Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Testers are ready! (almost)

The Smarter Balance Tester 7.2 has been installed in all the desktops in the computer lab, and on the Juniors computers today.  The AirSecure Browser for the chromebooks has also been updated.

The Smarter Balance Browser should have a logo and shortcut on the desktop and it looks similar to this.


In addition, the Questar Test Browser (used for the Science portion of the testing, for grades 5, 8, and 11) has also been installed in the Computer Lab, and on the Junior machines.  After installation each of those tests was logged into once, and given a trial run, making sure all the features of the test work (highlighter, help page, calculator, etc...).  Once the trial test was completed the machines are registered as OK to go.  As of the moment I am writing this, all seem to be working!

The Questar logo should be located on the desktop, and will look similar to this.


The chromebooks will have a different log in for the Questar Test.  These have been requested from Questar, and they should be getting those to me at any time.

When I get those, the students will log into the chromebooks using the Questar log in when they get on the chromebooks.  They will NOT log in to their normal chromebook account.  (I will install the Questar accounts on each of the chromebooks)

As before, if they are taking the Smarter Balance portion of the test, they will use the Smarter Balance "AirSecure Browser" which is located on the startup page.  This is what is known as a "Kiosk" App, and I have checked the machines, and it is there.

So hopefully, we will have the chromebooks finished up by the end of this week, and we should be all set and ready to go for online standardized testing!

I do have a few old "loaners" to image, to make sure we have some spares for the Juniors.

If you would like the tester installed in your classroom to "practice", all you need to do is ask, and I will get it done for you.  It only takes a few minutes to install the Smarter Balance Tester, and a little bit longer for Questar (since it requires a log in, and check of the system to register the machine).

Thank you very much, and Happy Testing!