Education for a Digital World Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe, 2008a

14 – Assessment and Evaluation
USING A SECURE BROWSER
A secure browser can be configured to only allow
authorized programs during the quiz. For example, Respondus
LockDown Browser (http://www.respondus
.com/) is a custom browser that locks down the testing
environment within WebCT. Students then are unable
to print, copy, go to another URL, or access other applications
during the quiz. When an assessment is started,
students are locked into it until they submit it for grading.
Though secure browsers provide a significant degree
of security, it is still worthwhile viewing each
individual station with a program like NetSupport.
NetSupport also provides similar features to the Respondus
LockDown Browser. Check out their respective
Websites for further details. As well, if possible, restrict
IP addresses (more on this below).
USING EXCEL WITH WEBQUERY
I have up to 200 students registered in a WebCT course.
Even though the class breaks down into 24 students per
lab/quiz, which is quite manageable, the Submissions
screen does not provide an easy way to isolate the specific
24 students taking a quiz; you must view all 200
student accounts at once. It is very difficult to monitor
the 24 students taking a quiz when the Submissions
screen lists 200, and the 24 are scattered throughout the
200. This is especially a problem if students are assigned
to the labs non-alphabetically (the Submissions screen
sorts students alphabetically by Last Name only). However,
you can use the WebQuery feature of an Excel
spreadsheet to assist in the monitoring. All data on any
WebCT page can be grabbed by an Excel WebQuery.
To prepare for using WebQuery,
you must enter the WebCT URL
of your Submissions page. To identify
that address, open your WebCT
Quizzes/Survey page from the designer
account. Then click on the
link to the quiz.
This opens the Quiz Editor for
that quiz. Pull your mouse over
the background of the quiz page
(anywhere but a hypertext link),
and right click (this assumes you are
using a PC). In IE, a pop-up window
appears. Select, View Source.
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