Technology Preparation for Online Testing

Technology Preparation for Online Testing 2013–2014 School Year

Presentation Agenda • Overview of the Minnesota Assessments Portal, Online Systems and Resources for Online Test Preparation • Technology Coordinator Roles and Responsibilities • Site Readiness • Network Requirements • Hardware and Software Requirements • Secure Browser Installation • Diagnostic Tools and Configuration Settings

Minnesota Assessments Portal Resources Portal Home Page Technology Coordinator Page

Minnesota Assessments • Test Information Distribution Engine (TIDE) • TestMonitorSite • StudentTestingSite • OnlineTestingSystem • Data Entry Interface • Test Management Center • Online Reporting System • Performance Reports • Learning PointNavigator

Resources for Online Testing Preparation

Technology Coordinator Role and Responsibilities • Acquire user login and password for the AIR systems • Ensure that each computer used for online testing meets the minimum hardware and software requirements • Install the 2013–2014 secure browser on each computer that students will use for online testing, and test the installation by launching the browser • Provide for proper network and firewall configuration • Provide headphones for all online tests with audio/text-to-speech • Provide technical support/troubleshooting during online test sessions

Site Readiness Districts are required to verify that they have taken the following necessary steps to prepare school computers for online testing. The deadline to verify site readiness is February 28, 2014. • Ensure that computers used for testing meet system requirements. • Install the correct version of AIR’s secure browser on each computer that will be used for student testing. • Complete alltasks in theTechnology Coordinator Checklist. • Use AIR’s Diagnostic Tool to verify software installation and estimate network capacity. All manuals and software downloads can be found on the Technology Coordinatorpage of the Minnesota Assessments portal (http://www.mnstateassessments.org/)

Network Requirements Internet Requirements • A stable, high-speed (wired or wireless) Internet connection is required for online testing. • The response time for each assessment depends on the reliability and speed of your school’s Internet network.

Network Requirements Network configuration settings should include the following: • Content filters, firewalls, and proxy servers should be configured to allow traffic on the protocols and to the servers listed on the following screen. • Session timeouts on proxy servers and other devices should be set to values greater than the average scheduled testing time. If testing sessions are scheduled for 60 minutes, consider session timeouts of 65–70 minutes. This will help limit network interruptions during testing. • Data cannot be cached. • If your client network uses any devices that perform traffic shaping, packet prioritization or Quality of Service, the IP addresses below should be given a high priority to guarantee the highest level of performance.

Network Requirements Allow traffic on the protocols and to the following servers:

Network Requirements Common Bottlenecks • Routing traffic to and from the Internet • Verifying that students are using the secure browser • Performance dependent on several factors: • Bandwidth • Total number of students simultaneously testing • Size of test content • Wireless networking system (if used) • Secure browser installation • Proxy server (if used)

Network Requirements: Performance of the Online Testing System Bandwidth • Performance can be affected by: • Internal network (LAN) traffic • Internet traffic from the router • LAN should always be analyzed to determine potential traffic for bottlenecks: • Schools need to factor bandwidth requirements of testing. • Internal bandwidth is not typically a problem. Switches generally operate between 100 megabits per second and 1,000 megabits per second. • Most common bottleneck for Internet networks is the ISP’s router connection.

Network Requirements: Performance of the Online Testing System Number of Students Simultaneously Testing: • As the number of students increases, competition for bandwidth increases. Size of Content: • The size of the test is determined by two factors: • the number of items on the test • the average size of each item

Wireless Networking • Wireless Security • Due to the sensitivity of test-related data, the use of WPA2/AES data encryption is highly recommended. • Using encryption/decryption might slightly decrease overall network speed. • A properly configured wireless network should provide adequate bandwidth for testing applications: • 802.11n is the fastest and most recent IEEE wireless standard, with a throughput of up to 300 megabits per second. • 802.11g has a theoretical throughput of up to 54 megabits per second. • 802.11b has a theoretical throughput of 11 megabits per second. • Ratio of wireless systems to wireless access points (WAPs) of no more than 20:1.

Wireless Networking: Networking Standards • The two most common networking standards are: • 802.11g (54 megabits per second) • 802.11n (300 megabits per second) Newer and faster

Wireless Networking: Networking Standards More Recommendations • Wireless connections using an 802.11g access point can reliably support a maximum of 20 PC and/or Mac workstations that use wireless cards with either the 802.11g or the 802.11n standard. • Wireless connections using an 802.11n access point can reliably support a greater number of workstations; however, the number of additional workstations that the 802.11n access point can support will be affected by the make and model of the access point equipment. • Typically, when all workstations are using an 802.11n wireless card, the 802.11n access point can support approximately 40 computers. • Note: In cases where the workstation wireless cards are a mix of 802.11n and 802.11g standards, supported connections should not exceed 50 workstations.

Hardware Requirements

Supported Web Browsers and Related Requirements TIDE and Online Reporting System

Supported Web Browsers and Related Requirements Test Monitor Interface and Test Monitor Training Site

Supported Web Browsers and Related Requirements Data Entry Interface

Supported Web Browsers and Related Requirements Learning Point Navigator

Supported Web Browsers and Related Requirements Online Item Samplers

Secure Browser Overview • All computers used for testing during 2013–2014 must have the appropriate secure browser installed. • The secure browser prevents students from accessing other computer or Internet applications or copying test information. • The table lists the secure browser versions and their supported operating systems.

