About 150 students in the Computer Based Testing Center in Himes Hall couldn’t submit their tests around 2:30 p.m. Tuesday. Meanwhile, more than 100 other students were left waiting outside the testing center, and as the minutes passed, the line grew longer.
“People were pressing submit, but the tests weren’t going through,” said kinesiology junior Carley Gulino. “The people next to me had to retake the test three times. … People were getting really agitated.”
With 625 students scheduled to take tests for the remainder of the day, Office of Assessment and Evaluation employees were scrambling to determine what exactly had caused the servers to fail.
By 4 p.m., OAE Director Bobby Matthews had identified the problem: a glitch in the obsolete software.
“We’ve known for some time that the software is out of date,” Matthews said. “It’s sort of predictable this sort of thing would happen, actually.”
The OAE tweeted at 6:22 p.m. that the system was back up and students could stop by before 7:15 p.m. if they wanted to make up their test on Tuesday. Otherwise, testing would resume Wednesday as usual. “Come in and we can seat you or reschedule,” OAE tweeted to a follower inquiring about how to resolve a missed appointment.
OAE approached the Student Tech Fee Oversight Committee earlier this semester about purchasing new software that would safeguard against problems like students experienced Tuesday. While the committee granted the $192,383 request in September, the new software is currently undergoing a trial run.
The new system was expected to be introduced next semester, Matthews said.
“I wish I could explain it in more technical terms, but in any case, that this happened doesn’t surprise us,” Matthews said. “This is why we wanted to change the system. It’s the old software that caused the problem.”
With respect to those students who were testing when the server failed, OAE personnel are trying to retrieve their progress so they don’t have to completely redo their work.
“But it’s really a decision for the faculty members,” Matthews said.
Professors will be given the choice of whether to let students pick up where they left off, or elect to give them a new version of the test.
Apparently flooded with emails from concerned students, faculty are well aware of the testing situation.
“I have received many emails about the testing center having issues,” graduate assistant Stacey DeMyer wrote in an email to students in her Accounting 2000 class whose tests were scheduled for Tuesday. “Please do not send me any more emails. I am aware of the issue and will email the class again when I find out more information.”
Patience tested as center sees delays
November 19, 2013