day without having to connect back to the internet so Windows updates won't be a problem.

 

As for the laptop going to sleep we just play a video in the background on loop with the sound muted on both the laptop and TV screen.

 

This method has been used for the last 2 years by us with no problems, if you do look at this option I suggest using Google Chrome as your browser as IE can have issues.

 

Examscreen is amazing and perfect!

 

The only slight issue is the noise from the projector when displaying, but in a larger room not an issue.

[Garacesh]

This has come up today for the Health and Social exam.. Can't put forward-slashes into the Syllabus or Component boxes (eg H&SC today was component R021/01)

[ass17]

This has come up today for the Health and Social exam.. Can't put forward-slashes into the Syllabus or Component boxes (eg H&SC today was component R021/01)

 

Yes you are correct and is done on purpose.

 

Component code is R021 and unit code is 01, I can confirm this is correct if you know the specific exam board and I can double check

[Garacesh]

Hmm... I asked our exams officer, and she came back with R###/## being the Component code and a J### as the Syllabus code.

 

(Okay, full disclosure, it wasn't actually H&SC, that's just an exam that was also happening at the same time. But the other one that someone actually used EWP for is lesser-known but has the same code structure so I figured just use the more commonly known one because people might recognise it more)

 

They were both OCR exams.

[ass17]

Hmm... I asked our exams officer, and she came back with R###/## being the Component code and a J### as the Syllabus code.

 

(Okay, full disclosure, it wasn't actually H&SC, that's just an exam that was also happening at the same time. But the other one that someone actually used EWP for is lesser-known but has the same code structure so I figured just use the more commonly known one because people might recognise it more)

 

They were both OCR exams.

 

If you can get me the exam board for either exam then I can check the code format and change EWP accordingly. Thanks

[CHiLL]

I run ExamWritePad from a network share for ease and I actually have two copies - identical apart from the configuration change to have one with spell check enabled and the other with spell check disabled. I want to disallow accounts that are not allowed to run spell check from running the spell check enabled version.

 

I've had various issues trying to get this to work as I use Impero and it cannot block it without blocking both of them as they're both launching from the same server (despite different sub-folders) and both have the same executable name. Impero were pretty unhelpful and their solution was to have them run from two different mapped drives and block it that way.

 

Question 1: Can the executable name (examwritepad.exe) be renamed, or would that cause issues with the applicaiton?

Question 2: Is it possible in a future release to include a feature to modify the window caption wording via the configuration editor? At present it is "ExamWritePad". If I can have it say "ExamWritePad - Spell Check Disabled" and "ExamWritePad - Spell Check Enabled", I can then use Impero's window caption blocking.

 

I know I can block it by file permissions but in an ideal world, I'd prefer to make as few changes as possible. Our exam accounts rotate frequently and different accounts have different spell check requirements at different times. As I have various other restrictions defined in Impero already for the differences between spell check enabled/disabled...I have to modify the Impero group regardless. In an ideal world I can just keep it all within Impero and not have to remember to change AD group memberships.

 

I know that all may be outside your remit, but I thought I'd pose the question and see what your take on it is (or maybe suggest something I haven't thought of!)

[ass17]

I run ExamWritePad from a network share for ease and I actually have two copies - identical apart from the configuration change to have one with spell check enabled and the other with spell check disabled. I want to disallow accounts that are not allowed to run spell check from running the spell check enabled version.

 

I've had various issues trying to get this to work as I use Impero and it cannot block it without blocking both of them as they're both launching from the same server (despite different sub-folders) and both have the same executable name. Impero were pretty unhelpful and their solution was to have them run from two different mapped drives and block it that way.

 

Question 1: Can the executable name (examwritepad.exe) be renamed, or would that cause issues with the applicaiton?

Question 2: Is it possible in a future release to include a feature to modify the window caption wording via the configuration editor? At present it is "ExamWritePad". If I can have it say "ExamWritePad - Spell Check Disabled" and "ExamWritePad - Spell Check Enabled", I can then use Impero's window caption blocking.

 

I know I can block it by file permissions but in an ideal world, I'd prefer to make as few changes as possible. Our exam accounts rotate frequently and different accounts have different spell check requirements at different times. As I have various other restrictions defined in Impero already for the differences between spell check enabled/disabled...I have to modify the Impero group regardless. In an ideal world I can just keep it all within Impero and not have to remember to change AD group memberships.

 

I know that all may be outside your remit, but I thought I'd pose the question and see what your take on it is (or maybe suggest something I haven't thought of!)

 

Thanks for the feedback and questions.

 

In answer to question 1, yes you can rename the EXE file as nothing calls it directly by name, bad programming practice if you did that ;-)

 

Question 2, I can do anything you like, changing the form caption name is very easy and I can add in separate config fields.

 

My ideal compromise would be to have one instance left is it is “ExamWritePad” and in the config file have a new option to set the application caption title to an alternative.

 

I think this would hopefully work for you...

[CHiLL]

Thanks for the feedback and questions.

 

In answer to question 1, yes you can rename the EXE file as nothing calls it directly by name, bad programming practice if you did that ;-)

 

Question 2, I can do anything you like, changing the form caption name is very easy and I can add in separate config fields.

 

My ideal compromise would be to have one instance left is it is “ExamWritePad” and in the config file have a new option to set the application caption title to an alternative.

 

I think this would hopefully work for you...

Thanks for the prompt response.

 

Changing the application name for the moment may be the best solution - good to hear that it won't break it!

 

If I only have one instance of ExamWritePad running from a share and I have some students sitting them same exam at the same time...with some needing spell check and some who aren't allowed it - how do I control that?

Edited January 9, 2020 by CHiLL

[ass17]

Thanks for the prompt response.

 

Changing the application name for the moment may be the best solution - good to hear that it won't break it!

 

If I only have one instance of ExamWritePad running from a share and I have some students that need spell check and some who aren't allowed it - how do I control that?

 

The only thing I have just thought of is if you change the EXE name you also have to the change the settings file name accordingly as it’s how .net apps work.

 

 

On your final point, since v3.1 the Ability to specify an Active Directory Group and a series of overrides that will apply when launching EWP. For example, if most students do not require a spellchecker and you have disabled it in the config, you can specify an AD group name and the config option you wish to override spell checking so it is enabled for those candidates within the AD group. (See Config options for further assistance and help on setting this up.)