Do Exam Boards not provide software for exams anymore?

[VBallantyne]

Evening all,

 

Been meaning to reach out to you all to see what you are doing in your schools regarding exams. Already seen a few threads that suggest we are all in the same boat.

 

So when I started in within the school setting 5years ago, the school had a dedicated box which was the Exam Server. It had software on there for Pearson exam board (if I recall correctly) and the ICT suite computers had a client application. Yet after my first year, there were changes of staff and one of them being the Exam Officer. We've had several others over the 5years but now seems to have settle with one, but its a new role for her so I don't think she would understand my query or know who to ask.

 

Do exam boards not offer software solutions for online exams now and does everyone in fact just use WordPad with a combination of restrictions through Impero or GPO? Seems a backwards step.

 

I accept though some students use a laptop as a form of accessibility if they are unable to write.

 

Thanks all

[ass17]

Evening all,

 

Been meaning to reach out to you all to see what you are doing in your schools regarding exams. Already seen a few threads that suggest we are all in the same boat.

 

So when I started in within the school setting 5years ago, the school had a dedicated box which was the Exam Server. It had software on there for Pearson exam board (if I recall correctly) and the ICT suite computers had a client application. Yet after my first year, there were changes of staff and one of them being the Exam Officer. We've had several others over the 5years but now seems to have settle with one, but its a new role for her so I don't think she would understand my query or know who to ask.

 

Do exam boards not offer software solutions for online exams now and does everyone in fact just use WordPad with a combination of restrictions through Impero or GPO? Seems a backwards step.

 

I accept though some students use a laptop as a form of accessibility if they are unable to write.

 

Thanks all

 

In 17 years of being a the same school, we for the first 10 years used notepad. Then for the last 7 years have been using ExamWritePad.

I’ve never seen any client server exam specific software in any previous school I’ve been in.

[Asgard]

Evening all,

 

Been meaning to reach out to you all to see what you are doing in your schools regarding exams. Already seen a few threads that suggest we are all in the same boat.

 

So when I started in within the school setting 5years ago, the school had a dedicated box which was the Exam Server. It had software on there for Pearson exam board (if I recall correctly) and the ICT suite computers had a client application. Yet after my first year, there were changes of staff and one of them being the Exam Officer. We've had several others over the 5years but now seems to have settle with one, but its a new role for her so I don't think she would understand my query or know who to ask.

 

Do exam boards not offer software solutions for online exams now and does everyone in fact just use WordPad with a combination of restrictions through Impero or GPO? Seems a backwards step.

 

I accept though some students use a laptop as a form of accessibility if they are unable to write.

 

Thanks all

 

The Pearson PoP player.

 

It’s still used for some random exams and it’s a woeful bit of software.

[VBallantyne]

Well oh bugger. Have to just muddle through. I'm sure you all have the same experiences and stories the same as I. The exam officer coming to you 5minutes before an exam with niche lockdown requirements and expects you to implement the restrictions within 90seconds

[3s-gtech]

Pearson PoP

SecureAssess

LIBF e-test

 

I greatly dislike them all, and still have to suffer them on and off. We have a VM that hosts them.

[free780]

Exam companies IT support is terrible.

 

This needs to be installed on a 32 bit server OS that is physical (when MS had just EOL server 2008).

 

Any drop in internet connectivity will mean you’ll have to reboot the server.

 

The software uses Java.

 

Users need administrator rights and a dedicated IT Suite.

 

You need flash for SecureAssess to function. Should we keep it up to date? Uh not sure.

[Brax]

We generally don't have too many issues with PoP but its so unintuitive especially for students just to actually start the exam. Surpass's SecureClient is a nightmare, it's release even more so when we had to sit on the phone for 5 hours...

[mavhc]

Exam company: we should have computer things! Hello random software company, please write us computer things!

Software company: here are computer things!

Exam company: hello schools, here are computer things!

Schools: wth is this rubbish, did you actually spec this correct for using in schools?

Exam company: computer things!? -- Hello software company, did you not make this for schools?

Software company: you did not tell us to, can we haz moar monies?

Exam company: hello schools, this is correct, make it work

 

3 years later: The software is out of date and barely works, everything it uses has been deprecated

 

6 years later:

Exam company: we should have computer things! Hello different random software company, please write us computer things!

[Olliedawg]

I've used Pearson PoP a few times, clunky bit of software. Thankfully we don't have any exams on this year using it.

[Chris_Cook]

I thought POP was quite good compared to Promissor. But that's not saying much. I wasn't impressed by the secret password on POP when it loses connection.

[TechMonkey]

Urgh, Promissor.

 

I wish they would invest in some decent software. I mean schools are set up to ensure the right people are in the right place, doing the right exam, so it isn't like we need full proctoring software. Though it would be nice to have that as some pupils could take exams at home which would help them (and the school).

 

I keep meaning to ask how other schools are dealing with 1:1 schemes and the rule about taking exams as pupils are used to working? Surely this potentially could lead to all pupils taking exams on computer?

[mavhc]

In that case they use their own computer, but log in as Exam-UserName which they shouldn't know the pw to