1. Page Pearson’s Online Technology Training Preparing for Online Testing

2. 2 Page2 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Agenda - Introduction to Pearson’s Online Testing Solution  Administrative Site  TestNav  Proctor Caching  Online Resources - Technology Configuration for Online Testing  Proctor Caching  Test Delivery  Wireless Networks - Best Practices  TestNav Installation - Best Practices  TestNav Early Warning System  Firewalls/Content Filters  Issues/Special Considerations  Support Calls – Q&A

3. 3 Page3 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Online Testing Components Administrative Web Site: PearsonAccess http://www.pearsonaccess.com/mn Used by Test Coordinators, Test Administrators, etc. Manage Student Data Create Test Sessions Monitor the Test Session Resolve Student Data Alerts Access Reports Manage User Accounts & Security TestNav Used by Students to Take Tests Provides a secure test environment Proctor Caching Stores test content locally Reduces the burden on your network and ISP

4. 4 Page4 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Online Resources Support/Resources/Manuals & Directions Technology Guidelines TestNav Technology Guidelines Proctor Caching User’s Guide TestNav Early Warning System Reference Manual Support Information Toll-free Pearson Support Center number: 1-888-817-8659 mnhelp@support.pearson.com Support information is available on each page of the website. Pearson Support Knowledge Base: http://support.pearsonaccess.com/ http://support.pearsonaccess.com/  Login: Minnesota  Password: Assessments

5. 5 Page5 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. WAN ISP Proctor Caching Pearson Test Content Admin Workstation Student Workstations Proctor Caching – Network Diagram

6. 6 Page6 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Proctor Caching – How Does it Help? Runs on both Windows and MAC OS X Does not require an underlying server-based operating system Pre-Caching is done through the Administrative Website A Proctor Caching Solution is required for all MN Online Assessments Proctor Caching – How Does it Work? Allows you to pre-cache test content to your local network before the test Reduces burden on your ISP by eliminating redundancy in requests for test content Stores an encrypted local copy of all pre-cached tests.

7. 7 Page7 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Proctor Caching – Misc. TestNav must be configured through the installer or by editing the proxysettings.properties file to communicate through Proctor Caching. If all internet traffic must pass through an upstream proxy server, Proctor Caching must be configured to communicate through that device. TestNav requests test content from Proctor Caching on port 4480. Pre-Caching a Test:  Pre-cache before students test.  Change browser settings to communicate directly with the proctor caching machine.  Confirm you are contacting proctor caching using a non-Pearson address.  Pre-cache test content by selecting the Proctor Caching button inside of Session Details  Change browser settings back.

8. 8 Page8 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Proctor Caching – Misc. Cache Directories  Windows: C:\Program Files\NCSPearson\Proctor Caching\CACHE  Mac: /private/var/run/proxy/ Full-length Sample Test  Designed to enable you to run a full scale load test  At least as big as the largest production test  Helps verify software setup and reveal conflicts with school software  Select when setting up a test session in the Training Center  Detailed instructions are available in Support: Resources: Manuals & Directions

9. 9 Page9 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Test Delivery – Local Installation Download and install TestNav on each workstation used for test delivery. Configure each machine to communicate with the Proctor Caching server (proxy settings.properties file) ‏. More challenging to manage than a file share installation System automation tools like SMS (Windows) and Apple Remote Desktop (Mac) make local installs much more practical.

10. 10 Page10 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Test Delivery – File Share Installation File Share Workstations Download and install TestNav on a file share Configure the file share installation to communicate with the Proctor Caching server (proxysettings.properties file) ‏ Create a shortcut to the file share installation of TestNav on each workstation used for test delivery Easier to manage than a local installation

11. 11 Page11 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Wireless Networks - Best Practices DO use Proctor Caching. DO use a local installation of TestNav. DO NOT overload access points with too many clients.

12. 12 Page12 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. TestNav Installation - Best Practices TestNav Software is entirely self-contained. This allows you to copy the TestNav folder to another client machine; there is no need to run the Installer on each machine. (**Mac OS X 10.4 or higher clients require an additional script to be run on each client.) The TestNav proxysettings.properties file is the only configurable settings file. This file can be edited with Notepad or TextEdit. Editable variables in proxysettings.properties  Proxy_Host - Designates a proctor caching or proxy server IP address  Proxy_Port - Designates a proctor caching or proxy server port number  Primary_Save_Location & Alternate_Save_Location - Designates the Early Warning save locations Student machine logins will need full access to these directories  TestNav/temp  TestNav/Logs  Early Warning Save Locations

13. 13 Page13 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. TestNav Installation Best Practices Deep Freeze - If you use hard drive imaging tools like Deep Freeze you must exclude the TestNav/Logs and Early Warning System save locations. Network Installation  Do not run the TestNav installer on the File Share itself.  Run the installer on a client workstation and then copy the client's TestNav folder to a mapped network drive.  Once copied to the network drive, edit the proxysettings.properties file to have valid file paths for the save locations.  Use mapped drives for all paths. TestNav Updates  TestNav 6.9 is the current release that should be used for the GRAD retests and the upcoming spring 2010 administration of MTELL and MCA-II Science.  TestNav will only be updated if absolutely necessary.

