Edexcel On-Screen Testing

[RoyG]

Our Business Studies Department, in its infinite wisdom, has entered a big group of kids for the 2007 Pilot of the Business Studies On-Screen Test!!

 

I've been emailing Edexcel for ages for technical details of what's involved - no response! Got the CD this morning, checked out the "simple"! step-by-step instructions and guess what - it doesn't work.

 

So phoned Edexcel for technical help. Telephonist took 5 minutes to decide she didn't know who to put me through to, then said she'd sort it & get them to phone back.

 

She phoned back a while later & told me tha ALL information was online. She the took 10 minutes to try to guide me to the right place - no luck!

 

She then said (half an hour ago) that she'd get them to ring me right away - I'm still waiting!!

 

Has anyone else had any experience of this test - looks to me like another KS3 ICT nightmare!!

 

HELP!!

 

RoyG

[plexer]

It's not the exambase stuff is it?

 

http://www.exambase.org.uk?

 

Ben

[RoyG]

It's not the exambase stuff is it?

 

http://www.exambase.org.uk?

 

Ben

 

No - Business Studies Pilot

 

RoyG

[Sylv3r]

Not heard anything about the Online Business Studies test, but we did do the Edexcel Online Adult & Numeracy Test, and although it was a bit of a pain to setup, I did manage to get it to work with very little problems. Not sure if it uses the same test engine as the one you did.

 

I can send the documents I have if you think it will help.

[plexer]

The only reference on edexcel I can find is in relation to the alan stuff which is what we've done.

 

I didn't find the setup too much trouble once I'd created an msi for the client it was even easier and we did our first online exam with it the other week.

 

Ben

[bossman]

plexer: You say the alan stuff is fairly straight forward well that's good news as i have just been informed that we are taking all that onboard. Nice to be consulted and kept informed.

[RoyG]

I can send the documents I have if you think it will help.

 

I may very well take you up on that offer. I'm waiting for a call back from one of their techie bods, so we'll see how we progress!

 

RoyG

[plexer]

Yup quite simple even though it seems a bit daunting at first.

 

Server software installed locally and client software.

 

You enter candidates on their website for which they provide a spreadsheet for an mis export.

 

You then have to register the kids for the exam on the website.

 

Server then downloads this information and the exam files.

 

Client connects to server and pupils input a code and start exam.

 

Instant results are good too.

 

I have an msi for the client install that you just need to configure an xml file in it and deploy.

 

Seems to be a clean package is being used by 2 other schools.

 

Ben

[RoyG]

Yup quite simple even though it seems a bit daunting at first.

 

Server software installed locally and client software.

 

You enter candidates on their website for which they provide a spreadsheet for an mis export.

 

You then have to register the kids for the exam on the website.

 

Server then downloads this information and the exam files.

 

Client connects to server and pupils input a code and start exam.

 

Instant results are good too.

 

I have an msi for the client install that you just need to configure an xml file in it and deploy.

 

Seems to be a clean package is being used by 2 other schools.

 

Ben

 

Ben -

 

Are you talking about the Business tests or the Skills for Life stuff?

 

RoyG

[plexer]

Roy: what we are doing is the Skills for Life I presume the Adult Literacy and Numeracy ala ALAN.

 

That is the only onscreen testing stuff I can find on the edexcel website.

 

Application of numbers

Communication

Literacy

Information Technology

 

Those are the exams on there

 

Ben

[RoyG]

Sorted! It's actually a piece of p*ss when you've got the right info from Edexcel!

 

It's now loaded fine on our main Netware server, easily accessed from any machine in the school - as long as the .NET security settings on the workstations are tweaked to give FullTrust access to the location of the software on the server.

 

Delivering responses to Edexcel is a bit clunky - collect the pupils' response files, zip 'em up & Email to Edexcel.

 

The biggest frustration is the communication problem with Edexcel - once you FINALLY get through to someone who has a clue (in our case it took 2 days!) problems are soon sorted. Also the step-by-step instructions miss out some important steps!!

 

We'll see how it goes...

 

RoyG

[browolf]

the business studies pilot is a dot net application that isnt wildly well written. there's only 2 people doing tech support for the whole country and they dont have a phone number!!

 

the program itself you can install on a network share. I had a problem with the default dot net permissions. had to email for help. took a week to get a reply. that sorted it but then there was the problem of deploying the permissions to 40 machines. Eventually worked out you can export dot net permissions to a msi file.

 

the program interface is a nightmare. first you have to log in with a password, then you have to tell the program where to save the answers, tick a box and "login" then they have to put in their UIN and a bunch of other information. then they can login in again.

 

the password should be after the UIN login, you only tell them what it is when its time to start the exam. we should be able to centrally manage the storage location.

[rfaulkner]

Hi All,

 

I'm trying to complete the accrediation for ALAN using the promissor software, but Edexcel don't seem to be receiving the demo results after I upload them. Has anyone else had this problem? There only seems to be one of the two people running onscreen testing actually there this week and he's quite difficult to get hold of.

 

If I watch the trace logs I get the following error messages quite a lot... :

 

14:59:40 04/19/2007: [ESMServer] Error 0 at line 202 of C:\CAT Software 8.0 Builds\EnterpriseSiteManager\ESMServer\Dundas_HTTP_s.cpp.

 

I also don't seem to be seeing any client HTTP requests in the HTTPD access logs within ESMServer\Runtime, only loopback from the admin interface. Is this consistent with yourselves? i.e. do the clients not communicate with the server via HTTP?

 

Many thanks in advance for your help,

 

 

Rob.