Overview

Welcome to lesson 13 of 14 in the Accessible Reading for Educators Course. In this lesson you will learn about the support an EasyReader Education Plan can offer students undertaking exams and formal assessments.

Lesson Objectives

After studying this lesson, you will be able to:

• State the benefits technology can provide during exams and assessments..
• Describe the setup procedure to switch EasyReader App into Exam Mode.
  

This lesson should take no more than 15 minutes to complete.

Access arrangements for exams and assessments

Today, accommodations in education are essential to ensure students have an equal opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in exams and assessments. With the cost of supporting students with the necessary accommodations rising due to an increase in the number of students requiring the support of a human reader or scribe, Assistive Technology can help provide a low-cost solution.

The EasyReader Education Plan gives Teachers and Administrators the ability to set EasyReader App into a restricted mode called Exam Mode, enabling EasyReader App to serve as a reader during exams.

Teachers will find Exam mode easy to setup and manage during exams and students can use all the Text and Audio Settings they require to make up their optimal reading environment.

Preparing EasyReader App for an exam

The setup process for Exam Mode does not require additional input from a school’s IT Team beyond the installation of the EasyReader App onto the designated Windows computer. Note that Exam Mode is only supported on the Windows platform.

Once installed, a teacher completes the following steps to enable Exam Mode.

Step 1: Login with a Teacher or Administrator Account

Exam Mode supports only Teacher Accounts and Administrator Accounts. Student Accounts are not valid.

To login:

1. Ensure access to the Internet is available.
2. Open EasyReader App.
3. Select the "Login" option from the main screen and then choose the "Login" button. If an Account is already active, select "My Account" and choose the "Logout" button before choosing the "Login" options.
4. Select "Continue with email or username".
5. Enter the username and password for the Teacher Account or Administrator Account.
6. After login, close and restart EasyReader App. Closing and restarting EasyReader App enables the App to update its settings based on the account.

Step 2: Prepare the books for the exam

1. Download any books required from the Accessible Library.
2. Import any files required for the exam.
3. If known, set the Text Settings and Audio Settings to meet the student’s reading preferences, for example, adjust the text size, colour settings, and TTS Voice in the Reader screen.
4. Confirm all required books and files are present.
   Ensure access to the Internet is available.

Step 3: Enable Exam Mode.

1. Open the "Exam Mode" menu (ALT + E).
2. Select "Open".
3. Select the options to disable during the exam. The options include:
   1. My Books.
   2. My Clipboard Texts.
   3. Online libraries.
   4. USB Access.
   5. Import books.
   6. Access to bookmarks
4. Set an expiry time for the exam and input a password. Both these fields are required.
5. If a clean setup is required after the exam, select the "Remove EasyReader books and data after exam" checkbox.
6. Select the "OK" button to confirm the changes. A message window appears stating that a restart of EasyReader is required.
7. Select the "Yes" button to close the EasyReader App.
8. If required, now disable Internet access.

Step 4: Enable Exam Mode.

1. Open EasyReader App. A message window appears confirming you are using Exam Mode. Choose "Continue" to continue using Exam Mode.
2. Verify content is correct for the exam.
3. Close EasyReader App in preparation for the student to begin the exam.

After the exam

After the exam is completed, the student should hand back the computer to the teacher. The teacher can now prepare EasyReader App for the next exam.

The teacher can open EasyReader App and, if the expiry time for the exam is still active, they can choose the "Unlock" button to manually unlock Exam Mode. The teacher must enter the password to confirm the unlock process.

If the teacher has previously selected the " Remove EasyReader books and data after exam" checkbox, then all books and data will be automatically deleted. If the option is unselected, then the teacher can manually remove the unrequired books.

If the expiry time for the exam has passed, the next time EasyReader App is opened the Exam Mode will be automatically unlocked and all books and data will be deleted, leaving a clean App ready for the teacher to prepare for the next exam.

Summary

Today, Assistive Technology is key in ensuring young people with special educational needs can undertake exams and assessments with equality.

Assistive Technology is providing a low-cost solution for access arrangements in exams and, as students are increasingly familiar with apps, it is offering a solution students are comfortable using.

Quiz

Below are two sample quiz questions based on this lesson. Please spend no more than five minutes considering the answers to these questions.

1. Assistive Technology can provide a (blank) solution for students seeking an access arrangement for exams.
   1. High-cost.
   2. Low-cost.
2. Exam Mode requires a teacher to login to the EasyReader App using a Student Account. Is this statement true?
   1. Yes.
   2. No.
3. What occurs when you open the EasyReader App after the Exam Mode time has expired?
   1. Books and data are automatically deleted.
   2. Books and data are retained, requiring the teacher to manually remove the items they require.
   3. Exam Mode never expires.

Thank you for completing this lesson. Please select 'Next Lesson' below to continue to the next part of this course.

To revisit a previous lesson, please scroll up to the top of this page and choose the lesson from the Course Outline menu.

But before you move on, here are the answers to the quiz questions:

1. Low-cost.
2. No.
3. Books and data are automatically deleted.