Free Exam Word Processor - ExamPad+

[Fazza]

I just saw a post on LinkedIn for some exam word processing software that is Free for Primary and Secondary school..

 

https://exampadplus.co.uk/

 

JCQ Compliant and has a classroom mode so it can be used for students to familiarise themselves with the software so it's not a complete surprise on exam days.

 

It says it's created by a UK Network Manager so (unless my search skills need improving) I'm surprised to not have heard anything about it on EduGeek yet!

[Boredguy]

Was posted on the Edugeek Discord last night when someone else saw the same Linked in post.

[synaesthesia]

Oooooooh interesting - something to take a look at!

[garethEds]

Hmmm - getting this when clicking on it:

 

[willtech]

It will be because it's a newly registered site (Newly Seen Domains). This is normal for the PDNS service for new sites.

 

Edited March 11 by willtech

[liamrobinson]

Thanks for this, this is my project! As Will said that's down to it being a newly registered domain it should be accessible after 20 days i believe, ironic that Cloudflare powers the protective DNS services and also hosts my website! 

[STK91]

This is great...although I'm struggling to create an account, got the verification email and then it says Verification failed This link has already been used or is invalid.

 

Tried creating account again and it says A school with this name and postcode is already registered

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers.

[2ilent8cho]

Bit confusing, all the screenshots show a macOS interface, yet the system requirements say Windows 10 /11 ?

[liamrobinson]

2 minutes ago, 2ilent8cho said:

Bit confusing, all the screenshots show a macOS interface, yet the system requirements say Windows 10 /11 ?

 

I Used AI to help with the website and at that point i didn't have any actual screenshots to use. They are just placeholders really to pad the content out. There's some screenshots of the actual app here Screenshots | ExamPad+

 

6 minutes ago, STK91 said:

This is great...although I'm struggling to create an account, got the verification email and then it says Verification failed This link has already been used or is invalid.

 

Tried creating account again and it says A school with this name and postcode is already registered

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers.

 

Drop me a message with your school/email and i'll take a look bud.

[dhicks]

51 minutes ago, liamrobinson said:

Thanks for this, this is my project!

 

Can the executable run on Linux using Wine, would you know?

[STK91]

We normally have PDF's which we narrate. Wondering if we'd be able to open PDF's and narrate them? How do other people do this?

 

Thanks

[liamrobinson]

1 hour ago, dhicks said:

 

Can the executable run on Linux using Wine, would you know?

 

I haven't tested it with Wine, but its built on .NET 8.0 with WPF which i think is supported on ubuntu. It may fail if 'Full Screen' and "Always on top" are enabled, these can be turned off in the admin panel or settings.ini file which is normally stored in C:/ProgramData/ExamPadPlus so not sure how linux would handle this. IF you give it a go please let me know!

 

13 minutes ago, STK91 said:

We normally have PDF's which we narrate. Wondering if we'd be able to open PDF's and narrate them? How do other people do this?

 

Thanks

 

It doesn't currently have a built in file reader, but a school a school that helped me test it uses software like this and they said it works well in conjunction (Just ensure 'Full Screen' and "Always on top" are disabled)

[dhicks]

1 hour ago, liamrobinson said:

I haven't tested it with Wine, but its built on .NET 8.0 with WPF which i think is supported on ubuntu. It may fail if 'Full Screen' and "Always on top" are enabled, these can be turned off in the admin panel or settings.ini file which is normally stored in C:/ProgramData/ExamPadPlus so not sure how linux would handle this. IF you give it a go please let me know!

 

Ah, good to know, thankyou. Might it actually work with just the .Net runtime, then? I've already got something else (Pinta, a Paint.Net clone) working with .Net. I'm building a remote desktop solution, intended as a software development platform but I realise it could be handy for a number of other things, and something like Exam Pad+ running in a self-contained (and limited) environment might be handy.

[liamrobinson]

7 minutes ago, dhicks said:

 

Ah, good to know, thankyou. Might it actually work with just the .Net runtime, then? I've already got something else (Pinta, a Paint.Net clone) working with .Net. I'm building a remote desktop solution, intended as a software development platform but I realise it could be handy for a number of other things, and something like Exam Pad+ running in a self-contained (and limited) environment might be handy.

 

It may do, i may also be able to port to Linux directly but I believe WPF doesnt play nicely so might have to change quite a bit on the UI side!

[3s-gtech]

Any intentions to sell it to a corporate entity who'll completely ruin it?

[BKGarry]

@liamrobinson It says about needing network for installation, is that purely the method or is it needed for authentication? I have 30 exam laptops that have the wifi card removed that I would have to get it on.

[liamrobinson]

Just now, BKGarry said:

@liamrobinson It says about needing network for installation, is that purely the method or is it needed for authentication? I have 30 exam laptops that have the wifi card removed that I would have to get it on.

 

Purely method, you can install it manually no problem, just obviously if you are using Intune to deploy you'd need network access. 

[BKGarry]

That's totally awesome.

 

I will probably not use it for this summer's exams, as they have done their PPEs/Mocks all with another program, but deffo on the list for next year (also may wait for it to be signed for Defender too)

[liamrobinson]

59 minutes ago, BKGarry said:

That's totally awesome.

 

I will probably not use it for this summer's exams, as they have done their PPEs/Mocks all with another program, but deffo on the list for next year (also may wait for it to be signed for Defender too)

I’ve started the submission process with Microsoft but not sure how long it will take. You can sign them with EV Certs but they cost a lot and I’m sure you need to be a registered business too!

 

Smartscreen popup only appears if you run the MSI installer manually (and only on the install) any other method it doesn’t prompt. 

[thimon]

Remember us when you get bought out by EverWay and you become a zillionaire! 

[BKGarry]

Thank you for your hard work though, and I just want to check that I am not being blind and you cannot set a default save path in the settings.ini?

[jthompson]

This is really interesting: I'll be giving it a try at some point.

 

I was literally thinking over the EWP situation last week and got to wondering whether a lightweight browser-based app (literally a single html file?) that uses Quill (or similar) could be put together to form the basis of an exam word processor.

 

As a browser-based app, it could then be used on Chromebooks, and on Windows either as-is or in a Safe Exam Browser wrapper for stricter exam conditions.

 

I talked it over with Gemini and it felt distincly possible!

[liamrobinson]

18 hours ago, BKGarry said:

Thank you for your hard work though, and I just want to check that I am not being blind and you cannot set a default save path in the settings.ini?

There isn’t currently a default save path but it has been mentioned a few times and will be in the next release along with a few tweaks.

[BKGarry]

You total star @liamrobinson

 

I was just checking I wasn't being special and not seeing it

[dhicks]

2 hours ago, jthompson said:

I was literally thinking over the EWP situation last week and got to wondering whether a lightweight browser-based app (literally a single html file?) that uses Quill (or similar) could be put together to form the basis of an exam word processor.

 

I'm mildly surprised someone's not already tried, I suspect there's a project out there somwhere we're just not aware of.

 

I've not used Quill before, but I have used Ace, which I've found to be very easy to embed into a web page. I'd want to aim for something that worked directly in the browser using local storage but synced to a central server, with a defined mechansim of what happens if a pupil device conks out part-way through an exam and you have to reboot or get a fresh device. I was thinking (hence my question above about running ExamPad+ on Linux) you could run ExamPad+ on a remote desktop from a pupil device in kiosk mode, which would allow continuity if a rebooted / new device was needed. I'm not sure how it handles accesibility features, audio transcription in particular, which can be fiddly over remote desktop, so something I need to test.