Minnesota Regional Technology Training Brian Martens February

Agenda 2 Introduction to technology readiness training Online testing components Minnesota Online Testing Infrastructure Trial Checklist - where to start Preparing for testing - high-level overview TestNav Proctor Caching Wireless testing and SystemCheck Optional infrastructure trials Questions, answers, and open-forum information sharing Technology support prior to testing Office hours Onsite visits Technology bulletins and reminders

Agenda (continued) 3 Providing support during testing Early Warning System (EWS) On-site support and previous successes What to do if a technical issue arises during operational testing Questions, answers, and open-forum information sharing Resources Documents and links posted to PearsonAccess Contacts Planning for 2015–2016: Student Tablet Survey

Online Testing Components 4

Online Testing Infrastructure Readiness Checklist 5 The checklist provides steps and timeframes for District Assessment and District Technology Coordinators who are preparing for an online assessment. The checklist is available on the User Guides and Technology tab (PearsonAccess > Resources > User Guides and Technology).the User Guides and Technology tab

Online Testing Infrastructure Trial Readiness Checklist 6  The checklist summarizes the steps necessary to prepare for an online administration.  Some steps can be performed in parallel. For example, technology staff can verify device readiness while reviewing bandwidth requirements.  An Infrastructure Trial is recommended to confirm readiness and ensure your staff is prepared.

Training Center and Live PearsonAccess Site 7 Minnesota Training Center log in Minnesota live assessment site log in

Steps 1 – 3 (Up to 3 months before Testing) 8 Begin with... 1.Create user accounts for staff participating in the online assessment. Users will need access to the Training Center and the PearsonAccess live assessment site. 2.Identify which labs or classrooms will be used for online testing. 3.Make sure you review the software and hardware requirements. You should become familiar with the guides and resources available to you on the PearsonAccess resources page. TIP: Make sure you develop a communication plan for your staff so everyone knows what to do and is prepared for any situations that may arise.

Steps 4 – 9 (Computers and Environment ) 9 Next, prepare your environment.. 4.Verify that you have prevented other applications from launching during testing. 5.Verify that you have installed and configured Java and Flash applications. 6.Verify that your firewall and content filters will allow TestNav to run. 7.Install Proctor Caching software to support bandwidth management. 8.Review all testing computers using SystemCheck to make sure each device meets the minimum system requirements and can launch TestNav. 9.Set up your technology configuration in PearsonAccess to define Proctor Caching workstations and student response file save locations.

Steps 10 – 14 (Computers and Environment ) 10 prepare your environment cont Create sample Students from the Create Students link on the Training Center Home Page. 11.Create Infrastructure Trial Test Sessions in the Training Center Go to the Test Management tab. Select Online Test Sessions. Select New Session and enter the required information. 12.Ensure Proctor Caching software is running. Caching activity can be viewed using the Proctor Caching Diagnostics screen. 13.Print Infrastructure Trial Authorization Tickets (student authorization tickets) for sample students manually registered to the Training Center. 14.Start Test Sessions via the Training Center. Go to the Test Management tab. Select Online Test Sessions. Select the session name. Select Start.

Steps 15 – 18 (Computers and Environment ) 11 prepare your environment cont Using the student authorization tickets printed from the Training Center, log in to the online item samplers through TestNav on each of the machines that will be used for the Infrastructure Trial. 16.Monitor network performance for slowdowns or ISP bandwidth usage. If using a wireless connection, monitor the connections and verify access point placement is sufficient for testing. 17.Contact the Pearson Help Desk with feedback and/or concerns regarding software or hardware issues that occurred during the Infrastructure Trial. 18.Contact the District Assessment Coordinator to confirm or deny readiness no later than March 9 by checking the appropriate option in Test WES

Steps 19 – 21 (Final Preparation) 12 End with Pre-cache content for Proctor Caching approximately one week before testing. 20.Run SystemCheck to confirm your network capacity and verify requirements on any computers added to the testing labs. 21.Monitor network performance the week before testing to make sure that there are no significant changes that could affect testing. TIP: Make sure to update settings in the live PearsonAccess site if you made any changes in the Training Center during the Infrastructure Trial.

TestNav Technology and Dependencies  Firewalls and Content Filters must allow Pearson sites.  Minimum Screen Resolution of 1024 x 768 is required.  Operating Systems/Browsers  Supported OS/Browser matrix is located at  Browser Dependencies:  Adobe Flash Player must be enabled.  Java runtime plugin must be enabled. Windows Firewall configured to allow javaw.exe to communicate.  Allow pop-ups for Pearson sites.  Accept Java applet.  Allow Local File access to home directory. Note: Pearson continually monitors and evaluates the hardware and software requirements. As vendors release newer versions of their products, we update the recommended requirements accordingly. 13

TestNav: Firewalls & Content Filters The following domains and ports must be allowed to pass through your Internet firewall or proxy system. *.testnav.com 80, 443 *.pearsonaccess.com 80,

Test Setup – Configure TestNav  TestNav Configuration preferences are accessible only from PearsonAccess website.  A configuration can be created at the division or school level, with a school level configuration taking precedence over the division.  Four simple parameters:  Add a Configuration Name.  Add an Organization for the configuration.  Add Proctor Caching Server(s).  Specify Response File Backup Locations. Note: There is a 50 character limit for backup location settings. 15

TestNav Directories  TestNav creates a Pearson directory in the home directory of the testing computer:  Windows XP C:\Documents and Settings\username\Pearson\...  Windows Vista and 7 C:\Users\username\Pearson\...  Mac //Users/username/pearson/...  Student Log files:  Pearson/student/logs  SRF file default location:  Pearson/student/srf  TestNav and test content is temporarily stored locally:  Pearson/temp Note: Pearson recommends that the Pearson directory be excluded if desktop restoration tools such as DeepFreeze are used. 16

Best Practices and Recommendations  Performance:  Use Proctor Caching for best network performance.  Use System Check extensively to test Proctor Caching and network environment before live testing.  Use System Check to test wireless network capacity if using wireless clients.  Testing Computers:  Use System Check (TestNav Verification Test) to validate that TestNav will load on machines.  Freeze browser, Adobe Flash Player, & Java environment if possible.  Energy Saving features can interrupt testing, so the recommendation is to set those to not trigger during the length of the test. 17

Best Practices and Recommendations  Testing Computers:  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 Systray icons if clicked by the student can cause TestNav to exit.  Backup Locations:  Specify a local save location for the Primary.  Specify a network share for the Alternate. 18

19 Do I need to use Proctor Caching? 19

Proctor Caching Requirements  Runs on both Windows and Mac OS X.  Does not require an underlying server-based operating system.  Proctor Caching hardware requirements can be found at  TCP Ports: 80 (Internet), 4480, & 4481 (Local Network) 20

Proctor Caching Setup  Download Proctor Caching installer from PearsonAccess.  Run the installer and Start Proctor Caching if not already started by the installer.  Use System Check from client computer to verify that Proctor Caching is functional.  Create a Proctor Caching setup or add Proctor Machine within PearsonAccess at Division or School level. 21

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 22

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 23

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 24

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 25

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 26

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 27

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 28

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 29

PearsonAccess: Test Setup: Configure TestNav 30

PearsonAccess and Proctor Caching Setups  TestNav Configurations work from school to district. A School Proctor Caching machine will take precedence over a District. If a School does not have a setup, then the District setup will apply.  Editing TestNav settings in Configure TestNav will take effect immediately for any students logging into a test after the change. Students who are currently testing when a TestNav Setting is modified will continue to use their current settings and will only use the new settings once they Exit and Resume back into a test. 31

System Check Overview SystemCheck validates testing workstations meet the minimum system requirements needed to run TestNav 7 SystemCheck also provides the ability to run bandwidth speed checks to help plan for online testing capacity SystemCheck estimates the number of concurrent testers that could be supported, at the time check is performed Pearson Customer Support may also use SystemCheck results to assist customers in trouble shooting 32

SystemCheck Functionality  TestNav 7:  Validates system requirements are met on testing workstations  Network User Capacity:  Bandwidth testing for Internet and proctor caching connections  Volume estimates for capacity planning  Testing Volume Calculator:  Online volume calculator  Modify network links and network utilization sliders as necessary 33

TestNav 7  Validates student workstation to ensure that minimum requirements are met Click Print Friendly to save your results Click Start to check the workstation environment Choose test administration 34

