MAP Testing on a District Chromebook
This article is for students using a District Chromebook to do MAP testing. Note that much of the following can also apply to students using a personal Chromebook as well, but the article primarily assumes District Chromebooks, with their standardized configuration and with the NWEA Secure Browser kiosk app pre-installed. (For more generalized information about testing on District Chromebooks, see the article Use Testing Apps on District Chromebooks.)
The App for MAP Is NWEA Secure Browser
MAP is an assessment program of the NWEA nonprofit organization (https://www.nwea.org/), and the NWEA Secure Browser app is the engine that runs the MAP assessment tests.
The app itself has two basic flavors: a stand-alone "kiosk app" version which runs outside a normal user session (meaning: you launch the app before you log in to the Chromebook), and a more recent version which can run in the Chrome browser inside a normal user session (meaning: you hit the testing URL after you log into the Chromebook). The user session version can be run either as a pop-out Chrome browser window, or directly in the browser without the pop-out. Theoretically, any MAP test should work in any of these versions of the app, but your instructor or proctor may guide you into a preferred version.
Taking Your MAP Test
Prepare Beforehand
We recommend that you prepare beforehand, by:
- Making sure your Chromebooks meet the minimum system requirements. For AY 23-24, the minimum Chrome OS version is 106.x, and this means that some of our fleet (specifically model 3120 and model 3180 Chromebooks) will not be usable for running the NWEA Secure Browser. (See Equipment Lifecycle Policy for further details.)
- Making sure your Chromebook's Chrome OS is up to date.
- Running the NWEA device readiness check. (See section below on running the check.)
- Taking any recommended practice tests beforehand, leaving enough time to address problems that crop up.
Launch NWEA Secure Browser
To start a test, launch the NWEA Secure Browser app in one of the following ways. Note that these each go to the same underlying testing engine, but each client provides a different level of test-environment lockdown. Proctors, make sure to launch the level of lockdown you need!
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Kiosk app. Provides the full "secure, lockdown browser" experience and is the usual and preferred mode we think of for testing. To launch the kiosk app on a Chromebook, before user login, launch the pre-installed app for NWEA Secure Browser. (Click here for details about working with kiosk apps.)
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Pop-out browser window. This provides a less-locked-down environment that can still be useful if the kiosk app is unavailable and the proctor is aware of the differences. The user is restricted in what can be done with the browser, but the user can also navigate away from the browser to other apps. To launch, after user login, navigate to https://test.mapnwea.org/ to launch NWEA Secure Browser in a standard (pop-out) Chrome browser window. On District Chromebooks, there is a managed bookmark for this, under KPBSD Managed Bookmarks > Testing > NWEA Testing (non-kiosk).
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Non-pop-out browser window. This can handle the rare case where there are problems both with the kiosk app and the pop-out browser. The test window can only restrict what happens in the browser tab the test client occupies, meaning the user can navigate to other browser tabs and other applications. To launch this test client, after user login, navigate a browser tab to https://test.mapnwea.org/#/nopopup.
(Note that for personal Chromebooks, the simplest option will be one of the latter two; for District Chromebooks the kiosk app should be available and preferred unless otherwise arranged.)
Troubleshooting the Readiness Check
In general, District Chromebooks running inside the District's internal network should be able to meet all requirements, but personally-owned Chromebooks, or District Chromebooks running outside the District's internal network (e.g., at home), may run into issues that need addressing. The two most common problems that the device readiness check reveals are:
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Screen resolution. The test window needs a certain "available space" to meet basic accessibility requirements, and if the device's screen resolution (aka zoom level or magnification level) has been set too low to meet this requirement, the checker will detect that. In most cases, simply setting the Chromebook back to its native, default resolution, with the keystroke Ctrl+Shift+0 (that's a zero, not a letter "O"), will immediately remedy the problem and satisfy the checker. Google also has an article on manipulating resolution.
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Network bandwidth. This refers to "how fast" your available wireless network is. The District's network is usually more than adequate to meet the checker's requirement, but home networks can be problematic for a variety of reasons, including degraded signal strength during inclement weather. The guidance of the posted system requirements is to make sure that the available network has at least 2 Mbps (megabits per second) of bandwidth for third-grade and above tests, and at least 3 Mbps for K-2 tests. (Tests for younger kids feature more audio and visual assistance, which takes up more bandwidth.) The "Network Bandwidth" section of the posted system requirements document contains more information including how to test, for yourself, how fast your network speed is "right now".
Note for everyone: if you have a proctor helping kick off your test via a web meeting (e.g., Zoom), remember that the Zoom meeting itself will occupy some network bandwidth on its own.
Note for nerds: the device readiness checker itself apparently uses the average speed of three "ping" operations to judge the functional speed of the network connection; if the average response time is greater than 1.5 seconds, the checker will fail the device.
NWEA Status Page
There is a system status page for NWEA, at https://status.nwea.org/ which should post/publish any outages or problems acknowledged on the NWEA side. You may want to bookmark this page prior to the testing window, and consider subscribing to it to get affirmative updates.
For Further Information
Links of interest, in no particular order.
Still Stuck?
Remember that you can always contact the Information Services Helpdesk.