We are using Microsoft Class Server to help us manage the practical work which ours students do. This semester we are branching out and using it for assessed responses to tests that we have developed. This poses a problem, in that our students do their lab work at different times and they all have to have the same test. We've been pondering how to do this and keep it fair, with students not able to see the test until they are in the lab, and not afterwards.

My friend David came up with a whole bunch of DNS testing, time locking stuff which will limit access to the server pages unless you are in the lab at the right time and in the right bunch of students. I just put the answer collection on Class Server and dished out the questions on paper (which the students had to hand in afterwards with their name on). There was some amusement that I, a computer person, was using paper, I'm sticking with this for now. Computers programs are wonderful things, but they don't always have to be the solution.

We ran the test this week, and it seemed to work OK.