DRC Central Office Services Overview 11/27/2018

Central Office Services Overview Why change? What’s the same, and what’s different? When is this happening? What do I have to do?

Why change? Streamline set up, configuration, and management of online testing environments through central interface. Provide flexible installation options based on a testing site’s needs. Enhance content management, allowing sites to download only the content they need for testing. Better utilize device resources such as increased memory through new code base and enhanced technology. Increase scalability resulting in a larger number of concurrent testers per Service Device. Improve security through enhanced security controls and permissions.

What’s the same, and what’s different? DRC INSIGHT client software Same installation procedures Same platforms supported Device Toolkit (COS-DTK) Same concept Enhanced features Content Management TSM being replaced by Central Office Services – Service Devices (COS- SD) Significantly different approach and improved feature set Response Management TSM response caching replaced by enhanced Response Processing No longer requires separate tool or monitoring of response transmission

Centralized dashboard with real-time status information COS-DTK Dashboard Centralized dashboard with real-time status information Supports multi-test program configurations Easier to manage centralized district-wide configurations Supports content hosting device “pool” without need of load balancer Supports “silent” deployment of content hosting devices

COS-DTK Dashboard

Central Office Services Service Device Overview Installation flexibility – options based on testing site’s size and needs Scalability through the use of state of the art technology Larger number of concurrent users per COS Service Device Automatically scales to available resources on the installed device Centralized security through DRC INSIGHT Portal Content hosting and management Enhanced content handling (cloud-based content distribution network) Content verification and retries during download Greater user visibility into content download information Download content once for distribution to multiple COS Service Devices Option to download only the content needed for the testing site Ability to cascade content delivery if primary content source is not available

Response Processing – Extended Retry Logic Response Caching was designed when testing devices had reliable, stable wired connections and Internet connectivity was not reliable and offered lower bandwidth Today’s connectivity challenges have shifted and are much different Now, Internet connectivity is reliable and scalable, while testing devices, now mostly wireless, have less reliable connections 2016-17, less than 0.5% of test tickets benefited from response caching and dropped to 0.21% in 2017-18 DRC’s solution has evolved to support the new challenges Now, if there is an issue sending a response, a new popup message appears

Response Processing – Extended Retry Logic 1. System displays "Connection Retry is in progress" 2. User selects the "Exit the Test" button. 3. System displays the 'Are you sure" message which is consistent in other areas of the system. 3.a. User selects YES, if system can gracefully exit, close the application, user is viewing their desktop. 3.c. If system cannot exit gracefully, display the normal ICE message, user presses OK, screen closes, app closes, and user is viewing their desktop. 4. User selects RETURN TO TEST, system closes the R U Sure user message and user is viewing the Interstitial page.

Response Processing – Extended Retry Logic INSIGHT attempts to send the test response to DRC for five minutes. During this time, the following scenarios may occur: Scenario I: A connection is re-established quickly. The error message closes and the test continues. Note that this situation could occur very quickly, even before a test proctor has had time to contact the tester. Scenario II: The tester is directed to close the message (clicks Exit the Test). The test proctor directs the tester to click Exit the Test, INSIGHT closes, and testing ends for the tester. Note: All test information is saved and tester can resume testing at same point in the test when they re-enter the test. 10

Response Processing – Extended Retry Logic Scenario III: The tester is directed to wait and to leave the message displayed. One of two things occur: If a network connection is re-established within five minutes, the test response is sent to DRC, the message closes automatically, and the test continues. If a network connection is not re-established within five minutes, the message closes and an Internet Connection Error message displays, requiring the tester to exit INSIGHT by clicking OK. 11

Preview Feedback Positives Over 1 Million tests delivered during Preview from COS-SD (with an additional 1 Million plus delivered in fall 2018 testing) Configuration integration into eDIRECT COS DTK a plus – one place to go New configuration capabilities straight forward Install and forget - wizards and auto updates make installation and support easy Stable and scalable – encountered no issues Using COS Service Device solved issue with TSM Software based round robin load balancing removes the need for hardware load balancers

When is this happening? Date Available Availability April 2019 Technical User Guide posted to eDIRECT Documents May 2019 COS Service Device installers available on eDIRECT DRC INSIGHT Secure Browsers (WBTE) update released June 2019 Last test administration using TSM (LEAP 2025 HS Summer) 2019-2020 (starting August 2019) All test administrations using COS-SD

COS-Service Device Decision Guide This guide helps sites and districts determine the best location for placing content management and content hosting COS Service Devices based on testing population and available technology.

Installation of COS Service Device

COS Service Device (1A) When the Service Device is installed, test content stored on the Amazon Workspace (AWS) CloudFront is automatically sent to the Service Device. The Content Management service automatically checks for new content several times a day and updates the Service Device. (2) When a student logs in to the test, their login is verified by servers at DRC and their test sessions are returned to the testing device. (3A) When students select the test and a Service Device is configured, the Service Device delivers the test content to their testing devices, reducing the startup time for these testers. All of the test content is encrypted for security. (4) During testing, the test responses (labelled Response Data in the diagram) go directly to the DRC server.

Multiple COS Service Devices Software based load balancing - This method allows round robin persistent client connections based on the total count of COS Service Devices setup in the COS DTK Configuration.

COS Service Devices Behind a Hardware Load Balancer Hardware based load balancing - This method leverages a local site hosted hardware based load balancer configured to a single load balancer IP address in COS – Service Device.

Questions and Answers