Multiple Choice

At Bb World in San Diego, Rob Gibson of Friends University and Kathleen Miller of Grand Rapids Community College conducted a presentation titled 'Secure Blackboard Exams: You Can Do It!'.  The session was certainly a success, and their findings were very interesting.  It appears that faculty are really catching onto the idea of using Securexam Browser for their secure testing needs.

Some of the most interesting facts in the presentation are the statistics about cheating.  For example, almost 74% of students have observed collegiate cheating.  At the same time, studies have shown that faculty do not perceive academic dishonesty to be a serious problem.  The disconnect between what is really happening and what faculty are doing about it appears to be significant.

You can take a look at the presentation here: Download secure_exams.ppt .

Merging Powers

Q: What do banks, utilities and course management systems have in common?

A: They merge.

That's right, folks, that flapping sound you hear in Lynnfield, Massachusetts is WebCT executives counting $180 million in cash.  These dollars come courtesy of Blackboard, the now undeniable behemoth in the course management system world.

Obviously, this should stir some debate.  In case you haven't read about this by now, you can see it here.

MERLOT Search Engine

Bridgewater State College is utilzing a new, free add-on tool offered by Blackboard and MERLOT - the  Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching consortium (see: http://www.merlot.org). 

MERLOT, a free and open resource, features thousands of online educational materials submitted by colleagues within the higher education community.  This MERLOT Building Block tool allows instructors to search for educational materials available through the MERLOT web site without having to exit their Blackboard course sites. 

Instructors can select specific learning resources from the search results and embed links to them in their Blackboard course sites.  To learn more about this search tool, visit the Blackboard Building Blocks web site  - http://www.blackboard.com/extend/b2/.

Recent presentations about using Securexam with Blackboard

Recently, two Software Secure clients included Securexam in presentations about administering exams with Blackboard. As promised, we've posted the presentations.

1. Paul Carson from Hofstra Unviersity presented Administering Language Placemant Exams using Blackboard at the Blackboard User Conference in April.

2. In early May, Ted Tyson, Client Services Director at Software Secure and Bonnie Hatch from Roger WIlliams University presented Secure Testing with Blackboard at a NERCOMP meeting in Worcester Mass.

Success, at least for now

We are in the midst of rolling out our new integrated blended-learning medical curriculum to students doing their clinical rotations at two remote hospitals. This means delivering high-stakes online exams to small groups of students overseen by non-technical clerkship coordinators, some two states away. After many false starts and hours of training and handholding, we delivered six exams over two sites today.

Students accessed these Blackboard exams using Secure Exam browser, as they had for 45 previous exams during the pre-clinical years. For most of them, these determine whether they pass a clerkship. Very high stakes.

There were editing errors in one clerkship exam which prompted the clerkship director to want to restart the exam. He offered the students last year's version -- which was on paper. The students turned him down and waited for a new electronic exam. He was astounded. "They tell me they don't take paper exams."

Score one for the students.

Upcoming events: Be Security Conscious, NERCOMP

Software Secure will be participating in two events with clients over the next week.

Tomorrow, April 27th, we will be attending the Be Security Conscious Fair at Bridgewater State College in Bridgewater, Mass. The event is hosted by the College's Be Security Conscious (BSC) group, which works to educate students, faculty and staff on safe computing practices.

A number of the College's vendors will have displays in the showcase including Dell, Sophos and of course, Software Secure. It sounds like a great, fun way to get the word out to faculty and students about the security options avaiable at Bridgewater State, and we are looking forward to it.

Next Tuesday, May 3rd, Director of Client Services Ted Tyson and client Bonnie Hatch from Roger Williams University will be presenting at the NERCOMP Blackboard User Group SIG at Holy Cross in Worcester, MA.

We plan to post the presentation afterward, but here's a preview:

Secure Testing with Blackboard: As the use of Blackboard becomes yet more entrenched, the need for security in and out of the classroom to control the possibility of digital cheating during online examinations is becoming a top priority.

Roger Williams Univesity has demonstrated effective use of Software Secure's Securexam Browser to make exam timeless stressful for students, faculty and administrators. Students can now use computers to take exams with Blackboard without the temptation or possibility of cheating. Faculty members are happy because they can get the benefits of multiple-choice Blackboard tests while preserving exam integrity.

More information on the SIG meeting is at the NERCOMP site.

Conference Roundup - CoSN, FETC reports, Blackboard User Conference Preview

The cherry blossoms bloom in DC and ed tech news turns to .... conference reports...

Here are reports on the recent CoSN and FETC conferences.

eSchool News coverage of CoSn (Consortium of School Networking) Conference

techLearning report on FETC (Florida Education Technology Consortium) show

Next week (April 12-14) is the Blackboard User Conference in Baltimore, Maryland. Among the expected highlights: Cal Ripken Jr. will deliver the keynote address on April 12th. 

Software Secure client Paul Carson from Hofstra University will be presenting a breakout session on the 12th: Administering Language Placement Exams using Blackboard: Lessons Learned. You can check out the full conference program here.