Supervised Coursework done only in class for new A Levels/GCSEs? How....

[TheFopp]

With the new Music and Music Technology A/S Levels this year, and new versions of other exams coming next year, how are you planning on making sure that the students can only do their coursework in the allotted supervised hours?

 

They can't work on their coursework outside their allotted hours so we don't want them to be able to save their work to their own USB sticks/Network drive etc.

 

We are thinking of making a very locked down user logon, which the member of staff will log on to all the PCs in the classroom. It will have no access to any network storage. No access to their School email. Then give each student will be handed a USB stick from their teacher at the begginning of the lesson on which they can save their work. It must then be handed back to that teacher at the end of the class.

 

Ideally no access to the internet (so they can't get to personal emails Hotmail etc to store the file).... but I would think they will need access to so that they can do some of their work.

 

What ideas have you guys come up with so far to solve this dilemma?

[Tricks]

We have started having discussions about Controlled Assessment to prepare for next year. From the feedback I've received from department heads EdExcel are quite explicit about students work not being accessible outside of the scheduled lesson time. It seems QCA may not be so firm on this.

 

At the moment the only practical solution we have found has been the one you mention TheFopp, lots of USB sticks and a single locked down account with no internet/email/network drives access. Teachers hold on to USB sticks, as they would have with paper assessment in the past. While we think this would meet the requirements, we need to allow for memory stick failures and how backups could be done without it becoming a massive job.

 

We have used extra exam logins for IT exams when it's been just a dozen students or so. I'm not sure I see this has a scalable solution for all departments doing controlled assessment. Could be a bit of a nightmare in terms of setup/permissions/enabling accounts at the right time/collecting work.

 

 

Since TheFopp posted this has anyone made any progress on alternative solutions? I'm close to saying LanSchool could solve this problem by automating the collecting and distribution of work. At the moment I can't get it to work though.

[jcollings]

We are planning to create them an account (possibly based on their exam candidate number). This will be internet disabled (although we may have to look at whitelisting certain sites if they need them).

 

They can save work to the network etc but it will be in the new account's my docs. The accounts will be enabled/disabled when needed (possibly by the teacher concerned).

 

I think our problems are going to be more about all the departments having enough access to ICT for the required length of time without disrupting IT teaching.

[User3204]

Well, I am hoping that our Music dept teach a different board, as they've not said anything to me about this.

 

But, if they do, we have laptops for the Music, so the easy solution is to drop the wireless from them (create a local user for the student). Then the teachers will have to control access to each laptop within the class.

 

The only problem will be arranging backups.

 

 

Which board and course are doing this, so I can check with our Music dept ?

[jcollings]

Well, I am hoping that our Music dept teach a different board, as they've not said anything to me about this.

 

But, if they do, we have laptops for the Music, so the easy solution is to drop the wireless from them (create a local user for the student). Then the teachers will have to control access to each laptop within the class.

 

The only problem will be arranging backups.

 

 

Which board and course are doing this, so I can check with our Music dept ?

 

It's not just music. Controlled assements are part of the new GCSEs in lots of subjects - English, Geography, Business etc.

[Andrew_C]

We're doomed I tell ye; DOOMED!!! Sounds like a typical board "Bright Idea".

[User3204]

It's not just music. Controlled assements are part of the new GCSEs in lots of subjects - English, Geography, Business etc.

 

 

gah !

 

 

Well, in which case, they can do them the same way that Art have been doing it since my day... Pen and Ink.

 

The only people that have asked me for anything like this is the D&T people, who will have to start producing a Portfolio in digital format. They have been told that PowerPoint is the best software to do this in... really... are you sure ? PowerPoint ?

[john]

gah !

 

 

Well, in which case, they can do them the same way that Art have been doing it since my day... Pen and Ink.

 

The only people that have asked me for anything like this is the D&T people, who will have to start producing a Portfolio in digital format. They have been told that PowerPoint is the best software to do this in... really... are you sure ? PowerPoint ?

Beats Publisher The only dept that has spoken to me is Music and the Music teacher is a great person and talks to us about these things as she knows it will need our help to get it sorted (and in some cases our support of bashing the powers that be for more cash to help make it work for her) but I do know its coming, I'm awaiting the sea of panic that will arrive, hopefully in September after the sea of Audits and Inspections of policies, procedures etc that seem to all have arrived at once

[Tricks]

We're going to have at least 4-5 departments after a solution to this for next year. Although it seems not all may need a water tight solution.

