Answer Key Numeric Support

Testing programs have the freedom to define their answer keys as numeric or character-based for Single-Selection Multiple-Choice, Multiple-Selection Multiple-Choice, and Likert items.  This configurable option is set for a specialty section and item type.  Existing clients have their default options set to match their current needs.  This is integrated throughout Pro! in authoring, poolbooks, versioning, importing, and publishing.

Enhanced Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Support

Alternative text, or alt text, is a written description of an image or other visual element on a web page or document that screen readers and other assistive technologies read. It is a requirement of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act and is essential for web accessibility.  

Pro! allows authorized users to enter alt-text associated with an exhibit.  This can be during the addition of a new exhibit into an item or standalone into the digital asset management (DAM) system.  Users can view and modify the alt-text directly within the catalog or from within the Exhibit search results page.  When an examination is published, the associated alt-text is added to the Pearson Vue Athena Browser Edition QTI and available to be read by the screen reader.

Item Review Comparisons

When a Secondary Reviewer marks up an item’s content, the Item Review status table indicates who made a content change for the review round. The Item Comparison feature listed all Secondary Reviewers regardless of whether they made content changes. This caused the Primary reviewer to either refer back to the status table or cycle through each reviewer looking for changes. This enhancement populates the comparison list with only the reviewers who have made content changes, streamlining the review process.

Passage-Based Item Review Rounds

Passages or scenarios and their associated items can be sent out for review.  In some cases, it is advantageous to create a passage-based review round, which allows the reviewer to concentrate on the passage content.  The associated items are viewed in the passage’s context, but the feedback is gathered at the passage level. 

The Primary Reviewer’s functionality has not changed.  This feature is to streamline the Secondary Reviewer’s (SR) review process by entering passage updates and passage comments. When the SR completes the round, they will complete the round for the passage and all associated items within the same review round.  The same review decision and comment will be applied.  The SR’s work queue will also be passage-based and display the passage name. 

Passage Preview

While reviewing a passage with associated Likert items, the preview has been upgraded to render all associated Likert items within a single vertically scrollable preview window.   This aligns with how that candidate sees the item and how the Pro! Backoffice preview feature works.

Get Examination

The API to retrieve examination information was updated to support the new section reference publishing feature introduced in Pro! 4.3.  The results include new refSections JSON collections within the layout portion of the examination definition.

"refSections": [
    {
      "examinationSectionID": 0,
      "displayOrder": 0,
      "name": "string",
      "sectionRefId": 0,
      "sectionRefName": "string"
    }

See the Swagger documentation for complete details. /api/examinations/{id}

Create Poolbook

This is an endpoint for creating and optionally populating a pool book. The pool book name needs to be unique for each section. All items must exist and be associated with the specified section if an item collection is supplied. The details will be located within the response body when an error is returned.

See the Swagger documentation for complete details. /api/poolbooks

Update Poolbook

This endpoint updates an existing pool book. It is typically used to replace referenced items, but it can also change the other metadata. This is a complete replacement of the pool book details and is not a delta update. A request might fail if the pool book is locked or an item is not found. When an error is returned, the details will be located within the response body.

See the Swagger documentation for complete details. /api/poolbooks/{id}

Create an Examination Form

This endpoint creates a new form for an existing examination with a fully defined layout. The pool book for the measurable sections can also be defined. Each item within the pool book will have its usage defined within the form. A request might fail if the examination, pool book, or items do not exist within the specified section. The details will be located within the response body when an error is returned.

See the Swagger documentation for complete details. /api/examinations/{examinationFormGroupId}/examinationForm

Update Examination Form

The endpoint updates an existing examination Form and is a complete replacement. If the request fails, the response body returns an error with details.

See the Swagger documentation for complete details. /api/examinations/{examinationFormGroupId}/examinationForm/{examinationFormName}

Pro! Back Office

• After the latest editor control upgrade, using the first line indent feature under certain circumstances caused additional styles to be injected into the HTML. The injected style used a white background, which became a problem for ADA candidates who changed their color scheme. A change was made to use a transparent background for the injected style. 

• Creating a new examination and publishing it multiple times without closing and reopening the examination was writing a usage entry for each publication.  As a result, duplicate usage records are shown in the item’s usage tab.  Closing and reopening the examination correctly updated the existing examination snapshot for subsequent publications.  Publishing was updated to ensure multiple records are not written for this scenario.

• Publishing converts authored expressions and equations to an image.  The generated image was created with a transparent background.  The image text was not visible for ADA candidates who switched the screen colors to a black background.   Publishing was changed to ensure the image was generated with a white background.

• A fix was introduced to resolve a timing issue.  Opening a locked Likert or Single Selection Multiple Choice (SSMC) item presents a message to the user.  Quickly dismissing the message caused a timing issue that resulted in the quick comments not displaying.

Pro! Remote Item Authoring and Review

• After the latest editor control upgrade, using the first line indent feature under certain circumstances caused additional styles to be injected into the HTML. The injected style used a white background, which became a problem for ADA candidates who changed their color scheme. A change was made to use a transparent background for the injected style.