What's new in Practique

Release Notes 5.3.0 / 2017-12-18

Features

DescriptionNotes

Ability to Clone an Item

This feature was developed to reduce the number of repetitive tasks required in creating Items with similar or very similar information. The newly cloned Item will be assigned a new Item Number and a version number. 

CSV import validationIncluding HTML validation

Item Set Sections

As written exam content is often split into different parts, for example, this may be by the style of question (e.g. first answer 100 SBAs, then 50 EMQs) or the subject focus (e.g. the first 10 questions on Cardiology, the next 10 questions on Nephrology etc...) or by some other arbitrary reasoning, Item Set Section was developed to better manage this process. Previously, Item Sets presented item content in 1 block and it was difficult to differentiate different sections within it. This new feature allows Item Sets to take the form of multi-section papers. Item Sections can be introduced in the Item Set and a corresponding Item Section Title and Item Section Description can be added. This features puts us in good stead to build more complex business logic in the future (e.g. only allow SBAs on Cardiology in section 1, allow any style question on ENT in section 2). 

Sections can be created with Add Item Set Section button


And sections can be moved up and down by dragging and dropping the section in the Item set view page

Customising PDF templates

Ability for FRY-IT to implement a customised PDF template for exam paper delivery upon request. 

Asynchronous task management

This is a multi-part feature that was introduced in Practique to make more efficient use of exam administrators' time. Within Practique, there are tasks such as generating or downloading reports which takes the system a significant amount of time to complete depending on the size of exam being processed and the amount of data contained. Previously, when downloading or generating reports, the user was not able to move from the page on which the task was taking place. With the introduction of asynchronous task management, the user is now able to navigate to others parts of Practique whilst a process in ongoing. For each task, there is a notification which appears every 15 minutes at the top right corner of the brower to indicate whether a task has finished. The notification will also clearly indicate the status of the task, for example, if the task was "ABORTED" or if it failed "FAILURE". A task list page was also created indicating the status of each task in the corresponding column. 


AssignCasesTask:

(for written and OSCEs)

  • After the task has finished there is a Task details button on Item Set page.
  • On item set page there is a dropdown button "Preparing..." with task details. 

GeneratePaperTask

(for written and OSCE)

  • Papers are generated and ready for download after task has finished on session page and on Task Detail page.
  • When deleting task and its result generated zip file is also deleted from the server. 
  • When creating papers for written exam there is percentage indicator of task progress 
  • If the task is aborted there is and idicator for that on the Session page and on Task Detail page. 


CreateCombinedDietTask

  • Combining OSCE exams and Written Exams
  • There is an indicator on exams page if combining is in progress.
  • There is Aborted label if task has been aborted and on Task Detail page and Task List page it is showed as aborted as well. 

ImportCSVResultsTask / ImportCSVCaseResultsTask

(written and OSCE)

  • On success import of results on the Task Detail page, it shows the total number of rows, successfully imported items and errors.
  • If task has failed, this is reflected on the Task Detail Page and is listed as FAILED on the Task List page. 
  • Notification badge show up on the top right corner that task has failed
  • Reason of task failing is showed in task detail page as Python traceback (internal developer tool)

DownloadBlockResultsTask

  • On Task Detail page the user can find the CSV and XLS files which have completed downloading. 

 DownloadBlockResponsesTask

  • On Task Detail page the user can find the CSV and XLS files which have completed downloading. 

ResultsAddDiet

DownloadExamResultsTask

  • On Task Detail page the user can find the CSV and XLS files which have completed downloading. 

Reports:

  • If task is aborted on task detail page it stops generating and gets the appropriate "ABORTED" status.

ItemCutScoresReportTask

  • There is a downloadable link on the Exam Reports page and on the Task Detail page.

ItemResponseReportTask

  • When task has finished successfully, there is a downloadable PDF on the Task Detail page.

CandidateFeedbacksReportTask

  • When task has finished successfully, there is a downloadable PDF on the Task Detail page.

ExaminerControlReportTask

  • When task has finished successfully, there is a downloadable PDF on the Task Detail page.

ItemStatisticAnalysisReportTask

  • When task has finished successfully, there is a downloadable PDF on the Task Detail page.

EmailCandidateFeedbacksReportTask

  • When task has finished successfully, the Emails are sent to candidates.

ExamAnalysisReportTask

  • When task has finished successfully, there is a downloadable PDF on the Task Detail page.


