caffrey Posted March 8, 2018 Posted March 8, 2018 Any suggestions ? Need to be cheap and the batteries need to last a while - finally got the go ahead to replace the 15 year old ones we have. I was thinking about Chromebooks as they are cheap and batteries last well, but not sure if I can set up those to exam conditions - anyone tried ?
ShellfishClive Posted March 8, 2018 Posted March 8, 2018 We have some Acer P253s for our exams which seem to do the job, they aren't great by all means but they have enough power to do the job they need to. Not sure how it is there but the Exam Manager here likes the internet to be turned off on the exam laptops so they can't use it during the exam, I am not sure how or if you can disable the wireless on a Chromebook because everything is in the cloud there so it would make them be pretty pointless.
rogerdnixon Posted March 8, 2018 Posted March 8, 2018 There are various approached to using Chromebooks. Currently we have an examuser G Suite account. The policies set on this user mean every url is blocked except for our Ericom AccessNow url which is set to open automatically. They then sign in as an assigned exam user (an AD account). This AD use has no internet access and has access to a network share with a folder that they and the exams office has access. So they just go to the share and open up the template in Word (spellcheck disabled) and edit it. Seems to work fine. If you had dedicated machines, you could set them up in kiosk mode and launch the Android version of Docs (or any other editor) and save the file to a usb key at the end. 1
HTCPCP Posted March 8, 2018 Posted March 8, 2018 A cheap windows 10 Home laptop can do the trick just fine. A locked down non admin, with only access to wordpad on the start menu is fine. When I set up a few a couple of years ago, it was an AMD A6 processor in it, and Windows 10 home too. 4GB RAM, and a cheap 60GB SSD, and it fit the bill. Best bit was, because they were specced to only be used for exams, other departments didn't borrow them, and they were looked after too!
FishCustard Posted March 8, 2018 Posted March 8, 2018 I wouldn't trust a device on battery during a public exam. I'd much rather figure out some way to have them mains powered. Sure, there could be a power cut, but then you've got at least some redundancy with the battery. We used old Dell D630s and a locked-down 'examuser' account. Worked brilliantly.
caffrey Posted March 8, 2018 Author Posted March 8, 2018 Thanks all, The laptops we currently use have 3.5" floppy drives in them... Sony PCG-9G5M They basically boot into Wordpad (replaced shell in the registry) Just they are getting really long in the tooth now and are about a kg each, been given some money to replace them and they want something lighter with decent battery - seems a shame to spend a lot on something that has one purpose
6Foot2 Posted March 8, 2018 Posted March 8, 2018 Thanks all, The laptops we currently use have 3.5" floppy drives in them... Sony PCG-9G5M They basically boot into Wordpad (replaced shell in the registry) Just they are getting really long in the tooth now and are about a kg each, been given some money to replace them and they want something lighter with decent battery - seems a shame to spend a lot on something that has one purpose We have 'better' spec laptops for exams. They are 'lodged' with Learning Support. LS staff know when exams are on and who needs a laptop. When they are not required for exams they are free and can supplement Learning Support's own dedicated suite of laptops. HTH.
darkstar_bam Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 Hi, I'm interested in trying this approach could you tell me how you disabled spell checker in Word, please? Thanks
6Foot2 Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 Hi, I'm interested in trying this approach could you tell me how you disabled spell checker in Word, please? Thanks We allow exam users access to Notepad or Wordpad only. Disabling spellcheck was a bit of a mission.
ShellfishClive Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 (edited) It's under Proofing in File > Options, uncheck "Check Spelling as you type" and "Mark Grammer errors as you type". If you want to disable via GPO I think there is a reg key (DWORD) that needs setting to 0 under Office, It's "wordspellingoptions" IIRC. Edited March 9, 2018 by ShellfishClive
caffrey Posted March 9, 2018 Author Posted March 9, 2018 And then I get told the budget for each laptop, I'm sure people don't live in the real world
HTCPCP Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 And then I get told the budget for each laptop, I'm sure people don't live in the real world What is the budget? Might be worth speaking to ICT Direct then!
caffrey Posted March 9, 2018 Author Posted March 9, 2018 I don't think even ICT-Direct can help in this case... Don't need high power laptops, just basic things for word processing HP streams look the cheapest but even that's over budget...
