Autonomous Single App Mode (ASAM) and TestNAV App

[promalley]

Is anyone using ASAM profiles and can provide any insight in to how the JSS can push them out to iPads?

[promalley]

Started testing this week with our computer labs and starting on iPads next week. With IOS 8.2 supposedly launching next week; I am doing some beta testing on an iPad 2 running IOS 8.2 Beta 5. TestNav 1.3.2 is still broken from ASAM but will work with Guided Access. I am going to see tomorrow how TestNav 1.3.1 functions on IOS 8.2 and will update my findings here.

Good luck everyone!

[promalley]

This was posted to CDE (Colorado Department of Education) site on some PARCC lessons learned:

Chromebook and iPad TestNav App (Error 2008) – Memory Limits If a device is used by students for instruction or other purposes, it may be good practice to restart the devices prior to testing to ensure that there are no apps running in the background •

[msnowdon]

We have been testing the last couple of weeks with MacBooks an iPads sucessfully. At first I made a Configuration Profile to use the Single App Mode payload, but then I read in Pearson's documentation to use "Autonomous Single App Mode apps" in the Restrictions payload which actually works better because it automatically puts TestNav into single app mode on demand rather than pushing out the policy each time to enable/disable it. Machines do have to be supervised. Another couple of requirements are to turn off "Check Spelling" and "Predictive" under General > Keyboards. I am using version 1.3.2 of TestNav and IOS version 8.xx.

And yes, restart the device prior to testing each time to clear any proccesses that may be running.

Also wanted to mention that the app brings you to a generic page. If you are doing a trial test, you must select "PARCC Training" from the "Select your Test" drop down box.

[Nick_Gooch]

@msnowdon is ASAM working for you? What version of the JSS are you running?

[bfrench]

Within the profile settings you can now disable predictive text, auto correct, spell check, and definition lookup.

[msnowdon]

We are using JSS 9.62 but I want to upgrade to 9.65 because I read that you can change the Keyboard settings from a policy now, rather than manually doing it to all machines.

[brownbe]

We have AirSecure Test deployed to our grades 3-5 iPads. We have them all in a testing profile that has all of our restrictions but enables the app store. For some reason the app store must be enabled for the app to enter ASAM. We are running 9.65 but we haven't disabled spellcheck and others because it would affect all other apps as well.

One thing we did find which I'm sure others have found is that when testing, Auto screen lock needs to be set to NEVER. Otherwise if the screen locks it screws up the test and the device has to be rebooted.

[Nick_Gooch]

Those are options in 9.65. Good to hear that ASAM *might* work this time. I've heard a lot of inconsistent reports that it works or it doesn't.

[tmagdziasz]

We are still having mixed results with ASAM. A majority of students it is working for a small percentage it is not. No rhyme or reason

[Nick_Gooch]

We just started this morning and ASAM didn't work for any of our students.

[bfrench]

We started today and it worked for about 98% of ours. The few it did not work for had some accessible features turned on - once we stopped that and reinstalled they were OK. Are all of your students supervised? From a Prestage enrollment? or from configurator?

[Nick_Gooch]

Supervised with Prestage, running testnav 1.3.2 and JSS is at 9.65.

[bfrench]

Did you install the app via VPP? or push out?

[tmagdziasz]

We didn't even risk and just used Focus... in training last week however we appeared to be getting a 90% success rate with no rhyme or reason...

[galionschools]

We use ASAM both with TestNav and the AIRSecure app (Ohio) and both work just fine. We have maybe one or two out of 200-300 kids that need to be focused with Casper Focus.

We're 1:1 so I just added the bundle id to the restrictions section of the configuration profile and redistributed the profile to everyone. It of course didn't work right off the bat so we had to use Casper Focus during the first couple days of PARCC. What ended up being the ah-ha moment for me was I have the app store restricted on all grades so once I allowed access to it ASAM worked right away. I haven't tried it with the app store restricted(off) since upgrading to 9.65, but I'm not going to try as I don't want to break something that's working when we're in the middle of testing.

[Nick_Gooch]

I think the app store is the issue. I thought that was a bug pre-9.65 but it looks like it's not.

@galionschools You added the app store back on to your iPad's so ASAM would work? What are you doing after testing? Will you take the app store back off the iPad's and go delete all the games that were installed or stick with the open app store model? Trying to figure out if that is worth it here or not. Thanks for the advice.

Today we just went with having the kids lock themselves in through guided access over locking them in with Casper so they could get out of guided access and quit/reload the app easier if issues came up. It was 7th and 8th graders so they figured it out pretty quick.

[bfrench]

We have left the app store open for our students. We have had minimal loading up of games on the devices, especially after they realized we knew what was installed and called a few of them out for it. The word quickly passes amongst them and the games are deleted.

[galionschools]

We've been turning if off and on depending on testing schedules so it's not on throughout the entirety of the spring. To be honest though our acceptable use policy states they can't install apps or games. Kids will be kids though and some just skim the document but I rarely accept any excuses and the kids that have dealt with me are aware they'll never walk out of my office unscathed.