Network User Capacity  Tests internet bandwidth between the workstation and Pearson’s servers  To gather realistic results, SystemCheck should be run from a student testing machine on the same day of week/time of day as when you anticipate performing online testing  Click Add Caching Computer to add your potential proctor caching machine for a local network bandwidth test 35

Add Caching Computer  Add a name for the caching computer, the host IP address, and port (4480)  Can add multiple proctor caching computers by repeating these steps 36

Network User Capacity Results Click Start to run the speed check Click to see onscreen information  Click on Start to begin the test  Onscreen information helps determine whether the connection was successful or not 37

Network User Capacity Results Choose Administration  Based on the bandwidth test, SystemCheck can provide an estimated number of students that can test concurrently 38

Testing Volume Calculator 39

Testing Volume Calculator Results Planned testing is feasible with available network capacity Planned testing is dangerously close to available network capacity Planned testing exceeds the available network capacity  The graph will display the results based on your inputs. The background should remain white to ensure your planned testing volume can be supported by your available network capacity. 40

Wireless Testing for Online Testing Wireless networks are acceptable for online testing 41

Wireless Testing for Online Testing 42

Wireless Best Practices and Recommendations  Ensure sufficient wireless access and limit the number of computers per wireless access point for better performance.  Computers located closer to wireless access points perform better than those that are far away.  Obstructions such as walls and equipment between testing workstations and wireless access points can disrupt connection and negatively affect performance.  The System Check tool can be used to assess the number of students that can be tested using a wireless network  Set up a small number of workstations to measure performance on a wireless network before setting up a large number of workstations 43

Infrastructure Trial User Guide 44 The Infrastructure Trial User Guide provides information and instructions for conducting an Infrastructure Trial in preparation for an online assessment. The guide is available on the User Guides and Technology tab (PearsonAccess > Resources > User Guides and Technology).the User Guides and Technology tab

Infrastructure Trial 45  An Infrastructure Trial is a “dress rehearsal” of an online assessment. It does not use real student information.  Reviewing set up and communications prior to testing in an Infrastructure Trial can avoid possible problems and delays during the live assessment.  The Infrastructure Trial is conducted within the Minnesota Training Center at The Training Center offers the ability to load “dummy” students using the Training Center student upload process.  An Infrastructure Trial is recommended to confirm readiness and ensure your staff is prepared

Questions 46

Pearson Office Hours to Discuss Technical Concerns 47  In addition to help desk support, Pearson is offering office hours for districts to discuss technical challenges and questions via a conference call.  Districts can register for available time slots on a first-come, first-served basis. Office hours will be held on Tuesdays, from 10:00–11:00 a.m. and Thursdays, from 3:00–4:00 p.m., through March 26.  If your district is interested in registering for an available office hour time slot, please the Minnesota help desk at  Provide your preferred date and contact information.  If the time slot is available, you will be contacted by Pearson to confirm registration and asked to provide additional information regarding topics of concern and environment information in preparation for the call.  If the date is not available, you will receive a notification and will be asked to provide an alternate date.  Urgent concerns or questions should always be directed to the Pearson help desk at or

Onsite Visits 48  Onsite visits may be available to a district if they are experiencing extensive technical issues that can’t be resolved via Pearson Customer Support  Pearson will work with the district to determine the issues to be resolved and a plan on where to visit and what issues will need to be addressed during the visit  A procedure exists to identify districts where Pearson should make an on- site visit to aid in resolving technical issues for online testing.  District makes contact three times within a week with technical issues that are disrupting testing or 50% of sessions experience technology issues (ability to test is compromised)  MDE sends request to Pearson for onsite visit via  Pearson will contact District to confirm time to make a onsite visit.  Pearson provides brief summary to MDE of resolution

Technology Bulletins: Can students test using a Safari browser? Pearson posted a technical bulletin in November to inform users of a requirement to set Safari 6.1 and higher browsers to run in unsafe mode for TestNav 7.5. This bulletin includes the steps to set your Safari browser to unsafe mode for only the TestNav and SystemCheck URLs. 49

