PISA tests

[mikes]

is anyone else having to run these PISA test diagnostics?

the last time we ran the PISA diagnostics it took about 5 minutes per machine maximum.

Now it is taking 20+ minutes on our workstations, the fact you need the single USB stick plugged in through all of it, means this pile of pap is taking hours.

plus it is failing on over half of our identical workstations - the portable firefox it ships with crashes with a "plugin container" error message; or it just gives a page not displayed error.

is anyone else having problems with this bull ?

[3s-gtech]

The kit suggests just running it on one workstation, if the others are identical. That's what I'm doing - there's 60 PCs in that room so I'm not devoting 20 hours to testing their software.

[LukeRowberry]

When they run the tests it says they have to have an unencrypted USB plugged in for them to write to. Do you know if it asks them for any personal info? I wouldn't want them talking a bunch of unencrypted USBs off site with personal info on them.

[mikes]

it doesn't say what the actual test will do, it doesn't say if it provides a USB stick for each pupil; all I have is the diagnostics kit. the booklet I have says it must be ran on every workstation. it just collects data about the workstation and I think it saves it via SQL as an SQL instance runs (basically it runs XAMPP)

[3s-gtech]

I've just put the .exe through our Applocker and SRP rules, but can't say whether it'll work yet. Depends if the file has the same hash as the 'production' one they ship. The file 'should' only record the student details through an ID, but somehow I think they're going to have messed that one up. Any school that has unencrypted USBs disabled will have fun!

[foofighterjim]

Yes, this crossed my desk last week. Rang them up to say that we are moving from RM to Vanilla this summer so there is absolutely no point in running the test yet. I did say to them that this type of setup seems quite archaic in this day and age and that I didn't know a single school that would allow students to run exe's as standard (which is what they infer in their letter).

[supportman]

Just got this as well, the test seemed very bloated to me. Will probably have to setup a local user for this with admin rights.

[PotNoodleTech]

Just got it working in two rooms the rest of our rooms the pcs don't have enough ram to run the absurdly bloated software.

 

I mean for the sake of all that is good and true, PUT IT ALL ON THE INTERNET ON A WEB SERVER!!!! Its 2018 not 1998!!!

[mikes]

We have a lady coming round tomorrow at 2pm about the pisa tests. I said I would rather have had pizza than this pisa and they did not find it amusing. I hope she doesn't want to run the diagnostic test on every workstation, because I finish at 3pm so that means we will get at most 3 workstations finished - or I'll be working until midnight.

 

The tests are then ran for real on Mon-Tues. I recieved information from another user that it did not go so well; and we all know when there are technical problems that keep students waiting, the classrooms often become a bacchanalia.

 

I don't understand what appears to have gone wrong; I wasn't involved in the tests when we ran them about 5 years ago but our data manager (who unfortunately has quit otherwise it would be his problem) said they worked well; the diagnostic USB they shipped us loaded and ran sucesfully on every single workstation in under 5 minutes. Have they outsourced their development to India this time and ended up in a simular situation to RM?

 

I was wondering if anyone else has run these tests sucessfully?

[Primus]

They’re hopeless. We’ve sacked it.

[3s-gtech]

I had the test material through. I ran it on one PC (in a suite of identical machines) and sent it back.

[supportman]

We ran it on their AWS setup which just needs an internet connection, it was fine. Don't do it the USB way, its terrible.

[noelmm]

We ran the tests 2 days ago and couldn't use the online system as it wasn't working so we had to use the USB drives. A couple of the drives didn't work and a couple reported to contain viruses but the testers had spare drives so it wasn't a problem.

[foofighterjim]

+1 with @noelmm we ran these a couple of weeks ago and for some reason several of the USB drives refused to accept the password. After what seemed like an eternity I finally convinced the invigilator that it must be the drives as the machines and accounts were identical to ones that were working, the only variable being the USB. They tried one of the spare ones they initially claimed not to have and it worked immediately.

 

All in all a bit of a shambles really.

Edited November 16, 2018 by foofighterjim

[supportman]

For info the reason they are on USB drives is because this test is international and is run in many 3rd world countries without internet.

[PotNoodleTech]

For info the reason they are on USB drives is because this test is international and is run in many 3rd world countries without internet.

 

Then just supply the third world countries with USB drives so the rest of us can use a secure, reliable website on the internet like any other 21st century online test.

[supportman]

Then just supply the third world countries with USB drives so the rest of us can use a secure, reliable website on the internet like any other 21st century online test.

 

Thats pretty much what they did We did our tests on an AWS virtual machine. Worked well.

[Primus]

We wasted loads of time with their other solutions and by the time they'd offered the online virtual machine we'd made the decision to sack it.

 

For an organisation that relies on the goodwill of schools to get their data they really need to think about how difficult they're making this process. Also my understanding is that the UK agency has had to come up with their own online system and are themselves banging their heads against a wall with PISA themselves over the matter.

[fredbayker]

Yeah I found them to be very amateurish for an organisation that has such a wide reaching ‘audience’. Considering they’ve been doing this for some time too, there doesn’t seem to be some proper longer term planning about it.

[Sanchez]

We ran it a few weeks back. We wanted the online version but never got it. We told them we don't allow USB sticks so they gave us a network version which I'm guessing is just a copy of what's on the USB as we had to make individual copies for each candidate. A couple of advantages to this is we had all the machines logged on and tests loaded before the PISA people even arrived. We also edited the config to skip the virus scan. A total pain to sort out but At least the day went smoothly.

[PotNoodleTech]

Well they emailed me offering to use the Online version. I think I will be using that!!

 

Obviously they read Edugeek!

[ItsOnlyAniPad]

PISA are shocking to get any support.Attempted the tests this morning with the USB'S, the test USB cable that they sent worked fine on all machines once sophos is disabled, come to try it this morning and 2 out of 40 worked. No differences between the machines at all.

 

Eventually they gave us access to the online system which I had asked for last week but got no response and that didn't even work, even after allowing the URL's they requested just got error username and password.

 

Hours wasted by me and by numerous staff just for £100 for doing the tests.

[LukeRowberry]

We've got ours on Thursday and this morning I was sent a booklet on how the online Appsteam tests will work with usernames and passwords in readiness!

[ItsOnlyAniPad]

At least you have the information beforehand to prepare for the tests. Why the online version didn't work for us I don't know, I was more worried by the lady on the phone telling me potentially the login details we were given were being used somewhere else....

[gerardsweeney]

We ran it without any real issues.

Apart from Windows not letting them eject the USB disk at the end because it was in use - most likely our AV scanning the 10 gajillion files that are on the thing.

I didn't know there was a network or online version - they never offered that to us - pfff!