Background Task List page Screenshots:

Email candidates the feedback report

You can now easily distribute the Candicate Feedback Report by email. 

Number of days since an Item used BLUEPRINT constraint.

There is now a field that allows the user to specify the number of days since item has been used last time in the item set.

If items were not used for x number of days from the day of item set creation they are excluded in the generation of the item set.

Warning for Item set containing when item set contains items used in the last X days as specified in the blueprint constraint

There is an orange notification on Item Set page there are items in the item set that were used in previous item sets as per constraint defined in the blueprint.

5.2.1 - 21st July 2017

Note - This release also includes fixes and improvements as detailed in 5.1.12

Features

Naming Combined Exams

PRAC-1617

It is now possible to name combined exams when they are created. Previously Practique named them by the 'Combined OSCE Exam' Blueprint. It is also possible to rename the exam by editing the exam details. This can be done from the main exam list, as shown below.





Item Set title

PRAC-1547, PRAC-1590

In this release, we have introduced the ability to name Item Sets. This is intended to make working with the sets easier, especially with multi day exams, and multiple item sets for the same exam blueprint. This can be set when creating the Item Sets, and edited on existing Item Sets. We have also improved the numbering of item sets in the audit and history logs, to make it easier to track them.

Insert Special Characters

We have made it easier to insert special characters in to written items. There is now a dedicated button, along with some medicine specific characters (alpha, beta, gamma, mu, and en dash). 

Exam Paper Export Improvements

PRAC-1591, PRAC-1511

In this release we have improved the way that exam paper exports can be styled. For DOCX/Word exports, it is now possible to use Word template styles to set the styling for Item Set previews or exam paper generation. For setting the styling of exam papers, please get in contact with us via the Service Desk

Improvements

PRAC-1585 Answer deletion option to SBA, VSAQ and EMQ question types 

In this release, we have improved the way that answer options can be deleted from Practique. A delete button now appears by each option, allowing users to change how many options are included in a question.

PRAC-1606 PSD-694 Added Bold Text to ARQ Items

In ARQ items, the 'not' in 'Both Assertion and Reason are true, and Reason is not a correct explanation for Assertion' is now shown in bold format.

PRAC-1525, 1523 Item import improvements

In this release, the item import process has been improved. It is no longer necessary to select the type of encoding for items (UTF-8/UTF-16). It is also now optional whether Practique will create unknown categories when importing items.

Practique also now supports importing categories with the same name in different BP hierarchy levels. The category hierarchies are denoted by '>'. Anatomy of the Limbs>Lower Limb>Osteology, Joints & Ligaments;Anatomy of the Limbs>Lower Limb>Nervous system' would tag an imported item with two categories.

PRAC-1521 Added filtering to suggest item replacement page

When changing an Item in an Item Set, it is now possible to filter using the same criteria as in the item bank. This gives a significant increase in speed when working with Item Sets.

PRAC-1536, PRAC-1583, PRAC-1523 Blueprint Category Improvements

In this release, we have included some improvements for Blueprint categories:

  • It is now possible to add a new category with the same text as an already archived category.
  • Multi Hierarchy BP categories are now ordered correctly when creating and editing the list of categories
  • Archived BP dimensions no longer appear on the Edit Candidate and Edit Examiner Screens
  • It is now possible to filter categories by 'All States'
  • Filtering has been added to viewing Dimension Categories
  • Added a 'Copy' button next to every category in the category listing, which copies the full path of the category to the clipboard. The copied category name then can be pasted into XLS/CSV file.

PRAC-1586 Display information about the current Standard setting method and its parameters on Items page

Practique now displays standard setting information on the exam Item page.

 


PRAC-1522 Item Set List Improvements

In this release, we have improved the speed at which Item Sets will load, and made them easier to work with. This has been done through a few different ways:

  • Improving the way that the lists are cached
  • Non-approved Item Sets no longer have warnings calculated when the list is being loaded.
  • Improving the way that Item Sets are loaded

PRAC-1518 Improved speed of processing of incoming messages from iPad or Practique for Browser

In this release we have significantly improved the way that communications from the iPad and Practique for Browser are processed, yielding major speed improvements. From our testing, Practique 5.2.1 can handle most messages in less than 0.5s. Previously this would typically take 5-10s per message, which could allow the server to occasionally overload on very large exams.

