Many things could cause a student to believe that scores are not recording properly. More often than not, the problem is caused by confusion on the part of the student or teacher. Any student or teacher that thinks scores are not recording properly to the TestOut database should carefully review the following information:
1. If students can complete an item, score it, and have it not recorded in the CertMaster reports, and they can consistently recreate that, have them immediately call 1-800-877-4889 Opt. 2 and ask for Tanner so he can remotely connect to their computer, observe, and troubleshoot. Tanner is typically available Monday - Friday, 6:00 am - 2:00 pm Mountain time.
2. If students can't consistently recreate it but are convinced it is happening frequently, have them take a full-screen screenshot of their lab and exam reports that come up as they finish them and save them as proof of their score. If they did the item, you should also see evidence of it in their browser history, because each index number has a different URL so you can establish, more or less, if they even entered the item when they said they did by viewing that browser history, assuming they didn't clear it. This is only useful for establishing or dismantling credibility to their claims.
3. If students are getting CertMaster Error messages, it usually means something didn't load from or post to the server/database successfully. If the item that didn't post was a score, such as in the event of a flaky network connection, they should click Retry. Clicking Cancel or the X in one of these CertMaster error messages tells the program to not try again and depending on what failed, could cause a single score to be lost.
4. In a lab, if the student refreshes the page, clicks back, closes the browser tab, logs out, etc., the progress already completed in that lab will not record at all, regardless of how many tasks were completed at the time. The only way to get the lab score to record is to click the Score lab/Done button. A score report will come up on the screen at this point, as long as they don't see any errors, the score should be recorded. Exams/practice questions must be scored/finalized at the end or no score will be reported to our database.
5. If a student wants to confirm that their scores are recorded to the database, have them click the white home icon, and then click the Reports button found over to the right in the My Products area at the bottom of the CertMaster account home page. Anything found there is recorded in the database. Be mindful of the date range and item type filters in this report, so that you aren't unwittingly omitting results.
6. Make sure the students aren't judging whether an item is recorded solely by the presence of green checkmarks in the course outline. Green checkmarks are indicative of having a passing score, not just any score. Labs require 100% to pass, practice questions require 80%, and videos and fact sheets require 10 or more seconds spent viewing them. I highly recommend viewing this article to further clarify this: https://support.testout.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047863373
7. Make sure students aren't leaving labs or exams open but inactive for many hours. After 8 hours of inactivity, we automatically log the student out. If they had a lab or exam open during that time, they would get a message indicating that the session was no longer available and would be booted to the login page. The same thing could occur if they cleared their cookies while using CertMaster . The progress in a singular lab would be lost in this case, and an exam would need to be reentered and the last question they were on re-answered.
8. At schools that use LMS integration to have students launch links on the class page to access the material, their complaints of scores not recording are very commonly about them not recording to the LMS grade book as opposed to the TestOut grade book. Most commonly, a failure to record scores to the LMS grade book is a procedural error and not a system issue. For every graded TestOut assignment linked in the LMS portal, the student should click each link, do the item that the link directs them to and score it, click the Submit Score button if applicable (for LTI 1.1 integration), and then the student should close out of CertMaster , return to the class LMS page, and click the next graded assignment to launch to it and repeat the process. One link clicked can only return a single score and just for the item, they clicked to. See the Returning Grades to the LMS section or video on https://support.testout.com/hc/en-us/articles/360052640274 for more information.
9. Other things to check and ensure:
a. Make sure that the date range filter in your grade book/score sheet reports is not excluding results. This may be the most common cause of teachers hearing from students that they did work but the teacher cannot see it.
b. Make sure the student is enrolled in the correct class in CertMaster . Teachers can only see scores if the student is properly enrolled.
c. Check to make sure the student is logged into the correct account. Double-check the username.
d. Teachers can clear out old scores - if all scores before a certain date are missing, this may have occurred. It is a reversible process and teachers and support agents can restore cleared scores.
e. Students repeating a course will still see their past progress from that previous semester unless the teacher or support agent has cleared their progress or the class uses a different product version. This can create confusion for students that judge their course completion on the green checks in the course outline. If they are expected to repeat all of those items, they may benefit from asking their teacher or support to clear that past progress. The student may get confused about what they need to complete for the new semester, and teachers may have a date range in their reports that does not include the old work, which can lead to extra confusion.
f. Be aware that each TestOut product version keeps its grade book separately. For example, if you did work in TestOut PC Pro version 5.x, and then joined a class using PC Pro version 6.x, no work from version 5 would show under the version 6 grade book. The past progress could still be viewed in reports if selecting to view that version.
10. Be mindful that some students lie about completing work. We hear such cases frequently and always try to give the benefit of the doubt but we have even seen many clear cases of lying and even photoshopped screenshots of worked students claimed to complete. One student spent just over 10 seconds on every video and text lesson and then claimed that all of their labs were missing, so weigh what you know about the student's work ethic and history when assessing their claims of lost work.
11. Some general tips to avoid problems include:
b. Completely close your browser, reopen it, and clear your browser cache and cookies from time to time.
c. Avoid having your computer sleep or hibernate for long periods with TestOut open.
d. Avoid opening multiple tab instances of TestOut while in a lab or exam.
f. Use a stable internet connection. Reset the router if needed. Avoid hot spot and mobile data connections, if possible.
12. If there are any other questions or concerns about scores not recording, teachers or students can call us for real-time support at 1-800-877-4889 Opt 2. We are open between 6:00 am and 5:00 pm Mountain time, Monday - Friday. We'll be happy to help.