Offline lab exam

What you need

• A teacher PC and the student PCs, all on the same lab network and running Windows 10 or 11. The internet can stay off.
• Chrome or Edge on each student PC. Edge comes with Windows.
• An administrator account on each student PC, used once during setup.
• A fixed address for the teacher PC. Ask lab IT to reserve one, so it stays the same from exam to exam.

Set up the teacher PC

Do this once. Your exams, results and passcode stay on this PC.

1. 1

   Download and extract the kit

   Download the kit on any PC with internet and copy it to the teacher PC, for example by USB drive. If Windows marks it as downloaded from the internet, right-click the zip, open Properties, tick Unblock, then extract it to a folder such as Documents.

2. 2

   Install Python

   Skip this if Python 3.10 to 3.14 is already installed. Otherwise run vendor\python\python-3.14.8-amd64.exe from the kit and tick Add Python to PATH. You can also download the Python installer on its own.

3. 3

   Run setup

   Double-click teacher\SETUP-TEACHER-PC.bat and choose a staff passcode of at least six characters. Everything it needs is already in the kit. When it finishes, it has made a student_package folder.

   If the PC has more than one network connection, setup lists them. Run it again with the teacher PC's lab address, for example:

   teacher\SETUP-TEACHER-PC.bat --ip 192.168.1.20 --port 8000

4. 4

   Allow the lab network

   Double-click teacher\ALLOW-LAN-FIREWALL.bat and approve the Windows prompt. It lets PCs on the same network reach the exam. The firewall stays on.

5. 5

   Start the server

   Double-click teacher\START-EXAM-SERVER.bat and keep the window open during the exam. It shows a Staff page address. Open it in a browser on the teacher PC, enter the passcode and create the exam to get its code.

Set up each student PC

Do this once per PC. It stays in place for every later exam.

1. 1

   Copy the student package

   Copy the student_package folder from the teacher PC to the student PC, by USB drive or a shared folder. It holds your lab's own key, so keep it inside the lab.

2. 2

   Install the monitor

   An administrator double-clicks INSTALL-AGENT.bat and approves the Windows prompt. It shows what it changes and saves the original settings, which UNINSTALL-AGENT.bat puts back.

3. 3

   Check the PC

   Sign in as the student; the monitor starts by itself. With the teacher server running, double-click SELFTEST.bat. Every check should pass; anything marked FAIL says how to fix it.

Run the exam

Before your first exam, do a five-minute practice run with two student PCs to see the whole flow once.

1. 1

   Create the exam

   Start the teacher server and create the exam from the Staff page. Read out the code.

2. 2

   Students open the exam

   Each student double-clicks launch-exam.bat. It opens the exam page in Chrome or Edge.

3. 3

   Students join

   They type the code, their name and their roll number. Each roll number has one attempt per exam.

4. 4

   Students share their screen

   They click Share entire screen & start exam and pick the whole screen. The exam opens once the screen check is running. Only one display is allowed, so unplug any second monitor first.

5. 5

   Watch the dashboard

   Each PC appears as a tile. You can allow a lookup, pause monitoring, allow or deny a website or app for one student or the whole room, and end the exam for everyone.

6. 6

   Download the results

   Use CSV or Excel on the dashboard for marks and the full record. Everything stays on the teacher PC.

Write the paper

Type questions on the Staff page the same way as an online exam: a blank line between questions and a * before the right answer. You can add these lines to the Questions box:

[2 marks]

At the end of a question: marks for that question.

[-0.5 marks]

Marks taken off for a wrong answer.

# Section A

Starts a section.

@shuffle

Gives each student their own order of questions and options.

@end 11:30

The whole room finishes at this time.

@extra 70572300012 15

Gives one roll number 15 extra minutes.

@allow-ml document

Open book: the screen check does not flag documents such as notes and PDFs.

@deny-app whatsapp.exe

Marks an app as not allowed before the exam starts. @deny-site chatgpt.com does the same for a website.

For an exam in Jupyter, VS Code or on paper, leave Questions empty and fill in Where do students answer? The kit's README lists every option.

If something goes wrong