Common Questions - Administrators

1. How do we measure the amount of time that a student spends working on a course?
When a student selects an activity, we send them a series of screens all at once. This means that once they start working on a section, they will not have to wait for additional material to arrive on their computer. This is important when slower Internet connection speeds or network congestion becomes a problem. However, as soon as all of the screens arrive, we start a timer. Note: A student's time in an activity is independent of their Internet connection speed.

Each screen will be timed as the student is viewing and/or responding to it. Some may require only a few seconds to complete. Others, for instance if they involve solving multi-part mathematical or procedural problems, may take several minutes. So when a student has finished an activity, we have a total time for that activity and times for each individual screen.

Questions are handled similarly. We track how long a student takes to answer a question, but also how much time they spend reviewing remedial material. In general, a student that misses a question spends more time reviewing this material, as it is presented as soon as a mistaken choice is made. Students who do not miss a question can also chose to review material.

2. What types of questions are in the courses?
Questions generally fall into 5 categories.

• True/False
• Multiple Choice
• List Box
• Click Touch
• Fill-in-the-Blank

3. What security measures do we use to monitor student compliance?
For courses that require it, we provide an on-line secure examination. At random intervals we will ask personalized, but non-invasive questions such as:

• Was your mother born in the United States?
• Did you ever meet any of your great-grandparents?
• Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?
• What is your favorite cartoon character?

These questions are designed to be easy to answer, with relatively time-invariant responses, and non-invasive (e.g., no questions about SS numbers, etc.). Because of their randomized and personalized nature, combined with the fact that there are several hundred of these questions available for us to select from, it would be difficult for an accomplice to take the exam in place of the licensee. The accomplice will not know what questions to expect and would be unlikely to answer them in the same way as the licensee.

At systematic intervals, we audit randomly selected students over the phone. With their prior responses in hand, we have them respond to the same personalized questions they answered during the training session. We may also ask if they remember various questions that did not respond to during the training. Auditing indicates whether cheating is a discernible problem within a particular course or student population. Cheating has not been a significant problem within our current courses because the audit process is presented to prospective students before they begin training so they have a clear incentive to complete the training legitimately.

We have used this form of student verification in the past with 6 computer-based training courses that have been approved by the Texas Real Estate Commission.

4. What sort of data do we track and record?
We follow all student interactions with our course material and store their responses and times in our databases. For example, in a training session composed of 20 screens, we would know what screens were viewed (were any of the 20 skipped?), and the times spent on each one. Also, for each interaction (e.g. a question), we record if the student correctly responded, what their response was, how long it took them to answer. If they viewed any remedial material after answering the question, we also record that time separately from the time spent initially answering the question.

5. How do students receive credit and certificates?
When a student finishes a course, they will be e-mailed credentials documenting their completion. If necessary, any governmental regulatory agencies or corporate training administrators that need to be notified will be contacted and appropriate documentation forwarded.

6. What is the value of presenting the training material in a series of layers?
As a general rule, students do not carefully read through long screens of text that require continuous scrolling down the page. As they progress, they will skip more and more of the material. By arranging the training in layers, we accomplish several goals:

• Students cannot immediately scroll through long pages of text just to get to the end of a training session
• Interactions (e.g. questions) can be embedded in the material thus adding reinforcement at short intervals
• Multiple trips do not have to be made between the browser and server to get new content so training sessions are not as dependent on Internet connection speeds

7. Do training sessions have to be continuous and uninterrupted?
No. Students may start and stop as often as they want to. And they can take the training from multiple computers at multiple sites. We follow and bookmark their progress and allow them to resume where they left off.

Note: The material sent to students will time out after 30 minutes. Each individual activity must be completed within 30 minutes. If a activity is not completed in that time, they may be required to log in again.