14. 14 Page14 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. TestNav TM Early Warning System The TestNav™ Early Warning System (EWS) is designed to save student responses locally in the event of a network interruption. EWS saves the student's responses to an encrypted backup file so the student can either continue testing or exit the system without losing data.  Designate two (2) file save locations for student responses in the event of a connectivity loss to the testing servers. oBest Practice: Primary response location should be a shared location because it allows access to stored student responses from one location. The alternate response location should be a location on the local workstation  Students must have full access to the designated “save locations”.  When connectivity is restored and the students resume the test, the locally saved responses are transmitted to the testing server and added to the responses already stored there. This activity occurs in the background of the test delivery software while the software continues to provide test questions to the student.

15. 15 Page15 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. TestNav TM Early Warning System Districts can verify that EWS is working with TestNav: TestNav can be forced into the EWS  Setting false save locations  Pulling the network connection after logging in TestNav will find the correct response file  A combination of the test ticket ID combined with the session token is used to uniquely identify a Student Response File (SRF)  A SRF can only be used the next time the student resumes a test  TestNav will only delete a SRF if it just successfully uploaded it

16. 16 Page16 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Reasons Why TestNav EWS Triggers 1.TestNav client determines that neither Early Warning Save Location is viable. 2.TestNav is unable to download portions of a test. The two situations above will result in immediate notification of the student. 3.TestNav is unable to upload responses. This situation will result in notification of the student at the time of test submission.

17. 17 Page17 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Early Warning - Screenshots Invalid Save Locations

18. 18 Page18 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Early Warning - Screenshots Invalid Save Locations

19. 19 Page19 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Early Warning - Screenshots Unable to download test content

20. 20 Page20 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Early Warning - Screenshots Unable to download test content

21. 21 Page21 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Early Warning - Screenshots Unable to upload responses

22. 22 Page22 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Early Warning - Screenshots Unable to upload responses

23. 23 Page23 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Firewalls/Content Filters The following domains and ports must be allowed to pass through your Internet firewall or proxy system. DomainPort etest.pearson.com 80 www8.etest.pearson.com 443 www9.etest.pearson.com80 launcher.etest.pearson.com80 www.pearsonaccess.com80, 443 Port 443 is for admin access only. Student level traffic is port 80. Hash encryption can inadvertently form a word. If you require an IP address you will need to contact Pearson Support.

24. 24 Page24 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Issues/Special Considerations Disable Popup Blocking Software (Administrative Site) ‏ A pop-up blocker will block the login screens from opening on administrative workstations. Applications that launch automatically Any applications that may automatically launch on a computer should be configured not to launch during testing sessions. Common applications that may launch automatically include:  Anti-virus software performing automatic updates  Power management software on laptops warning of low batteries  Screen Savers  Email with Auto message notification Screen resolution All tests are authored to a screen resolution of 800 x 600 so make sure that your testing machines are capable of 800 x 600 resolution Screen Resolutions below this setting will cause an error as TestNav tries to load the test Screen Resolutions above this setting will cause the test to appear smaller than the available screen size.

25. 25 Page25 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Support Calls Information needed to diagnose technical issues Session Details  Test Administration name?  Session Name?  Affected student name? Error messages/numbers? What were you doing when the error occurred? Do you have a log file? Basic network configuration  Are you using proctor caching? IP address?  Do you use a proxy server? IP address?  Local or file share installation of TestNav?  Firewalls/content filters?

26. Pearson Customer Support 1-888-817-8659 mnhelp@support.pearson.com mnhelp@support.pearson.com PearsonAccess Website http://www.pearsonaccess.com/mn –System Status Website http://status.pearsonaccess.com/Minnesota –Pearson Knowledge Base http://support.pearsonaccess.com Research & Assessment, MDE website: http://education.state.mn.us (Accountability Programs > Assessment & Testing) Resources

27. 27 Page27 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Questions?