Online Diploma Exams

I recently attended a workshop at the Calgary Regional Consortium on Quest A+ diploma exam administration. The session was delivered by two Alberta Education associates, the primary presenter being Jeremy Wiebe Manager, Online Assessment. The presentation was very well done, and the participants had a chance to work with Quest A+ in both facilitator and student roles.

Before we got hands-on experience with Quest A+, Jeremy and his co-presenter Dan, gave some background information on the program, its province-wide implementation, and the changes to Provincial Achievement Tests (now called Student Learning Assessments—SLA). Provincial assessments (diplomas and SLAs) will be increasingly offered in an online environment, and in April 2015, all diploma exams will be offered to students only in digital format (except for those with special accommodations). Some changes have already been made in regards to the online process.

·         Alberta Education is supplying digital format diplomas for teacher perusal.

·         digital format SLAs will be written in September 2014

·         Quest A+ is already being used in many areas for Part A diplomas

·         Math/Science field tests are now exclusively digital

Many Part A (written response) exams are already online. Alberta Ed sees three main benefits to this: Data Security, Ease of Administration, and In-Exam Security. 

Data Security:
Student responses are uploaded every 2 minutes, or every 100 characters as well as every time a student clicks save. If there is an interruption to the internet, student responses are still backed up locally, so no data is lost. These responses are then uploaded automatically so the student can continue writing the exam without interruption (and the student will not be notified that anything was amiss). If there is a hardware issue, the student can switch machines and the most that would be lost is 99 characters. 

Easier Administration: 
The program keeps track of the elapsed time on an individual student basis and will automatically shut off as soon as time runs out. An extra time accommodation, and any other accommodation, can be enabled prior to the exam by the facilitator on an individual student basis. If there is an interruption to the exam (such as a fire alarm), the facilitator can click "pause all" and all exams will be paused. The facilitator can also pause an individual exam if the situation calls for it.

In-Exam Security 
In order to use Quest A+ in an exam situation, Locked Browser must be enabled. Once Locked Browser for Quest A+ is enabled, it automatically shuts down any running programs, and closes all other web browsers, tabs, and windows. Students are not able to insert a CD or USB while the locked browser is activated, and Quest A+ exams will not run without the locked browser. The software also disables functions such as screen sharing and disallows access to all other files and software on the computer. Students can bring their own devices to write the exam as the security features are built into the Locked Browser software, not on individual machines. The exams can be written using Google Chromebooks (CBE has purchased these for student use), desktops, and laptops. To date, there is no mobile device capability. 

The facilitators encouraged teachers to use Quest A+ with their students to prepare them for the impending change. Teachers can help to prepare students by using practice exams. To date, there are practice exams for all diplomas except ELA 30-1/2. Alberta Ed is working with publishers to make the readings available online. They expect they will have practice exams in the next few months.

Alberta Education has codes for instructors to use with Quest A+ to simulate an actual exam writing experience (requires student log-in and teachers can set accommodations). An unlimited number of students can use one code for practice exams, and so an entire class could write the same practice exam. Students get immediate feedback on their scores with a list of their incorrect items. Students can then go back and redo any incorrect items. I will be contacting Jeremy shortly for codes and will share them with any interested instructors. Please let me know if you would like codes for your class(es).

For more information, please see the Prezi that Jeremy and Dan provided. I’m also happy to answer any questions you may have about the session.

Maureen Stewart

Curriculum Development Exam Lead