Katy Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 Sounds like: "We've got £2,000 for some new exams laptops" "Great! We can get a set of 6" "No, we want 30." ".....WHAT?"
HTCPCP Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 Ah, I have a solution to the problem... Here you go. 1
ShellfishClive Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 Ah, I have a solution to the problem... Here you go. No no, those are far too advanced we need something simple!
VeryPC_Colin_M Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 Hi @caffrey would £194ea be too much? Got a similar requirement with a client of ours at the mo and have sent him a trial Acer 14" N3350 4GB 64GB SSD with Windows 10 S. He'll be flattening Windows 10 S and battery life is easily 9 hours. Could work?
caffrey Posted March 9, 2018 Author Posted March 9, 2018 Not a massive fan of Acer stuff tbh, I know beggars can't be choosers but I like things to last
HTCPCP Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 Not a massive fan of Acer stuff tbh, I know beggars can't be choosers but I like things to last Always thought that until I got a batch of 16 Travelmates to replace some RM Ones in 2012 and they were brilliant. Also, how much are they going to be used? for about 8 or 10 weeks a year. Paying for the premium brands is pointless for stuff like that.
rad Posted March 9, 2018 Posted March 9, 2018 I wouldnt skimp on the spec. These are for exams, for the students that struggle with writing in general, so a 13-15inch screen is better. The last thing you want to be doing it faffing and waiting for a pc to load at the beginning or in an exam. We are lucky that our second room is the Sixth Form Study area that has space for desks and 12 PC's on the school network so students/invigilators can print the work at the end of the exam for the students to sign.
caffrey Posted March 9, 2018 Author Posted March 9, 2018 Not something I'd like to skimp on either, but budgets are budgets - this is why I was considering Chromebooks, long battery life and instant on - cheap too
ass17 Posted March 10, 2018 Posted March 10, 2018 Go windows laptops, DONT use notepad or wordpad because if your laptop crashes and the user doesn’t regularly save they will be distraught. Use ExamWritePad, which offers auto save, auto recover backup, double line spacing, print off header and footers which hold candidate name, paper name etc....plus many more stuff. [emoji1303][emoji1] 2
mukz Posted March 10, 2018 Posted March 10, 2018 Refurbed kit? We brought a set of 20 dell lat e6430 with 5 year warranty - 4gb ram, 120gb ssd
caffrey Posted March 11, 2018 Author Posted March 11, 2018 Go windows laptops, DONT use notepad or wordpad because if your laptop crashes and the user doesn’t regularly save they will be distraught. Use ExamWritePad, which offers auto save, auto recover backup, double line spacing, print off header and footers which hold candidate name, paper name etc....plus many more stuff. [emoji1303][emoji1] Oh it's failed many times, that's why I've complained for so long, kids saving to local drive, power losses, accidental deletion of work, corrupt usb sticks you name it.... Yeah I demoed your software and for some reason it wasn't well received - not sure why as I really like it and it ticked all the boxes. The only thing I didn't like was it saves the file in XML format which can be opened with Word but it has a proprietary file extension, there is no easy way for them to be able to print work off without attaching a printer to each and every laptop. They are too used to using a USB stick to save to and printing from that, in this case they would need to run examwritepad on a local machine in order to do that. They are a bit set in their ways Would be nice if you could create team drives for each candidate that the exams officer has access to, cloud saving etc. Just unsure how well \ easy a Chromebook can be locked down I'm probably going to have to go down the refurb route, but most refurb laptops I've seen are way over spec - Power hungry CPU's, SSD's (Ok fast boot time is a plus) and tonnes of memory is a bit silly
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now