 

I'm in contact with Lanschool at the moment to look at tweaking their sending/collecting files feature. So we could restrict the internet and network drivers from a suite. The students then work in a local folder on the PC's and at the end of the session the teacher clicks a button on Lanschool and it collects all the work and saves it somewhere secure - with each in a folder with the students username. Then at the start of the next session it can distribute the files back out to the correct machines and they can resume. So it would be similar to the USB memory sticks solution without the cost and no worries about them dieing on us.

[3s-gtech]

Could this be achieved using the Logon Hours feature in Active Directory? Give the students a second account, and put the timetable into the logon hours feature. It's not the most flexible, but it means you have a cohesive system.

[enjay]

Why not just create a few accounts for which the teachers know the passwords, but students don't? The teachers can then log the students in as and when needed.

 

We use this method for our Naughties with reasonable success (although often the teachers forget the passwords, so I have to log them in, but with practice this wouldn't happen).

[Tricks]

Giving the students a second account worries me a bit - it's quite possible that every student in the year could do some controlled assessment in at least one department what if they could overlap? would we need -another- login to ensure students can't access their other coursework in order to comply with the exam board? All these extra logins add a lot of complications in terms of managing passwords and collecting completed work before these extra logins get reused for different coursework. The teachers are going to have to let me know when and what accounts to collect work from - I could go on and on.

 

As I think I posted before, we use extra logins if it's just one class but I think it becomes too larger maintenance task doing a whole year with multiple subjects.

[enjay]

it's quite possible that every student in the year could do some controlled assessment in at least one department what if they could overlap? would we need -another- login to ensure students can't access their other coursework in order to comply with the exam board?

 

Not if the extra accounts were MusicExam1, MusicExam2 and so on.

 

The teachers are going to have to let me know when and what accounts to collect work from

 

Not if it the accounts are "controlled" by the teachers, i.e. the teacher notes down that MusicExam1 is being used by Fred, MusixExam2 by Johnny and so on. The teacher - who knows the passwords - logs in at whatever point, collects the files and sends them off. This will initially require some training when first introduced, but given proper training and a decent set of instructions, the teachers should be able to fly more or less solo in the second year.

[Andrew_C]

but given proper training and a decent set of instructions, the teachers should be able to fly more or less solo in the second year.

HA! Can I quote you on that next year? Ours can't log-on without someone to hold their hands. OK, a bit of an exaggeration but...

[enjay]

HA! Can I quote you on that next year? Ours can't log-on without someone to hold their hands. OK, a bit of an exaggeration but...

 

Yes, I reckon that if you take the time to talk people through it, ideally showing them it in action on an Inset session, and give them instructions with screen-shots then they will be able to do it. Teachers aren't stupid, after all, so really should be able to follow a set of well-written instructions. Anyone not able to do so, it is more likely a question of computer-confidence than it is of ability.

[Tricks]

Not if the extra accounts were MusicExam1, MusicExam2 and so on.

 

Not if it the accounts are "controlled" by the teachers, i.e. the teacher notes down that MusicExam1 is being used by Fred, MusixExam2 by Johnny and so on. The teacher - who knows the passwords - logs in at whatever point, collects the files and sends them off. This will initially require some training when first introduced, but given proper training and a decent set of instructions, the teachers should be able to fly more or less solo in the second year.

 

That may well be an option, but the scalability still worries me. I know, for example that Business Education have over 60 students. So even if I create accounts in bulk it's still going to require a lot of preparation and sharing of the home drives of these accounts with the right teachers and keeping track of which student is using which of these 60 accounts is no small task. Since the account names are generic the teacher would also have to a fair bit of moving/renaming to ensure work is connected to the right student.

 

As Andrew says, I think some of this moving of files would trouble quite a few of our teachers, could get quite confusing. Although probably something we could support them through.

[pete]

The teacher - who knows the passwords - logs in at whatever point, collects the files and sends them off.

