Graphics Exams

[LewRichAIM]

Hi all, we have a couple of IT suites where students take their graphics exams on computers, they use their actual accounts as they need to access some resources from their coursework etc.  however they are not allowed internet access, we achieved this buy using a GPO to block all sites in edge apart from the ones used to license the Adobe suite and office.  However students have now figured out they can email each other, via the outlook desktop app, I can block that app using app locker.  My question is how do you if at all stop them from sharing a PowerPoint between students and passing 'notes' that way using the collaborative nature of 365.  They apparently need to use PowerPoint so blocking that won't help me unfortunately.  Appreciate your advice!

[thimon]

That doesn’t sound JCQ / exam compliant at all. What does the exam board recommend? 

[LewRichAIM]

I know it's pretty unusual, it's Graphic Communication it's a 10 hour exam over 2 days.  It's just internet access they are not allowed, but are allowed to use everything else. Ps it's AQA. As every they don't really give any guidance apart from "disable the internet" I think I may reach out for further guidance.

Edited March 10 by LewRichAIM

[clareq]

It was a few years ago, but we provided dedicated accounts for them to do their coursework for the exam, then locked down the accounts during the exam. They saved the work to a mapped drive, not to 365, and used the desktop version of Office.

[thimon]

I don’t know if that would work anymore. Collaboration is baked into Office now. Once they find out the other exam accounts, students could upload the files from the mapped drive, share the files with the other accounts and write comments to each other. 

Edited March 10 by thimon

[rossibIT]

We have the same issue with our Music students. We created a set of dedicated “Exam” user accounts for them (around 12), and we store any coursework in the Exam user’s home area. It can be a bit tedious, but we just ask students to place any required work into a folder by a set date. We then move it over and send them the credentials.

 

We used to rely on WordPad, but now we use ExamWritePad instead. There's no Exchange or A1 licence on those accounts, so there’s no way for students to communicate with each other.

[DalekSec]

Had similar in past, we created exam accounts with all the relevant blocks and just moved the coursework to the relevant account tied to the pupil. 

[LewRichAIM]

In the end we used applocker to block office and forced them to use wordpad and the old version of Photoshop