Final Two

After narrowing it down to the three vendors that disable test takers from printing the exam questions (and is some cases the test answers), I am definitely not impressed with ZohoChallenge. I have sent the company 4 e-mails and have not gotten any response. The other two vendors, ExamBuilder and HostedTest, have both been very responsive and quick to respond to my inquiries. I believe this is an essential attribute of any company we decide to go with. Both ExamBuilder and HostedTest seem at the higher end of all the seven companies we have been exploring more closely. I like the way HostedTest has their pricing structure set up. You don't pay for putting your test online, and you don't pay for each individual test taker, you pay for each exam taken. With ExamBuilder, you also don't pay for putting your tests online, but you pay for a license for each test taker to be able take unlimited tests with the same license. The license is good for one year. Also, overall, Exam Builder is quite a bit more expensive. My Monday or Tuesday I should have a recommendation for the IAWP Board and be able to finish by report.

Vendor Responses

Received e-mail responses from two of my three inquiries about certain aspects of the three online test providers I have narrowed it down to. One vendor gives non-profit organizations a 20% discount so the per exam fee will be less, which is great news. One of the vendors that fell out of the final three e-mailed and asked for feedback on why we didn't go with his company, so kindly I gave him both good and bad feedback. He then called me and wanted more! He also tried to talk me into staying on his pay service, which I wasn't too excited about. That vendor is the only one I actually paid money to see their "paid" version as their basic free version didn't have many options. I finally got him off the phone but he really wanted to make a deal with me. Got to love those sales people. Honestly he made me more nervous after talking to him because he said his service was only 3 months old. I was hoping for a company a little more seasoned than that. The last thing I want is to have to re-do all the exams with a new company after a few months. I am hoping to finish up my review tomorrow because I will be out of the office Thursday and Friday and want to share the results with the EDC chair and a few others before I write the report.

Narrowing it Down

Spent a couple of hours today deciphering my notes from the weekend and looking at the Web sites of three of the online test providers. Only three of the 7 currently disable the Web browser so that test takers cannot easily print the test questions. I think this is an essential element of any service we decide to buy. I also sent off a couple of e-mails to the 3 vendors asking a few questions. I want to judge their response time and quality as well as answer some missing or conflicting information from the their Web site. I have to get this narrowed down this week so I can get a report and recommendation done by September 1st...just 8 days away.

The Final 7

The online exam project is down to the final 7 service providers. I have spent the last 4 hours going through the evaluations that IAWP members completed. I also have spent quite a bit of time evaluating them from an administrative perspective, since that is also an important factor. Of the seven only three appear to disable the copy and print functions of Internet browsers which make them more secure. The others would allow test participants to print off the questions and in some cases the answers! I sent off a few e-mail messages to a some of the companies inquiring about this feature, as it is close to the top of required features from the administrative side. I will let you know what I find out. I have get a report together for the upcoming board meeting so I will be finalizing my recommendations by the end of next week.

Reminder Friday

It was a busy day for IAWP reminders. I sent out what will be the final e-mail on evaluating the 7 different online test providers (ClassMarker, ExamBuilder, ExamProfessor, HostedWare, ProProf, QuizEgg and ZohoChallenge). By the end of next week I hope to have a lot more evaluations back and will look closely at the comments I received as well as my own reviews from the test administrator point of view. I am looking at things separate from the test taker. Things like ease of test design, test security, test taker notification process, etc. Some providers are much easier than others! I really appreciate all those who have given me feedback.

The other reminder was sent to the Education, Legislation, Communications, Veterans, Workforce Systems, UI and Specialized Customer Services committees. I am the IAWP officer who is the liaison to those committees. I designed a planning tool for them to use that lists all the committee job duties from the IAWP Handbook along with the "points of interest" identified by each committee. If you know me, you know I am a planner. If it gets written down it's more likely to get accomplished and from my point of view, that's what we need in IAWP. We need to set goals and accomplish them. (Okay, off my soapbox now.) The planning tool list the actions items that will be accomplished along with timeframes. I will probably drive these committee chairs nuts with my ongoing dialogue over what's to be accomplished.

Still Coming In

Received a few more evaluations for the online testing project. I will probably send out a reminder tomorrow listing all 7 possible sites. I am sure some people are sick of me asking, but I need to feedback to make a good recommendation. August is almost half over and we will be submitting our reports for the board meeting in September before you know it.

Still Reviewing Vendors

Fixed some problems with people reviewing the different online testing vendors. A few of the reviewers were not able to get logged in so I made some fixes and they worked. I also took all the exams again using all 7 vendors. The seven are: ClassMarker, ExamBuilder, ExamProfessor, HostedWare, ProProf, QuizEgg and ZohoChallenge. I would like to know if anyone has had any experience with any of these companies? If so, please leave a comment. I think we are on track to narrowing it down to three companies and letting the board decide at the meeting in St. Louis in September. It's then the real work begins converting our paper tests to online versions. Any proofreader out there? One requirment...you have to be a WPDP Master (for test secruity).

Third Installment

Not only is this the third installment on the blog, but on Friday, I sent out the third and last installment of the online test providers to the reviewers! There are 7 possible providers. All cost under $1000 per year and some as cheap as $25 a year. We need to be careful not to have the price persuade us because sometimes "you get what you pay for." I am hoping we will have a recommendation ready for the board meeting in September. Once we select the provider then we can start moving the exams online.

Long Demo

Reviewed "TestShop" online testing system today via Web conferencing. An hour and a half on the phone looking at the different features of the system. It was loaded with neat stuff and had a test generator portion with over 90 options. I still have a few more vendors to look at and several of the Educational Development Committee members and other volunteers are in the process of taking sample tests from other vendors that have already been given the once-over.