Improved speed of Candidate marks list loading

We have improved the speed at which Candidate marks display on the Set Standard > View Candidates page

5.1.12 - 21st July 2017

Features

There were no new features in this release. 

Improvements

PRAC-1513 Candidate Feedback Report speed improvements

In this release we have significantly improved the speed with which the Candidate Feedback Report generates. This is especially prominent when there is a lot of blueprinting information within the exam. In some cases the improvement has made generating reports up to 10 times faster.

PRAC-1531 Increased OSCE backend updated timeout to 20 seconds

We have increased the OSCE update timeout to 20 seconds. The reason for making this change is that if the iPad or Backend are under high load, some synchronisation messages would come out of sync. Increasing this delay mean that all messages are processed in the correct order. This does however mean that there will be a delay of up to 20s for marks appearing on marshal's iPads.

PRAC-1485: Improvements to Candidate and Examiner Import

When importing Candidates and Examiners, it is now no longer possible to import duplicate email addresses. Candidates and examiners must have unique email addresses respectively.

5.2.0 - 21st April 2017

New Features

Practique for Browser

With Practique 5.2.0, we are adding support for a new way of taking exams. Practique for Browser allows users to run exams on Windows, MacOS and Linux computers securely, as well as tablets and mobile devices. At the moment, this is for written exams, however in future we will be adding support to take OSCEs and MMIs on the same platform.

Practique for Browser is licenced as a separate module for Practique, so please do get in contact with us if interested in using the platform.


Extended Matching Questions

PRAC-807

A new written question type has been added to Practique, in the form of EMQs. Extended Matching Questions present candidates with a list of possible options around a single theme/subject area. A series of SBA style sub-questions are then asked relating to this theme, where the all of the answers come from one single list of options. 

Included in this is the ability to upload EMQs by CSV, which is detailed in the Item Upload page. Also it is possible to export EMQ into exam papers.

Example showing how to create EMQs:


EMQs are currently supported for paper exams only. Practique for iPad and Practique for Browser functionality will be added in a future release.

Distribution of Candidate feedback report via e-mail

It is now possible to distribute candidate feedback directly from Practique. After generating the PDFs, an 'Email' button now appears. 

Clicking this will allow you to define the message template that you would like to send to candidates. It is possible to include the first and last name of the candidate using the variables *|FNAME|* *|LNAME|*. Candidates can be selected from the 'Candidates' box, where multiple candidates can be selected using Ctrl/Command and Shift keys. The 'Redirect To' field is useful to test the report distribution. By inputting your email address, the emails will be sent to this address instead of to candidates. Please note, that each email will be redirected - ie if you have 60 candidates, all 60 emails will be redirected to your email address. The reports are attached to the emails as PDFs. Practique also supports distributing audio candidate feedback to students via email.




Resource Bulk Upload

Practique 5.2.0 adds the ability to upload multiple resource files to Practique, by simply dragging and dropping them on to the page. These are created as draft resources, which can then be named and tagged as appropriate.



Exam blueprint constraints - Exclude previously used items constraint

New "Exclude previously used items" exam blueprint constraint has been introduced to allow exam teams to exclude items previously used in exams from newly generated Item sets. This constraint exclude items that have been used within a specified number of days from the date of new Item set generation.

Constraint only excludes items which have been used in an exam (at least scheduled exam) it will not exclude items which are just used by the Item Set. This means that should you create several Item Sets in advance of you exams this new constraint would not exclude used items in these Item Sets as the Item Sets themselves are not yet used in an Exam.

We have also added notification for an Item set view informing users that the Item Set uses items used in last exams and so violating the constraint should it be set.

An example of the constraint would be that you want to exclude Items used in exams in last month (30 days).

Exam paper preparation improvements

PRAC-1396, PRAC-1395, PRAC-1393, PRAC-1385, PRAC-1381, PSD-562

With Practique 5.2.0, we have started to overhaul the preparation of exam papers. Further improvements are coming in future releases, however in this release we have:

  • Added in the ability to export to Word docx file format. This significantly improves the workflow and gives flexibility to reformat papers as needed.
  • Improved the way that papers are generated, with the option to stop generation.
  • Added options when previewing the item set on whether to include correct answers or not
  • Improved the numbering of questions, to cover multipart questions
  • Previously when exporting an item set with VSAQ items, Practique would just show the question stem. Practique can now export the VSAQ correct answer options, if it is selected to do so.
  • When exporting items with DICOM images, a thumbnail will be shown on the paper
  • Use the same font size for question text and available answers. 