Technology Bulletins: Why do some students see login information auto-filled on the TestNav launcher page? Quitting Safari Correctly When students test using the Safari browser, Pearson recommends ensuring the student’s completely “Quit” the browser, as opposed to “Closing”. As a student prepares to leave their workstation, they should be instructed to press “Command + Q”, which completely quits the Safari browser. This function can also be completed by selecting “Safari” in the upper left hand corner of the screen, and using the drop down to select the “Quit Safari” option. Quitting the Safari browser erases the current page of the student, and provides a new page for the next student to open the browser. Only Closing Safari Currently, some students may only be closing the Safari browser. In Safari, there are three ways to close the browser: By selecting File > Close, by pressing “Command + W”, or by clicking the circular red ‘X’ button at the top of the browser. These function all close the Safari window, but do not completely “quit” the browser. If a student only “closes” the window, it may allow the next student at that workstation to view information left open by the previous student. Pearson would like to ensure that each student is opening a new window in Safari when they sit down to test. 50

Technology Bulletins: Google to Disable NPAPI for Chrome Browser Google’s plan to phase out support for the Netscape Plug-in Application Programming Interface (NPAPI) architecture will affect how you set up TestNav on the Chrome browser. TestNav relies on Java, which is an NPAPI plug-in. As a result, TestNav customers that decide to continue using the Chrome browser must follow very specific instructions to enable Java. These instructions are listed in the Technology Bulletin posted on December 22 nd and described on Google’s support site. Until you complete these steps, users will experience the behaviors referenced in the Google document: NPAPI Deprecation Developer Guide available on the Google website at Phase out Schedule Google plans to gradually discontinue support for NPAPI in three phases: Phase 1 occurs in January Phase 2 occurs in April Phase 3 occurs in September During Phase 1 and Phase 2, you must manually enable Java on the Chrome browser to use TestNav. Phase 3 completely eliminates the plug-in architecture from Chrome, disabling the Java plug-in.

Technology Bulletins: Proctor Caching Update  A newer version of Proctor Caching is available for districts who my wish to update. This update was released in October 2014 is optional  Benefits  Renaming the Contents tab to Tests and the Client List tab to Clients for clarity  Consolidating information previously displayed on the Home page into the Clients and Tests tabs  Resolving issues with IE 11 not displaying the list of cached content  More robust comparison between content on the caching computer and content on the Pearson server to verify the cache has the most up-to-date content  Renaming the “undefined” directory to “Was not Preloaded” to eliminate confusion 52

Technology Bulletins: Mac Flash Update  Apple has issued a compulsory update forcing Mac OS X users to upgrade to the latest version of Flash, following the discovery of three zero-day vulnerabilities in the software  The update appears as a pop-up in all Apple systems using an outdated version of Flash  Ensure your Mac testing machines have been updated to the latest version of Flash to avoid any interruptions or delays of online testing 53

Early Warning System (EWS) The Early Warning System (EWS) is integrated functionality that gives TestNav a high degree of fault tolerance and provides additional fail-safes in the event of unexpected network disruptions during online testing. 54

Early Warning System Design  Minimal interruptions for students  Multiple physical file backups to safeguard against data loss  Notification Screens designed for Test Proctors  Early Warning System notifications often involve technology staff so an understanding is necessary to correct any issues during testing  Additional information about Early Warning System can be found in the TestNav 7 Early Warning System User Guide. This guide is available on the User Guides and Technology tab (PearsonAccess > Resources > User Guides and Technologyavailable on the User Guides and Technology tab 55

Student Responses – SRF Files  The EWS writes continuously in the background to the student response files. Both the Primary and Secondary files are written at the same time.  The SRF file has a response data threshold that once reached will trigger TestNav to send response data to Pearson.  Uploading of response data is continuous. If an upload fails TestNav will cycle and attempt another upload.  If the response data upload is successful, TestNav will create a new empty SRF file and begin the process again. TestNav will only delete an SRF file once it is successfully uploaded. 56

Student Responses - Identification  A combination of the test ticket ID combined with the session token is used to uniquely identify a Student Response File (SRF).  TestNav can identify the correct student response file if a test is successfully resumed.  The SRF can only be used the next time the student resumes a test.  Test logs are also written to the save location for the purpose of providing valuable information to troubleshoot the problem. If you need to contact our support team to help resolve the problem, you may be asked to send log files. 57

TestNav Early Warning System - Triggers Scenario 1: TestNav determines that neither Saving Response File Location is viable.  Will result in immediate Test Proctor - Click Here notification. Scenario 2: TestNav is unable to download portions of the test.  Will result in immediate Test Proctor - Click Here notification. Scenario 3: TestNav is unable to upload student responses to Pearson.  Will result in Test Proctor - Click Here notification at the time of test submission. 58

