English Composition 1
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Using Test Pilot
Test Pilot is the online quizzing and testing software used for the course. Test Pilot is a convenient way for students to take quizzes, exercises, tests, and other assessments online. With Test Pilot, you can take quizzes and other assessments through your web browser, simply clicking the answers or filling in the answer boxes. Test Pilot can be set to grade assessments automatically and can display the results of an assessment immediately after it is completed and submitted. Test Pilot can also be set to allow the instructor to grade some or all of the responses to a particular assignments.
Accessing and Completing Test Pilot Assessments
Test Pilot is easy to use. After clicking on a link to the Test Pilot assessment on an assignment page, you will see a screen including the Test Pilot login box, illustrated below. You should enter a User ID. For our course, your User ID is your seven-digit IVCC student ID number, which should appear on your class schedule and your college ID card. In your private conference area of our class WebBoard, I will post a message that includes your student ID number.
Important information about the assessment may appear under the login box. The message in the illustration above, for example, indicates that the answers to the assessment may be submitted only once. However, in the example above, there is no message concerning how many times you may access the assessment, meaning that there is no limit to the number of times you may access and read the assessment.
After typing your login ID and clicking "Request," you should see the Test Pilot assessment. After marking or filling in the answers, just click "Submit your Responses" at the bottom of the page. You should then see the results. The number of correct answers and the percentage of points you have earned will appear at the bottom of the page.
Important: After you click "Submit your Responses," try to be patient if the assessment takes a while to be submitted. If, after clicking "Submit your Responses" and waiting a while for the responses to be sent, you click the "Stop" button of your web browser and click "Submit your Responses" again, you are likely to receive the error message that "You have exceeded the number of times that a user is permitted to submit responses to this document." Of course, let the instructor know if you run into problems submitting responses.
Reviewing Your Responses
The instructor can set Test Pilot so you can view the results of an assessment immediately after you have submitted your responses, but Test Pilot can also be set up so that you can return to the assessment after the due date and review your responses, the correct answers, and your score. If you click on a link to a Test Pilot assessment after the due date, you will see the information below on the login screen.
Entering your IVCC student ID number and clicking "Review Your Score" (instead of "Request") will allow you to see the results of the assessment, the same information that was displayed immediately after you submitted your responses.
Trying to Submit Late Responses
All assignments for the course have due dates, and, according to the course outline, late work is not accepted. Test Pilot will not allow you to access online assessments after the due date has passed. If you try to access an assessment after the due date, you will see the message below after entering your login ID.
If the instructor sets a due date for an assessment, there is no way that you can access the assessment after the due date. Therefore, it is especially important that you make sure to complete the Test Pilot assessments by the due dates. If special circumstances prevent you from completing a Test Pilot assessment on time, contact the instructor as soon as possible.
Avoiding Problems
While Test Pilot is simple to use, there are a few important things you should be aware of.
Incorrect Login ID
If you type an incorrect User ID, something other than your
seven-digit IVCC student ID number, you will see the kind of login
screen illustrated below, with two boxes, one for the Test ID and
one for your User ID.
Because it is not easy to figure out what to type in the first box for the "Test ID," the best thing to do if this happens is to click the "Back" button of your web browser, re-enter your login ID correctly, and then click "Request" again. (The Test ID is whatever appears after the "tests/" in the URL for the assessment, which will appear in the Location or Address bar of your web browser, but, again, it is much easier just to click the "Back" button of the web browser and try again.)
Attempts to Resubmit Responses
Most of the Test Pilot assessments used for the course allow you
to access and read the assessments an unlimited number of times
(before the due date) but allow you to submit responses only once.
Once you have submitted your responses to an assessment, you can still
access the assessment, but you will receive the error message below if
you attempt to resubmit responses.
As noted above, you are also likely to see this error message if, after clicking "Submit your Responses," you click the "Stop" button of your web browser and click "Submit your Responses" again. The submission process might be slow at times, but just let the program try to register your submission the first time you click "Submit your Responses.
Technical Problems
Test Pilot is not free from technical problems. If the college is
experiencing problems with Test Pilot, the instructor will let you
know as soon as possible. The message "File Not Found,"
illustrated below, indicates a technical problem with Test Pilot, a
problem that we will need to fix before you can access the assessment.
Error messages indicating trouble with "parsing" or with a "lookaside file" also indicate technical
problems.
If you try to access a Test Pilot assessment and see an error message indicating technical problems, and the instructor has not informed you of the problems, please let the instructor know.
Attempts to Access Assessments Too Early
Although you should be able to access most Test Pilot assessments
for our course from the time they are linked on an assignment page
until the due date, instructors can also set the assessments to allow
access only after a specific date and time. For example, an
exam presented in Test Pilot might be accessible only between two
times, a start time and an end time, both set by the instructor. If
this is the case with any of the assessments for our course, you will
be given the start and end time. However, this will not be the case
for most of the assessments in our course. Only an end time will be
specified.
This is important: Notice the login screen below. One of the messages under the login box states that "You may only request to see this assessment once." This message indicates not only that you may access the assessment just once but that you may request to see it only once. If there is a specific start time and you request to see the assessment before the start time, you will receive the error message that "This document is not available at this time" and you will have used your one time to request the document, meaning that you will not be able to access the assessment after the start time.
Again, though, most of the assessments for our course will not have a specified start time, only a due date and time, meaning that you will not have to worry about entering the assessments too early.
For most of the Test Pilot assessments for our course, you will be able to access the assessments an unlimited number of times (before the due date) but will be able to submit your responses only once. However, it is important to note that Test Pilot can be set so you have only one chance to access an assessment, meaning that you have to complete the assessment and submit your responses the first time you access it. This will not be the case for most of the assessments in our course.
Questions?
If you have any questions or run into any problems using Test Pilot, please contact the instructor!