New permissions selection UI

PRAC-1126

In this release, a new User Interface has been added when creating and editing user group permissions. It is now possible to easily see all of the permissions available, as well as a description of each one. As part of this, Review Assets has been renamed Review Resource Library.

Assertion-Reason Question type

We have also added Assertion-Reason Questions (ARQs), which are a type of SBA. For example:

Question Text

Assertion: Blood sugar level falls rapidly after hepactectomy.

Reason: The glycogen of the liver is the principal source of blood sugar


Available answers

  • A. Both Assertion and Reason are true, and Reason is the correct explanantion for Assertion
  • B. Both Assertion and Reason are true, but Reason is not the correct explanation for Assertion
  • C. Assertion is true, but Reason is false
  • D. Assertion is false, but Reason is true
  • E. Both Assertion and Reason are false

Question Writing Guide

PRAC-1363 

It is now possible to have a linked PDF appear when writing items. This is intended to be included as a Question Writing Guide, so that question authors can see style/content information when writing items. In order to make the Question Writing Guide visible to question authors, this needs to be configured by the Practique Team. Please contact us via the service desk if you would like to configure this.


Improvements

PRAC-649, PSD-753 - Ordering of items on reports

Practique now shows the items in reports titled and ordered by the question number they had in the itemset. Previously reports referred to the items with their internal Practique ID eg Item #535. Now reports shows 'Question 1', 'Question 2' etc

PRAC-735 - Improvements to the way standards are calculated for multi-part written items

When setting the standards for written items with multiple parts (EMQ), this can now be done on a per sub-item basis, rather than the item as a whole.

PRAC-1323 - iPad device name is updated on Server

Practique previously collected and shown iPad device names on the View Logins page for each of the exam sessions. This device name has been registered by Practique when device first connected to the Server. When users renamed the device, Practique would still use the old name at the time device was first registered.

Practique now updates the name of the device automatically to provide accurate information on the View logins page.

PSD-461, PRAC-1328 Candidate allocation upload does not assign candidates correctly

Candidate allocation using CSV requires user to specify the Block & Session information in order for the CSV upload to correctly allocate Candidates.

Changes as been made to the CSV allocation handling to allow user to omit Block & Session information from the CSV file when exam has only one Block and Session. Changes has been documented in the inline help.

PRAC-789 Indication on server that some marks were rejected

If marks were rejected by the server (due to being invalid, or some other reason), previously there was no way to see that these marks had been rejected. Now Practique will display on the View Sessions page if there are marks that are missing due to being rejected by the server, which can then be corrected.

PRAC-1490 Improved speed when selecting Blueprint Categories

When tagging an item (either at item level, or Count As for observation criteria), this could take some time when there were many categories to choose from (500+). Practique now handles this better on a separate page, so the speed to tag the items is significantly quicker.

PRAC-1493, PRAC-1385 Changes to exam response exports
Previously Practique did not order the observation criteria and cases in CSV exports in any particular way. Practique now orders these by the order of the item in the item set, and the observation criteria by the order in the marksheet

Practique also now exports candidate responses as letter answers (SBA, ARQ, Discrete criterium) instead of full text answers. 

PRAC-1478 Exams that are hidden are now indicated as such in the Exam list

Previously it was not clear whether an exam was hidden when viewing all exams.



PRAC-1473 Changes to the default Ebel table

The default Ebel table values have been changed. The new defaults are as follows: 

It is also now possible to set a custom default value for when judges have not yet scored. This is set as 50% by default.



5.1.8 - 5th December 2016

New Features

McManus Standard setting

The standard setting method created by Bruce McManus at the University of Southampton has been added to Practique. This requires candidates to satisfy two criteria in order to pass the OSCE - an aggregate score across the exam, and a minimum number of stations to pass. More information on the method can be found on the poster below.

ASME poster on McManus Standard Setting

Setting the standard setting method to McManus:



5.1.6 - 14th November 2016

New Features

Reference Ranges

Reference Ranges have been added to Practique, to enable faster question authoring. Using reference ranges standardises technical information that is used across multiple questions. For example, Adult IgM (Immunoglobulin M) would have a reference range of 37-286 mg/dL*. By using reference ranges in Practique, there is a centralised way to manages this information. This can be found under Settings > Reference Ranges.