TestNav EWS – Test Proctor Click Here Screens One of the following screens will appear when scenario 1, 2 or 3 occurs. Students should ALWAYS raise their hand when presented with either of the Test Proctor - Click Here screens. They should NEVER click the Test Proctor - Click Here button. 59

TestNav EWS – Scenario 1 In this scenario there is an issue with both of the Response File Locations. Either the student does not have full access to the location(s), OR the location(s) are temporarily unavailable. 60 Resolve by entering and saving a viable Response File Location. If the issue is temporary, reselect the original location. Then, click the Save and Continue button. Best Practice: Contact your local Technology Coordinator to determine the appropriate course of action.

TestNav EWS – Scenario 2 In this scenario, TestNav cannot access the test content on the Proctor Caching workstation or the Pearson servers If Proctor Caching is being utilized, either the Proctor Caching Server is not functioning properly, OR the local network and Pearson are not communicating. 61 The ONLY way to resolve this situation is to click the “Close TestNav” button. The student’s testing status will remain as STARTED in PearsonAccess™. Once communication is restored, Resume the student in PearsonAccess and have the student log back into TestNav. Note: TestNav makes several attempts to access the test content. This message indicates all attempts to retrieve test content have failed. You should contact your local Technology Coordinator to determine the appropriate course of action. The Technology can contact Pearson’s Level II support team for assistance troubleshooting the problem if the root cause is not easily identified.

TestNav EWS – Scenario 3 In this scenario not all of the student responses have been received by the Pearson testing server. However, responses not received by Pearson have been saved locally to the Primary Response File Location. 62 You may try to resolve this scenario by clicking the Retry button until the submission of responses is successful or click on Close TestNav. Note: If clicking the Retry button does not resolve the situation, contact your local Technology Coordinator to determine the appropriate course of action. The Technology can contact Pearson’s Level II support team for assistance troubleshooting the problem if the root cause is not easily identified. TestNav makes several attempts to communicate with the Pearson Testing Server. This message indicates attempts to submit some or all of the student responses have failed.

TestNav EWS – View Responses Screen This screen provides users with a record of which responses have been received by Pearson. 63 A Yes in the “Saved?” column indicates that the response has been both sent to and saved by Pearson. A No in the “Saved?” column indicates that the response is only saved locally and will be sent to Pearson when the issue is resolved. An “N/A” in the “Saved?” column indicates that the student did not submit a response to the question. Technology Enhanced Items which have been answered will only display an “N/A” in the “Response” column.

Onsite Support Successes  District onsite visit  The Proctor Caching machine, despite meeting minimum requirements, was underpowered to serve the number of students attempting to test  Updates to Flash needed to occur on several testing machines  Safari “safe mode” settings needed to be adjusted for TestNav.com to ensure TestNav could run in unsafe mode for file system access  While Proctor Caching had been installed and configured, content had not been pre-cached.  Special remote support offering  Resolved an issue where Safari preferences were being reset to old settings and wiping out online testing configuration settings 64

Planning for Technical Issues during Online Testing  Ensure a communication plan is in place  TestNav 7.5 Error Code Quick Reference Guide available for Test Administrators  Call Customer Support  Session Details Test Administration name? Session Name? Affected student name(s)?  Error messages/numbers?  What were you doing when the error occurred?  Do you have a student log file?  Basic network configuration Are you using proctor caching? Do you use a proxy server? Firewalls/content filters? 65

Questions 66

Resources Documentation, manuals and links to resources can all be referenced from the PearsonAccess Resources page Designed to be a one stop location to find resources for online testing preparation 67

Pearson Customer Service Support Hours: Monday – Friday, 6:00 a.m. – 7:30 p.m. (CT) Toll Free:(888)

Student Tablet Survey  Preparations have begun to conduct a Student Tablet Survey in MN  Previous research suggests three major differences between the desktop/laptop and tablet form factors which may act as challenges for students using tablets for long Reading questions, and Technology- enhanced Science and Math items.  The purpose of Minnesota Student Tablet Survey is to evaluate student feedback via a survey after students answer specific grade-level appropriate test items which will be provided in TestNav 8.2.x format  Further details about the Student Tablet Survey will be shared once plans have been finalized and communications are ready for districts who will be selected to participate 69