Installing the Secure Browser One-by-One (Manual) Installation • From each computer to be used for testing, access the Internet and download and install the browser; OR • Download and save the browser onto a media device (such as a Flash drive), and then copy and install the files onto each computer; OR • Download the browser and save it to a network folder and copy it onto each computer. Additional instructions are available on the Minnesota Assessments portal if you need to install the secure browser on computers for which you do not have administration or installation rights. Network Installation (Network Administrators) • You can push the browser out to all computers through a network.

Installing the Secure Browser There are several methods to deploy the AIR secure browser depending on your platform. Windows Deployment Methods • For the Windows platform, AIR provides the secure browser in an MSI package file. This file type enables deployment using a number of tools including: • Active Directory Group Policy • Microsoft SMS • Microsoft SCCM • Microsoft WSUS • Windows NT Batch

Installing the Secure Browser Mac OS X Deployment Methods • For the Mac OS X platform, AIR provides the secure browser as a DMG package file. This file type enables deployment using: • Apple Remote Desktop • Munki (http://code.google.com/p/munki/) • Filewave (http://www.filewave.com/en/home) Linux Deployment Methods • For the Linux platform, AIR provides the secure browser in a generic TAR.bz2 package file. This file type enables deployment using a number of tools including: • Shell scripts • Puppet (http://projects.puppetlabs.com/projects/puppet)

Text-to-Speech • Text-to-speech technology requires that voice packs be pre-installed on computers. • For Windows and Mac operating systems, default voice packs are generally pre-installed. • For computers running Linux Fedora Core 6 (K12LTSP 4.2+) or Ubuntu 9–12, voice packs may need to be downloaded and installed. • Text-to-speech technology is available only through the secure browser.

Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8, and Vista Approved Voice Packs

NeoSpeech™ Julie Voice Pack “General Resources” Tab in TIDE “General Resources” Page in TIDE

Mac OS X Approved Voice Packs

Linux Approved Voice Packs

Site Readiness: Diagnostic Tools The Online Testing System has several diagnostic tools available to help you prepare for testing: • Text-to-Speech Diagnostic Tools • Network Diagnostic Tools These diagnostic tools can be accessed from the login page of the Online Item Samplers site.

Text-to-Speech Diagnostic Tools • Select the “Text-To-Speech Check” button to run the text-to-speech diagnostic test.

Text-to-Speech Diagnostic Tools

Network Diagnostic Tools • After selecting the “Run Diagnostics” link on the login page of the Online Item Samplers, select a test and then select the approximate number of students who will take that test at one time. • Then click the “Run Network Diagnostics Tests” button.

Network Diagnostic Tools

Additional Configuration Information

Network Diagnostic Tools

Network Configuration All communication with the Online Testing System takes place over the following IP port/protocol combinations.

Domain Name Resolution The following URLs must be resolvable by all client hosts attempting to connect to the test system.

Firewall, Content Filter, and Proxy Servers You will need to ensure that the following IP addresses are open for the online systems below. Note: If the client network utilizes any device that performs traffic shaping, packet prioritization, or Quality of Service, the IP addresses should be given a high level of priority in order to guarantee the highest level of performance.

Certificate Revocation List Schools should open their firewalls to allow the secure browser to check the certificate authenticity at VeriSign’s Certificate Revocation List (CRL) at http://crl.verisign.com/. Alternatively, schools can open their network to the IP addresses listed below. Note: These IP address ranges are subject to change.

Ncomputing/Terminal Services NComputing and Terminal Services are supported on the following platforms: • NComputing is supported on computers running Windows XP. • Terminal Services is supported on the Windows 2003 and 2008 servers.

Mobile Device Support for Test Monitor Sites

Flash, Fast Switching, and Pop-up Blockers • Flash is bundled with the secure browser installation packages, and these secure browsers can also be used to access the Online Item Samplers. • If a student can access multiple user accounts from a single computer, we strongly encourage you to disable the fast user switching function. • All applications require pop-up blocking software to be disabled. • To disable the pop-up blocker for each browser, navigate to the following menu options: • Firefox: Tools > Options > Content > Uncheck Block Pop-up Windows • Internet Explorer: Tools > Pop-up Blocker > Turn Off Pop-up Blocker • Safari: Application Menu > Block Pop-up Windows (this should be unchecked) • Chrome: Chrome Menu > Settings > Show advanced settings > Privacy > click "Content settings" > select "Allow All sites to show pop-ups" *Note: Not applicable for the secure browser

Minnesota Assessment Items Are in Verdana Font Windows and Mac Users • The system will default to Verdana font. Linux Users • The End-User License Agreement restricts the direct inclusion of the Verdana font in Linux distributions. • Please ensure that Verdana has been installed on all machines that will be used for testing. • Fedora Core 6 users: Follow the steps in the “How to Install” section of this website: http://corefonts.sourceforge.net/ . You will need to build an rpm package of the fonts prior to installing them. • Ubuntu 9–12 users: In a terminal window, enter the following command to install the msttcorefonts package: “sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts.” • For instructions on “authorizing” Verdana use with supported Linux OS, please refer to the Technical Specifications Manual for Online Testing document.

For More Information • Visit www.mnstateassessments.org. • Call, fax or email the AIR Minnesota Assessments Help Desk. • Phone: 1-877-215-8749 • Fax: 1-877-231-7813 • Email: mnhelpdesk@air.org

Technology Preparation for Online Testing