Here, you can see a list of all the Reference Ranges within Practique, and search for them. You can create new Reference Ranges by clicking 'Create new Reference value'.

New Reference Ranges can be created here by clicking 'Create Reference Range'.

Reference Ranges can be edited and deleted, however this will not affect the Reference Range used in the question. So that the item bank provides a correct archive of questions asked to candidates, all historical Reference Range information will be retained in questions.

Reference Ranges can be inserted into any written question type (SBA, SAQ, EMQ, VSAQ) using the question editor.

The Reference Range feature can also be used to insert any standardised text into questions.


5.1.3 - 3rd November 2016

New Features

Multiple borderline markers (disabled by default)

Practique now supports multiple borderline markers on a single OSCE marksheet. This means that borderline regressions can be run separately for each section of a marksheet. Any discrete criteria on a marksheet can be designated as applying to a particular borderline marker.

By default, multiple borderline markers are disabled within Practique, but this can be enabled by contacting us via the service desk.



5.1.0 - 7th October 2016

New Features

Filtering and searching within Practique has been overhauled, with a new unified design for filtering the Item Bank, Item Sets, Resources, Exams, Candidates, Examiners and Users.

The filtering design:

  1. Filters can be applied or removed easily, and allow for filtering based on Blueprint Dimensions, as well as dates and users.
  2. It is possible to add multiple filters - these are added using AND logic. This means that an item (or resource/candidate etc) must meet all of the criteria set in the filters. It is also possible to select multiple categories within the same dimension - this will use OR logic, where an item must be either in one of the selected categories.
  3. Similar to existing usage, it is possible to filter items based on their review state
  4. It is also possible to filter based on the type of Item (or resource etc)
  5. It is now easier to sort through the filtering results.
  6. As well as filtering by Blueprint Dimensions, it is possible to filter by the date that an item has been created or updated, as well as the user that created the item.



Example usage:


5.0.0 - 19th September 2016

New Features

User Interface Update

The new User Interface will likely be the most prominent change in Practique 5.0. The primary driving force behind this is to provide a better and easier experience for people using Practique on a day-to-day basis. There will be some noticeable changes to the system in some parts in order to standardise the design. However the core workflows within Practique have not changed, unless documented below.

The new design also conforms better to the W3C AA standard, meaning that the system is significantly easier to use for people with accessibility requirements. The new design lays the foundation for further improving accessibility, with Practique aiming for 100% AA coverage and aspiring to AAA coverage in the future.

  1. Navigation

    Navigation within the system has been standardised, and added to the top navigation bar.

    This will allow users to access all parts of the system from whatever page they are currently accessing, rather than going back to the dashboard each time. A new 'Help' section has been added, with ways of accessing the different types of support that we offer. The Settings drop down has been extended to detail all system-wide settings. These include all OSCE Marksheet settings (Global Observation Criteria, Sections and Schemas), management of Examiners and Candidates, Practique User account management and permissions, and device management.


  2. Colour Scheme

    The colour palette of Practique has changed, including the main theme colour of Practique. The new colour scheme provides a much higher contrast, and a standardisation of colours for the function of buttons

  3. Standardisation of Item Bank, Item Sets, Resource Library and Resources

    The design of the Item Bank, Item Sets, Resource Library and Resources Library (formerly Asset Library) has been improved and standardised. This will enable quicker navigation and use in future.

  4. Forms

    Forms styling within Practique has been standardised, which now provides a better layout for showing help text for each field. Optional fields are now marked as such.

  5. Application Information

    Application information has been moved in to a new page footer, which is helpful for debugging the application.

  • Dashboard


    The design of the dashboard has changed significantly in the new release. The main navigation buttons have been moved to the top bar, and we have moved unpublished exams to a new 'Exams' page. This means that only exams that are currently pushed to iPads will show on the dashboard, in the Exams in Progress table.
     
  • Exams


    The new Exams page shows all exams throughout the preparation workflow. New exams are created from this page, current exams are viewable here, and complete exams are also shown. This brings exams into the same layout and presentation as other elements in the system, which will allow for easier use. There has been no change to the workflow of exams - the steps needed to create, prepare, run, set standard and publish exams are still the same. Exams can now only be hidden from this screen and results processing (by going to Advanced > Hide) if they are not currently on pushed iPads and the exam has not finished.