The restricted app store model has been a thorn in my side though and I'm looking into opening it up sometime down the road.

[msnowdon]

We have been working fine but we have the app store on for the moment. We are running 9.62. I want to turn off the app store after we upgrade. Why would having the app store restricted cause ASAM not to work? Do you think it has to do with ASAM using the bundle identifier when it locks the app?

[galionschools]

That's the thing I'm trying to wrap around my head as I could get ASAM to work with a restricted app store policy when I enrolled it with Meraki MDM.

[cdenesha]

I have finally spent a day testing ASAM with AIRSecureTest. Grades 9-12 so the testing window doesn't open until 4/27.

I am pleasantly surprised to learn that Autonomous means exactly that - NO communication with JSS required to test!! This is a HUGE, HUGE benefit over Casper Focus or Single App Mode profiles, as the latter requires a WiFi communication in order to break out of the test. With ASAM, no bricked devices.

So far in my testing:

It does not matter if the app is Managed and installed by the JSS or Unmanaged and installed through the App Store. The Bundle ID is still the same.

iPads which go to sleep and are woken up are automatically broken out of the test with a message. If there is no passcode then you can even press the Home button to wake it up - Single App Mode has already been quit. If there is a passcode you have to use the Power Button to get the screen to wake up and enter the passcode. No restart required, which is different than what another poster on this thread mentioned (@brownbe).

I am not having any trouble on my test iPads with ASAM not working when the App Store is Disabled. I'm running JSS 9.65. I removed all profiles at least once on these iPads before enabling ASAM, perhaps that is part of the issue? Can anyone elaborate on how quickly ASAM failed? Immediately?

Thanks,

chris

[cdenesha]

I found some iPads that were not going into ASAM when initiating the practice test, "this is not a secure test environment". I removed ALL configuration profiles with Restrictions, and reinstalled them all (I love Casper's Exclusion scope) and now all is well. I assume I had a mix of old and new profiles on the iPad and they weren't meshing well.

chris

[msnowdon]

Latest update from my experiences:

Hi, on Friday April 3rd, I upgraded my JSS from 9.62 to 9.7. I also made some changes to a Restrictions profile that I use on my lab iPads currently being used for PARCC testing.

I wanted to prevent users from installing anything and to manage all apps through Casper. It seems that the unchecking of “Allow installing apps” prevented the devices that had the TestNav app pushed out to them (managed) prevented them from going into “Autonomous Single App Mode” whereas the devices that had the TestNav app manually installed continued to work. I would have thought, if anything, the exact opposite and that managed apps would continue to work. Either way many of the devices couldn’t lock down TestNav into single app mode and were holding up testing, so I removed that restriction and pushed that profile back out to all devices using the Restrictions profile.

I am curious as to why this restriction caused this behavior. Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong. Does it matter if TestNav was pushed out via Casper or manually installed through the app store? I'd like to restrict anyone from installing apps but I dont want to break ASAM again.

Thanks

Mark

[msnowdon]

@stoneacheck ,

I was curious how you made a policy to add those 2 lines to the deployment.properties file for Java. From the screenshot, it looks like you are using a policy to add the deployment.properties file to the machines which would overwrite any existing file. I could get the file off of my machine, modify it and push it out to my PARCC computers but there is some parts of the file that are specific to my machine such as deployment.modified.timestamp & deployment.version. Not sure how important those are if they dont match up with what is actually installed.

Thanks

Mark

[cdenesha]

@msnowdon, That is very interesting that the TestNav software could not implement ASAM if it was installed as Managed and the App Store was Disabled, but that it works ok if it was installed as Unmanaged.

Do you have any profiles installed that restrict these?
- Allow managed apps to store data in iCloud
- Allow documents from managed apps in unmanaged apps
- Allow documents from unmanaged apps in managed apps

chris

[msnowdon]

@cdenesha

I just have one restrictions profile and it doesn't restrict the items you mentioned although I was thinking about restricting all iCloud related settings.

Thanks

Mark

[cdenesha]

I just restricted everything possible in a Configuration profile for Restrictions, and was still able to use the SBAC AIRSecureTest with ASAM. It must be something in the way Pearson wrote TestNav. I suggest creating a ticket with them, perhaps they can get it fixed for next year.

chris

[Nick_Gooch]

Ha! Chris you are funny. Most of the support techs at Pearson don't even know what ASAM is, let alone that you have to test in the TestNav app on an iPad and not through Safari (level two techs included).

[cdenesha]

<smile>
All you have to do is get the message to the right level or person! Perhaps use your state educational testing representative - we have a good one here and I was able to connect directly with the liaison for AIR.

chris

[Nick_Gooch]

Reported ASAM wasn't working properly months ago to them. Response: "What's that?" Sent the docs showing it was the recommended way to test since the start of state testing... silence.