Do you operate a large adult education testing center? If so, are you concerned about how you will manage online testing?

Hello Program Management colleagues,

Dena Giacometti posted the message below today in the LINCS Integrating Technology group about large adult education testing centers, for example those that might use the CASAS, BEST Plus, TABE, GED, TASC, HiSET, or Accuplacer tests for pre-post testing or for placement. I wonder if then problem she describes is something that your testing center also faces. if so, please let us hear from you and, if you have solutions, please share them.

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP Program Management group

Dena wrote:

As you may know, recommendations are coming out regarding testing. For CASAS Life and Work, they are stating that proctoring will be a 1:1 ratio of proctor to student. For TABE they are saying that it will be a 1:5 ratio of proctor to students. We have traditionally tested anywhere between 10 – 100 students at a time.

For a program that serves over 8,000 student annually, that is devastating to enrollment numbers. Wondering how other very large programs are thinking about this moving into the Fall semester?

Thanks!

Comments

Program Management Colleagues,

In case you haven't received this yet, here's some additional information about remote testing. If anyone else: test developers, test center staff, state ABE staff or others would like to share additional information on remote testing, please do.

Resources for more information about remote testing

To learn more about adult basic skills remote testing, read information and details developed by the test publishers:

BEST Plus (http://www.cal.org/aea/bp/)

CASAS (https://www.casas.org)

·         CASAS Going Live! Checklist (https://www.casas.org/product-overviews/software/casas-etests/-going-live-checklist)

·         Remote Testing for CASAS tests (https://www.casas.org/product-overviews/remote-testing)

TABE (www.tabetest.com)

·         TABE Online Quick Start Guide (http://www.tabetest.com/PDFs/TABE_OnlineQSG.pdf)

·         TABE Remote Proctoring Webinar (https://tabetest.com/resources-2/tabe-webinar-series/)

·         TABE Online Training Videos (https://tabetest.com/PDFs/TABE_11_12_OnlineTraining_Videos.pdf)

·         TABE Remote Testing FAQs (http://tabetest.com/PDFs/TABE_Remote_Testing_FAQs.pdf)

(From a May 14th memorandum to ABE program administrators in Minnesota from the State ABE Director)

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP, Program Management group

David, thanks for opening this important and timely topic! CASAS offered national webinars this week that were attended by a total of 2,000 adult education practitioners from more than 40 states. The webinar recording is posted here: https://www.casas.org/product-overviews/remote-testing. Local programs may roll out remote testing while following CASAS procedures. There are four possible approaches at this time for one-to-one or up to 5 test takers. Each approach uses different devices and web conferencing platforms, and each has its own set of detailed, step-by-step guidelines. We are working closely with our early adopters who are finding innovative ways to deliver remote testing, and we continue to explore options which might lead to solutions that allow for more than 5 test takers at a time. 

 

 

 

Thanks Linda,

It would be great, if other solutions are found that allow proctoring more test-takers at one time, if you would let us know here.

Another question that some people have is about students who may have low bandwidth -- perhaps even lower than usual during the time they are being tested -- is the testing session discontinued, or is there another way/or other ways that CASAS and other test makers are addressing that issue?

Anyone else have questions about CASAS remote testing, or other remote tests?

David J. Rosen, Moderator

LINCS CoP Program Management and Integrating technology groups

We have a new online reading assesment we're trying out, but people are doing it on their own, not proctored. If they have trouble we can try to help them get started via phone or video chat, but they still have to be comfortable enough to do it online - get the link via email etc. 

My question for others is - are you getting many new learners? Since we put the word out we can start doing remote intakes, we have only had a few calls. Wondering if it is just here, or if other places people are hesitant to start anything or if they assume we are not taking new learners yet.