DICOM Image Support

Practique now supports the use of DICOM images (including multi-slice images) on the back end. DICOM image support is currently limited to black and white images only. Currently DICOM images can not be used in exams - this feature is in preparation of the upcoming Practique desktop client. The ability to pan, zoom, rotate, window and move through slices will be the same in the desktop client as it is in the back end.


Single Sign On Integration

Practique can now integrate with SSO services (SAML2/Shibboleth), meaning that it is possible to use your institution-wide account (eg university account) to access the Practique Server. This has the advantage of having the same username and password as all other institution services, and bespoke password and username policies can be enforced.

It is possible to have both SSO and non-SSO users within Practique, and to configure whether a user has to use SSO to sign in or not. This setting can be configured by going to Settings > Practique Users > (Select a User) > Edit.

Use of SSO requires coordinated set up from both the Practique Team and institution IT services. Please get in contact if you would like to start using SSO to access Practique. As well as using SSO to authenticate users in Practique, it is now also possible to use the SSO to fetch user permissions and groups from central institution user data.

Session Expiry

We have introduced session expiry in to Practique. User session will expire after a given period of inactivity, a user will be logged out of the Practique Server. Inactivity period is a configurable length of time, and defaults to unlimited length making Session Expiry switched off by default retaining current behaviour.

Session Expiry is useful as a security measure to ensure that users do not accidently leave an unattended computer logged in to Practique. To set Session Expiry up, please contact the Practique Team.

Multiple Concurrent Exams

It is now possible to run multiple exams at the same time in Practique. Exams are pushed at a block level, meaning that it is possible to push multiple blocks, and their respective sessions, to the iPads simultaneously, including if the exams run across multiple days.

This will make the scheduling of exams considerably simpler - before where an exam had to be set up with multiple days, blocks and sessions, can now be set up as multiple individual exams. The process of preparing and pushing an exam remains the same, with the addition of being able to start multiple sessions simultaneously.

This inevitably has an impact on the iPad application, insofar as it must be recording information for the correct exam. When multiple exam sessions are synced with an iPad, the examiner or marshal logging in is presented with the option to select which exam session they would like to log in to. This mirrors the similar current functionality of logging in to an exam session when the iPad is offline. This relates to the improvement of being able to have custom names for sessions and blocks, as it will be easier for an examiner to select a correct session called "Hospital Building A - afternoon session" rather than "25th November 2016 - Session 5". Further information on the selection and use of multiple sessions is available on the iPad release note page.

  • Multiple Venue Exam Example:
    Lets say we have an exam running across two venues, Hospital Building A, and University Building B. We are running this exam across two days, and each day has a morning session and and afternoon session. The two days will use different Item Sets.

    Previously this would not have been possible in Practique, however now we can set this up with multiple exams. We set up one exam per venue per day, so a total of four exams. We schedule a Day 1 and Day 2 exam for Hospital Building A, and University Building B. The four exams each have two sessions AM and PM. By scheduling each exam separately, it allows us to completely control who examines where and when - for example some examiners may only be able to travel to University Building B.

Multiple Blueprint Tagging

Practique 5.0 has introduced multiple blueprint tagging. Previously it was possible to tag an item or observation criterion with only one category per Blueprint Dimension. With the introduction of Blueprint Maps, we have enabled items and observation criteria to be tagged with unlimited number of categories. For example, previously for a Domain blueprint dimension, with categories 'Communication', 'Patient Safety',  'Differential Diagnosis' and 'Data Interpretation', it would only have been possible to say that a question is one of these. It is now possible to add a blueprint map, and add a 'Communication' coordinate and a 'Patient Safety' coordinate. This is also possible for individual markseet criteria as before.

As well as adding Blueprint Maps, we have introduced versioning and an audit trail to the Master Blueprint. Dimensions can now be archived, and Blueprint Maps go through the same submission workflow as items, resources and item sets.

The way that examiners and candidates can be blueprinted has not changed, however we have now added this method of tagging to resources. Previously, resources (assets) only supported simple tagging, with little control and flexibility. Now the same way of tagging has been added to resources, where a blueprint dimension can be defined as applying to items, candidates, examiners and resources.


Added help texts throughout the system

This will allow for more intuitive use of Practique, and will reduce the need to cross referencing the Practique Knowledge Base. Help text within the system will be presented in two ways. Definitions of terms, and short contextual information will be presented with hover-over question marks like this? (this link will not work here). Longer format information will be presented in panels. This will be for general instructions and information on how to use Practique. Information on generic processes that cover many parts of Practique (e.g. submission workflow process) will continue to be held in the Knowledge Base.

Changes to own user account have been limited

It is no longer possible for a user to disable themselves from Practique, or to change their own username.

Item information authoring & HTML markup changes

This Practique Server imposes certain restrictions onto the HTML markup which is available via Rich text editor when editing Item information and/or Answers. Previously it was possible to use variety of rich text formatting tools using the editor as well as copy & paste content from other text editors such as MS Word or Apple Pages.

This benevolent settings lead to a lot of problems mainly during reporting, data exports and so on without adding any real benefit and value to the use of the system or Item content. In order to minimise problems with rich text following changes and restrictions has been put in place:

  • Allow following text markup to Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript
  • Allow Unordered & Ordered lists
  • Enable Format > Clear Formatting option to quickly remove all formatting
  • Enable Edit > Paste as text to be default option when Pasting

These changes are most useful in case that content is Copy & Paste from MS Word and other text editors which introduce enormous amount of unnecessary (and for user invisible) markup which influence both Practique Server & Practique iPad.

With new behaviour you can Copy & Paste content safely and it will by default be pasted as plain text without any formatting. You can then use features of the Rich text editor to re-format you content.

You can also turn off Edit > Paste as text option. In that case if you Copy & Paste Rich text editor will remove all unnecessary markup while keeping allowed elements mentioned above.

Written questions can now have item titles

All Written exam question type Items have Title field now as the OSCE stations have. Item title (Written or OSCE) is included in the Full text search. All screens dealing with the Written exams has been updated to display the Item title in the same manner as OSCE stations.


New Features & Improvements

Updated Marksheet editor

Item Marksheet has been updated to provide better user experience, provide useful hints and help texts as well as allowing introduction of new features such as Critical Stop Points (described in next section).

  1. As the Creation and Editing of the Observation criteria is becoming more complex due to new features and additional settings we have moved the user interface into separate screen accessible via Add new criteria and Edit buttons.

  2. Introduction of new column to indicate that the Observation criteria is functioning as Critical Stop point, see Critical Stop Point section.

  3. Mandatory, Feedback Visible and CSP settings for an Observation criteria is now highlighted on the marksheet to provide strong feedback as these settings directly influence marking on the iPad.

  4. Clear visual indication of Marksheet sections throughout the editor as well as quick links to edit Global Marksheet.Each section of the marksheet is now split (if necessary) into Global and Local subsections. This allows you to quickly identify which Observation criteria have been defined in Global marksheet and which are Local to the item.

  5. Order of the sections visible on the marksheet editor matches order defined in Manage Sections and will be the same as order in which marksheet is represented on the iPad during exam.

  6. Count as settings visual feedback - If you use Count as feature to assign Observation criteria to Blueprint dimensions this settings will be indicated by changing the Count as button to Change Count as.

Critical Stop Points - OSCE

Critical Stop Points (CSP) is a new features which allows Exam teams to create marksheets which allows Examiners to indicate candidate's critical error, serious professional concerns or stop point during the exam/procedure. When Examiner marks candidate performance with CSP the Candidate will fail the station at which the CSP occurred regardless their achieved score.

CSP - Marksheet authoring

In order to provide CSP functionality we have updated Item Marksheet Editor to allow creating marksheets with Observation Criteria functioning as Critical Stop Points.

Observation criteria as Critical Stop Point (see above screenshot ②)

  • Can be only of type Boolean
  • It is automatically set to have weight of 0 to exclude it from Candidate score
  • Is automatically set not to be mandatory

CSP - Electronic Marking

This feature has minimal impact on electronic marking and only impact is validation of the marksheet before submission by the Examiners, for more details see Practique for iPad release notes.

CSP - Result processing and statistics

Candidates which have failed station due to CSP are included in statistics and results processing as usual. Critical Stop Point only influence calculation of the Pass/Fail for the station which is marked as CSP. This can then result in situations where it is possible to have candidates with high score for a station but still be Fail due to CSP.

Candidate feedback report has been update to indicate if the station has been Fail due to CSP or not.

Standard setting screen has been updated to indicate how many Fails is due to CSP.