No papers lost - safe delivery even when the network goes down

Owned by Jens Andreas Pettersen (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Nov 26, 2015 by Sondre Skaug Bjørnebekk
2 min read

Tech note: Understanding continuous online and offline backup services in Inspera Assessment that helps the candidate deliver, even if the network goes down during the exam or even stays down until the end of the exam. 

 

When the candidate happily answers his tests, typing in essay text or selecting answers to multiple choice questions or writing code to answer programming exercises, every change is synchronized to his local computer in a secure way. In addition, every half minute or so the current answers are stored to the cloud - to a distributed type of database known as Dynamo DB in a secured network for the technically interested reader.

Should the candidate lose her network or get other trouble with her computer, the exam can continue on any other computer. She can simply log on to the new computer and continue where she left off.

Sometimes the computer karma is even worse than that. Inspera Assessment supports the case where the network goes completely away and stays down until it is time to deliver. This is kind of a "last resort", but with proper routines for handling, even this can be pretty smooth. The process typically goes something like this:

  • If using the Safe Exam Browser, use the password to allow for shutdown
  • Export the delivery to file and save this to a USB stick
  • Using the encrypted file from the USB stick, the invigilator (or other person with sufficient privileges) uploads the answer back into Inspera Assessment from any computer that has Internet access

Of course it is important to store the USB stick safely, but there is no risk of uploading the file to the wrong candidate and the answers cannot be edited (or even viewed) by a third party as they are encrypted and coded with information about which candidate and test the apply to. You can use one USB stick to collect all deliveries or work out local routines to otherwise support this "worst case scenario" at delivery time.

If you have other questions regarding making sure deliveries can be made even when there is trouble with network infrastructure or candidate computers, please reach out and we'll be happy to elaborate and discuss this with you in further detail and in the context of your local environment.