Monday, March 02, 2015, 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM (PST)


Locking it Down: The Key to Test Readiness and Security


Practice Area Division(s): Education
Topic: Test Administration and Delivery Models

With the move towards online, browser-based assessment for high stakes assessment as well as for formative assessment, exam integrity and test security have become a constant talking point within the online testing industry. Browser-based assessment has obvious advantages in that test takers have immediate access to the assessments; no requirement to spend time downloading assessment software. It also means that candidates can use their own devices and do not necessarily need to go to designated testing centers. It does however, bring its own set of disadvantages. How do we know that the test takers aren’t finding the answers online? Or that they aren’t recording the item questions to be distributed to their peers at a later date? What measures can we put in place to ensure the probity of online, browser-based assessment? Meeting these challenges requires creativity, technology, and, of course, funding.

In this session we will explore some of the challenges and successes that we and our clients have faced in implementing security measures to ensure the integrity of online assessment.

Solutions include:

  • Secure browsers: Test takers are prevented from accessing other files, websites and folders on their devices. In order to protect valuable intellectual property and to prevent cheating they are also typically unable to print, copy, cut or paste data from their screens.

  • Detailed event t racking: Monitors ever y online action the test taker makes for the duration of the assessment and alerts the system administrator if the test taker is outside of accepted behavior patterns.

  • Test Windows: Set ting the time during which the assessment may be taken.

Student verification process and pacing: test administrators issue unique codes to individual test takers and have the ability to monitor the test taker’s progress in real time. They can also start, save, quit, pause and allocate extra time all at the click of a button.

As well as looking at some of the current solutions for test security we will also discuss the future of test security and explore how security risks may evolve in the coming years and what new technologies may provide the greatest risks to the security of online assessment.

PRESENTERS:
Gavin Cooney, Learnosity
Linda Andries, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt