QuestionMark

http://www.qmark.com

QuestionMark Perception is the new suite of software from Question Mark Computing - now regarded as the most widely used commercial provider of CAA software in UK HE. The Perception software suite enables users to create their own tests, surveys, questionnaires, and assessments for use via the web or an Intranet. Perception is an application that contains both Windows and web-based software. For example, users create tests and surveys within a Windows application, while users analyse the results via web-based reporting. QuestionMark Perception can be used for both formative and summative purposes.

Perception contains two Windows applications, Question Manager and Session Manager. Question Manager enables users to create their own questions and organise these within hierarchical item banks. Session Manager enables the user to then construct tests and surveys around these questions. Both of these Windows applications operate independently of Perception Server, the web-based portion of the software suite.

As questions and tests/surveys are created, they are saved within databases and published to the master server database. Perception Server then accesses this database and serves out the tests and surveys to authorised individuals over the web or an Intranet.

The Perception software suite supports a number of core questions types including:

• Multiple choice
  
• Selection question
  
• Fill-in-the-blank
  
• Hotspot
  
• Essay question
  
• Multiple hotspots
  
• Text match
  
• Matrix
  
• Numeric question
  
• Explanation screens
  

Software requirements

The Windows components of Perception require a 32-bit Windows operating system (e.g. Windows NT, Windows 95/98). It is recommend that users have at least 20MB hard drive space free for these items to operate correctly.

Perception Server is not a web server program or a piece of hardware. Rather, the software is run by a web server. In order to install the web-based server components user will need an ISAPI web server with the Microsoft Active Server Pages (ASP) facility installed. Most organisations install Perception Server on a Windows NT PC running Internet Information Server (IIS) version 3 or higher.

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