[samigo-team] any interest in kiosks and secure browsers?

[Luke Fernandez]

Keli,

To answer your questions:

So does 8/21 sound good?
Yes that will work. (My schedule is pretty flexible)

"Is this the only open source secure browser there is?"
I don't know whether there are other open source secure browsers out
there.  However, some of our testing centers (prior to adopting this
browser) locked down their previous browsers at nill or nominal costs.
 On a related note the code hasn't been formally licensed one way or
another.  But given the funding source I'd be interested in sharing it
without any restrictions if anybody wanted to use it.

"Has it been tested with Sakai and Samigo?"
The browser is specifically coded to work with our own home-grown
testing system (Chi Tester).  Out of the box it would not work in
Sakai/Samigo.  However, it could probably be modified to work with
Sakai/Samigo, or alternatively (and more likely) used as a prototype
to inform your own design.

"Does it have a name?"
I've been calling it the "Concentration Browser"

Do let me know what the samigo-team (and any others who might be
attending) are interested in.  I can probably pitch the presentation
better knowing what people are curious about.   In terms of who you
might think of inviting, the browser was initially conceived as a
research tool that would help us to explore the challenge of
concentration in a world where digital devices increasingly encourage
multi-tasking.  That is something that interests your very own
Clifford Nass. But I'm more than willing to focus on more
pragmatic/administrative concerns: in fact the most practical and
tangible benefit we're getting from the browser is that it allows
instructors and testing centers to easily whitelist foreign dictionary
web sites and other online utilities that can be used as test aids.

Cheers,

Luke





On Wed, Aug 1, 2012 at 10:28 AM, Keli Sato Amann <kamann at stanford.edu> wrote:
> Hi Luke,
> I think that would be an excellent topic for the next Samigo meeting, perhaps 10 minutes with 10 minutes of discussion? However, I think 8/7 will be a review of  and if there is time, a review of work Jackie has done to allow instructors to download file uploads, unless she wants to concede that. So does 8/21 sound good? You might even have the full hour, or at least, we might spend the full hour talking about high-stakes testing.
>
> Is this the only open source secure browser there is? Has it been tested with Sakai and Samigo? Does it have a name?
>
> Others on list should comment, but we don't do a lot of high-stakes testing in Samigo here at Stanford. However, the requests have been growing. I don't think anyone uses Respondus lockdown browser because when it does occur, it is all in one room at the same time and there is a proctor (from our previous talks, I remember Weber State has multiple test centers and testing windows). I also think, at least the languages, are able to somehow whitelist certain sites, like our CLE instance, when users are in that room (they can insure that only those in the room are able to take it by adding an additional password on the specific test). Still, a lockdown browser might be more efficient and flexible.
>
> If we do have this discussion, I might invite folks from the languages, business, med school over. bcc'ing them now and will invite them again if we decide 8/21 works out.
>
> Keli Amann
> User Experience Specialist
> Academic Computing Services, Stanford University
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Luke Fernandez" <luke.fernandez at gmail.com>
> To: samigo-team at collab.sakaiproject.org, "Keli Sato Amann" <kamann at stanford.edu>
> Cc: "Ian Dolphin" <iandolphin at sakaifoundation.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2012 10:59:59 AM
> Subject: any interest in kiosks and secure browsers?
>
> Keli et al,
>
> During the bi-weekly meetings would any of you have any interest in a
> short (five-ten-fifteen minute) presentation on a feature that allows
> instructors to configure and modify the degree of "locked-downess" a
> secure browser would have during secure testing?  Basically the
> feature allows an instructor to enable a student to surf to designated
> Web sites on additional browser tabs while taking a secure test.  It
> works inside a custom made secure browser that we coded here at Weber.
> (Here is a screenshot of how it's configured:
> http://screencast.com/t/el63TdgT71  And here's a screenshot of how it
> appears in the secure browser while the student is testing:
> http://screencast.com/t/V5x8cMrlXutU )
>
> The project was funded by an NEH Digital Humanities grant (cf.
> http://tinyurl.com/6umcrma )  and an endorsement by Sakai played a
> role in securing the grant. Now that we're at the tail end of the
> project I'm looking for places to present our findings, and get
> feedback.  Since the NEH is encouraging us to share our work in open
> source communities I thought I'd put a query out here. ( If it's not
> something the Samigo team is interested in would you know of forums or
> conferences that might be interested in this work? )
>
> Cheers,
>
> Luke
> http://itintheuniversity.blogspot.com