questionmark web services

Copyright © 1995-2009 Questionmark Corporation and/or Questionmark Computing Limited, known collectively as Questionmark. All rights reserved. Questionmark is a registered trademark of Questionmark Computing Limited. All other trademarks are acknowledged.

JISC CETIS Assessment SIG (27 Jan 2009)John Kleeman, Questionmark product

manager

Copyright © 1995-2009 Questionmark Corporation and/or Questionmark Computing Limited, known collectively as Questionmark. All rights reserved. Questionmark is a registered trademark of Questionmark Computing Limited. All other trademarks are

acknowledged.

Questionmark and integration Web services and Questionmark’s QMWISe Some examples A new method for importing content Recommendations for others considering

using web services

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acknowledged.

Founded in 1988 Premier Standard of Assessment Management

Systems◦ To create, deliver and report on assessments◦ For exams, tests, quizzes, and surveys

More than 2,500 customers have purchased Perception◦ For Corporate, Government, and Education markets

More than 14,000 authoring systems installed Integration is critical to our customers and our

business◦ Questionmark aims to be best of breed, and needs to

integrate with others

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acknowledged.

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AICC Certified -- 4 consecutive times QTI compliant

◦ Helped author IMS Learning Consortium’s Question and Test Interoperability standard

Early adopter and promoter of PENS HR-XML certified ADL SCORM compliant (SCORM 1.2 and SCORM

2004) .NET certified


acknowledged.

Questionmark specific integration points offer flexibility and ease of access including◦ Open database◦ HTTP APIs◦ JavaScript entry points

Our main recommended integration point is web services◦ QMWISe (Questionmark Web Integration Services

environment)◦ Introduced in June 2002 and still our main

integration point

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acknowledged.

A series of web service methods for example◦ CreateParticipant◦ ScheduleParticipant◦ GetAsessmentResultListByAssessment

37 methods in 2002 109 methods in 2009

Once a method is defined, Questionmark sticks by it. Integration code that worked in 2002 will still largely work today

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acknowledged.

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XML is sent over HTTP via a protocol called SOAP


acknowledged.

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acknowledged.

Stable and long lasting, safe to commit to Insulates from changes Uses technology that will last Can be called from any environment Easy to log and debug problems Secure Efficient enough

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acknowledged.

Around 25% of Questionmark customers have access to QMWISe for their own integration

Common uses◦ Populating people from

management systems◦ Pushing results into

management systems◦ Getting URLs to allow single

sign on ◦ Calling assessments from

other systems◦ Getting a list of available

assessments Includes several UK

universities

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acknowledged.

Questionmark use QMWISe for our own products◦ Blackboard Connector uses QMWISe to interface to

Perception Continue working as Questionmark software changes Clean interface which allows independent development Clear logs to identify where problems are

◦ Other Questionmark products which use QMWISe SAP Connector Moodle Connector Questionmark to Go Content Packager

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acknowledged.

Questionmark Consulting use QMWISe to interface to Perception◦ Create specialist reports◦ Single sign on◦ Link to student management systems or

enterprise HR databases◦ Registration systems and e-commerce front ends

to Perception

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acknowledged.

Web services allow interfaces for academic communities into Questionmark Perception

◦ Shibboleth single sign-on https://elgg.leeds.ac.uk/bmb6agb/weblog/4741.html

◦ uPortal http://www.questionmark.com/uk/connectors/uportal_

integration.aspx

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acknowledged.

QMWISe has a simple security model◦ An encoded key is used to allow/disallow access◦ Access once granted gives full capabilities in the

system Installations often use Windows security to

prevent unauthorized access by IP address SSL is useful

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acknowledged.

Area # Details

Administrative URLs 3 Generate URLs to allow administrator or reporting login

Participant URLs 4 Generate URLs to allow participant login

Administrators 12 Create and manage administrator users

Assessments / content 11 Create, view and manage assessments, topics and questions

Assessment snapshots 6 Create and deliver a snapshot of an assessment and score results

Group s 10 Create groups and assign participants to them

HR-XML 1 Generates result in HR-XML format

Participants 9 Create, view and manage participants

Result data 22 View and manage results from assessments

Scheduling 27 Schedule assessments

System 4 About and configuration

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acknowledged.

Suppose◦ A student exists in Questionmark Perception◦ And is scheduled to some assessments◦ A portal has authenticated the student◦ And wants to pass through to Questionmark

Perception Then

◦ Portal can call QMWISe to get a URL◦ And pass student through to it

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acknowledged.

SOAP request

<soap:Body><GetAccessAssessmentList

xmlns="http://questionmark.com/QMWISe/">

<Participant_Name>kleeman33

</Participant_Name></

GetAccessAssessmentList>

</soap:Body>

SOAP response

<soap:Body><GetAccessAssessmentListResponse

xmlns="http://questionmark.com/QMWISe/">

<URL>http://LONL-JOHNK/q4/perception.dll?NAME=kleeman33&EXPIRES=25:01:2009:20:11&ACCESS=5639331035251589</URL>

</GetAccessAssessmentListResponse> </soap:Body>

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acknowledged.

Questionmark are currently introducing a new web service for question import◦ ImportQML

Takes a question in QML Adds it into repository Allows its use in questions Can include questions with resources

QML is Questionmark’s XML languages for questions (www.questionmark.com/qml)

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acknowledged.

Combined with an existing method for creating assessments, this allows entirely non-Questionmark authoring systems to populate Questionmark repository

This method might be a route whereby external authoring systems could “publish” questions to Questionmark Perception for delivery

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acknowledged.

Questionmark web services provide a stable and safe way to integrate with Questionmark software

There are over 100 APIs, and a new method allows import of questions into the Questionmark repository

We recommend others who need to define interfaces into their software to use web services as they work in practice over the long term

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acknowledged.

Commit to continuity◦ People won’t integrate with you unless they

believe the interface will be stable Use them yourself

◦ Eat your own dogfood Log all traffic

◦ This will allow problems to be diagnosed easily Good documentation with examples Error handling Check scalability

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acknowledged.

Please feel free to send any follow-up questions to [email protected].

Slide 22

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