 

I can see the added overhead eating up lesson time and annoying a lot of teachers

[enjay]

So even if I create accounts in bulk it's still going to require a lot of preparation and sharing of the home drives of these accounts with the right teachers and keeping track of which student is using which of these 60 accounts is no small task.

 

Why share the home directory? If the teacher knows the password, they just log in to it themselves and transfer the files onto a pen drive. As for keeping track of who uses each account, this is surely no more complex than the teacher writing "MusicExam2" by their name in the register.

 

I can see the added overhead eating up lesson time and annoying a lot of teachers

 

It is true there would be some overhead, although it shouldn't take all that long. MFL teachers are (potentially) going to find this anyway when the exam boards insist on MP3-format oral exams next year, and music teachers must have been getting it with practical exams for years, so if other subjects' rules impose similar overheads, what's the difference?

 

Alternatively, perhaps you could ensure that the students save files following a particular naming convention and then you could run a batch file to collect the files called "Exam Piece Music [candidate number].doc" from all the folders, and transfer them somewhere for the teachers to pick up. Once the script is written, you would just need double-click on it once a year.

 

I could be over-simplifying this, though. It could be that something which would be acceptable in a small school like this one would take too long in larger schools with more candidates...

[webman]

Has anyone been in touch with the exam boards to ask how they would suggest this issue is controlled? Surely they've thought of how their demands will be implemented by schools?

 

They might come up with all these "bright ideas", but probably haven't considered the impact it will actually have down on the ground.

[pete]

It is true there would be some overhead, although it shouldn't take all that long. MFL teachers are (potentially) going to find this anyway when the exam boards insist on MP3-format oral exams next year, and music teachers must have been getting it with practical exams for years, so if other subjects' rules impose similar overheads, what's the difference?

 

MFL oral exams in mp3 format (already happened this year) and music practical exams using Sibelius (done for ages) and History individual study exams (5yrs+) are obsessively well-planned once-a-year events with an appropriate level of bulletproofing from all involved - a well-oiled and perfectly polished machine would be an appropriate term.

 

Whereas controlled coursework has to fit in and around other lessons, goes on for longer and so can't have the same level of intense cockup-prevention monitoring applied to it (from my perspective - there aren't enough hours in the day as it is). In addition, with the exception of the above subjects, the majority of our teachers are complete noobs to computer-based assessment.

 

My concern is that the provision of alternate accounts / methods may be too onerous for certain teachers to use, leading to a reluctance to let kids use computer-based resources for coursework. That's what I need to fix before it becomes a problem.

[sentinelprime2009]

We are having the same issue. We are looking at the same solution: get the teachers to control the enable/disable of accounts. The down side is that they could need a separate account per subject. You can't use AD's logon hours restriction because, if like us your lessons are 45 mins long, you will have an overlap between it being enabled/disabled. I will be contacting QCA to see if they have any thoughts.

[Sylv3r]

I am interested in this also.

 

We simply do not have the facilities to cater for these tests and we have 900 PC's for 1400 students. All of our suites tend to be timetabled for lessons as we are a sixth form college and do a lot of vocational courses.

 

I don't mind creating additonal accounts etc - but we have facilities such as gaining access to your MyDocuments from home that will need to be disabled!

 

I think in theory in sounds easy to setup but as every school is different I would very much doubt an exam board will come up with a solution as it will suit some schools more so than others.

[Sylv3r]

I forgot to add - the LMT fancied banks of netbooks for use with the controlled tests, but I am not too keen as we will ultimately have to support them. I've drawn up a list of Pro's and Con's and I think I have 2 cons for every pro.

[pete]

*resurrects thread*

 

How's the issue of controlled coursework progressed this term?

 

Just had a brainstorming session with the History dept about this and our conclusion was there are so many exploitable holes it's not even funny....

 

Vandalise a few Wikipedia pages the night before, pasting disconnected notes for your coursework, (maybe rot13'd to prevent plagurism software parsing it as you copying wikipedia) and then use the "view previous version" option on Wikipedia to grab your notes.

[enjay]

our conclusion was there are so many exploitable holes it's not even funny....

 

Not to mention the far less technical option of simply writing it at home and then memorising it. I know a teacher who put this to someone at the exam board to be told "well, if they're able to do that, so much the better for them". Hmm.