Maintenance

With Judy and Stew, went through the procedures for the AP test again, to check the instructions, and make sure the new build works OK. Found one problem machine, STN 23, which had its registry settings configured for STN 1; went in as admin and fixed those. All student machines now work except the hors-de-combat STN 1.

Following the testing instructions, though, we found inconsistencies. It's impossible to follow the instructions as they were written, because once you start playing the practice material, the test Start button is disabled and you can't get it enabled again. Basically, you have only one chance to press the test Start button, and that's after you've pressed the Replay button following a hear/record test. Reading the Sanako manual, it appears that the testing system was set up for a test in which the CD plays the whole time, and all that happens is that you pause and un-pause student recording.

So the only practical way we found to administer the test was to go through the Sample / Record / Replay sequence with the Teacher as source, then switch to the CD and queue up the test. Then press Start, and immediately pause the student recording. When you pause the student recording. Then let the intro/practice stuff run its course, and when it's time to record the students, unpause student recording. (When you do that, the CD may pause itself, so you'll possibly need to press Play again). Keep riding the Pause student recording button so that they get to record themselves at the appropriate points. The Stop and Collect.

Judy's documenting this in detail, and we'll post the procedure on the blog when it's done. Scott is going to be running the real test on Monday, but we'll need to be able to do it for the future.

Following Greg's experiences in the lab, and in the absence of any non-lab "normal" install of Windows 2000, I did some testing on a computer I have at home with Windows 2000. The computer is fully updated, with Moz 2.0.0.3, WMP 9 and RealPlayer 10.5. These are the results:

• BBC on IE with WMP: OK
• BBC on IE with Real: OK
• BBC on Moz with WMP: OK
• BBC on Moz with Real: OK
• CTV on IE (WMP): OK
• CTV on Moz (WMP): OK
• CTV on Moz with Real: OK
• CNN on IE (WMP): CRASH AND BURN!
• CNN on Moz (WMP): OK

So I think we can deduce two things: First, the CNN site is completely broken for WMP 9 and IE6. That's really no loss; it's one of the most cookie- and ad-laden sites I've seen in ages, and it tries to spawn popup windows all over the place. Second, the other sites should be OK on Windows 2000, so problems in the lab with those sites are most likely caused by the Sanako player.

A long-standing bug with RealPlayer in Firefox has surfaced again with the new build of Lab B machines, running Firefox 2. It seems to be what is described here, and the fix described here (part III) might be worth trying.

Judy, Greg and I spent an hour going over the test booklet, CD, and AP Test functions. The basic functions below apply, but there are some things to be aware of. I'll post these in-line below where appropriate.

AP testing How-to

• 1) Choose AP Test under the Testing menu.
• 2) Place all participating machines in a group. If this is not done the machines NOT participating will cause the next step to fail.
• 3) Under the "Student ID" section of the UI press "Start" to make the system aware of the participating students.
• 4) Students then enter their AP ID number using the bookmark butons in the Sanako player.
• 5) When the students are done click on "Stop" under the "Student ID" section of the UI.
• 6) Press "Sample" under the "Student ID" section of the UI to test playback.
• 7) If students hear the file press "Record" and have the students speak a few words to test the recording functionality.
• 8) Press "Replay" to let students listen to their "dry run". If they hear their recording press "Record" again to stop the dry run.
• 9) Queue the CD to the desired track. Play the track for the students so they can hear the taped instructions and do the TWO practice runs (not to be recorded). The entire Instructions/Practice takes approximately 4.5 minutes. Pause the Master track if necessary so teachers can field questions.
• 10) Once instructed to "begin recording", press "Start" under the "Exam" section of the UI to begin the test. Check to make sure master track is still runing.
• 11) Pause student recording when instructed to "stop recording". Master track continues to run.
• 12) When instructed to "begin recording" again, unpause the student recording. Keep in mind that unpausing the student recording (for some reason) pauses the Master track. Hit "play" on the master track so students can hear the questions and record themselves.
• 13) When the test is over press collect and follow the onscreen instructions.