Page PearsonAccess™ Technology Training Online Test Configuration

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 On-Line Testing Solution  Administrative Site  TestNav™  Proctor Caching  Online Resources and other Support Information - Technology Configuration for On-Line Testing  Proctor Caching  Test Delivery  Wireless Networks Best Practices  TestNav Installation Best Practices  Firewalls/Content Filters  Issues/Special Considerations

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 Used by Test Coordinators, Test Administrators, etc. Manage Student Data Create, Modify, Monitor Online Test Sessions Resolve Student Data Alerts Access Reports Manage User Accounts & Security TestNav Used by Students to Take Tests Java Based Client that Looks Like a Browser Proctor Caching Stores test content locally Reduces the burden on your network and ISP

4 Page4 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Online Resources Resources Page TestNav Technology Guidelines PearsonAccess Technology Guidelines Proctor Caching User’s Guide TestNav Early Warning System Reference Manual Support Information Toll free Pearson Support Center number ( )

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

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? Proctor Caching 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. A caching solution is required for the best online testing experience and must be used for audio testing Audio content is large (1 Mb) and is not retrieved until needed. TestNav can transfer audio content much quicker via a local network rather than downloading through an ISP Proctor Caching example: Non-audio tests require 6kb/sec of ISP bandwidth per student when not using proctor caching. Using proctor caching that drops to 2kb/sec.

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. Runs on both Windows and Mac OS X Does not require an underlying server-based operating system TestNav must be configured through the installer or editing the proxysettings.properties file to communicate through Proctor Caching. If all internet traffic must pass through an upstream proxy server, Proctor Caching will need to be configured to communicate through that device. TestNav requests test content from Proctor Caching on port Pre-Caching a Test  Pre-cache before students test  Change browser settings  Confirm you are contacting proctor caching using a non-Pearson address  Pre-cache test content  Change browser settings back

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/

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 server installation System automation tools like SMS (Windows) and Apple Remote Desktop (Mac) make local installs much more practical.

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

11 Page11 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. 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

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 Local Installation - 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 Server 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 6.9 update  Introduces compatibility with Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard  Must be installed prior to administering an online test in Fall 2009 Wireless Networks  DO NOT overload access points with too many clients

13 Page13 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.com Port 443 is for admin access only Student level traffic is port 80 Hash encryption can inadvertently form a word

14 Page14 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  with Auto message notification

15 Page15 Confidential Copyright © 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. and/or one or more of its direct or indirect affiliates. All rights reserved. Issues/Special Considerations 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.

16 Page16 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?  Firewalls/content filters?