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iPhone's HEIC Format Causing Some Students to Fail AP Exams, Here's How to Fix It
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That's a poorly written headline; Apple's HEIC format is not the cause of some students failing AP exams.
As someone who works with kids in AP classes, it was a known issue weeks ago, and teachers and students should have been well aware of getting their iPhones set appropriately. That being said, it would have been a hell of a lot easier for College Board to just figure out to change their system to accept HEIC formatted pictures...
What's even more astounding is they lack the developer skills to code an error message even. Entire thing could have been avoided if they gave an error message telling them to reupload in JPG.
Basic image uploading sites (like the ones to create online collages, etc.) give error messages. Why can't the CollegeBoard hire a more competent developer ... those AP exam fees are $95 each.
Handwritten can certainly be quicker when showing (math, etc) work. And PDF is a good option. However, whether it is or isn't, this problem still shouldn't in any way have been vast. Clearly poor submission for design/implementation and probably even lackluster efforts by those administering the exam(s).
It's remarkable that they're asking students to mess with settings on their phone, or perform arcane rituals to convert files to JPEG, when the actual fix on their side is extremely trivial. I'm assuming they have a HTML <input type="file"> element somewhere on the page to accept the upload, which is the standard way to accept file uploads in a HTML form. Assuming that's the case, literally the only change needed is to change that to something like this:
iOS is smart enough to then show the photo browser, and transparently re-encode any selected images as one of the supported file types.
HTML:
<input type="file" accept="image/png, image/jpeg">iOS is smart enough to then show the photo browser, and transparently re-encode any selected images as one of the supported file types.
Please do some research. You have no idea what tf you're talking about.
Also licenses are only needed for commercial use as you stated. But College Board is a non-profit entity. Does that label these exams as non-commercial use? I'm not a lawyer so I won't attempt a guess, but for HEVC to sue a non-profit educational organization is just going to generate a PR nightmare either way.
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It shouldn’t have allowed them to even upload heic format...
Well it didn't - that's the point. Students got a message saying unable to upload - maybe the upload form wasn't preventing it, but the server behind it was. Problem is I don't think the message explained the reason why.
One other observation - College Board tried to make taking the exam as equitable as possible. That's why there was no requirement to use a computer. You needed a minimum of a smartphone and an Internet connection, which almost all students have (...almost).
Regardless, you probably should check that something works before letting it go live for something as important as this. especially as you've just spent the last two months busting your butt to adapt to covid.
As i said, only two platforms, iOS and Android, that you have to test..
you mean like the 10+ betas they run before a launch?
I used to teach AP music theory. There really is no good substitute for the part writing and analysis being written out by hand. They had to get rid of the multiple choice content questions this year for fear of cheating. Some notation programs would have allowed the part writing but it's slow and cumbersome for testing purposes and the Roman numeral analysis would have been even trickier. It's also very application specific how notation programs work too so you'd have to have the kids practice on it first and make it work across platforms without a hitch. Way easier to do the writing on paper and then take a picture..if they had tested it.
And please don't bad mouth the schools - they don't run the AP industry. Collegeboard - owned by Pearson - does. Don't blame the schools for the craziness that is AP classes. It's pretty darn close to a scam. Again, I say this as someone who taught AP music theory for many years. We have reports of kids going to McDonalds parking lots to take their tests because it was the only reliable internet they could access. There are huge equity issues I think your responses below you don't know about either.
Ah, yes; Music theory. Now that’s perhaps the one and only thing I know at least a tiny sliver of a bit about, where I can fully understand not wanting to use a computer. It’s not exactly like the programs available are very fast to work with, and oh would you look at that. Sibelius crashed...
I don’t feel I’ve bad mouthed the schools though. In fact I think I’ve been rather positive about the schools’ effort overall, but in the end this is an unfortunate situation for the students, whom I think deserve the sympathy in this matter.
But as I’ve said in my earlier comments, I fully commend the schools’ work in getting a system up and going for having exams in these times, despite any shortcomings in the implementation. It has after all been done under extreme pressure.
I also am not at all familiar enough with the American educational system to fully comment on all aspects of how things are carried out anyway, but I have heard many things that make me feel that things are often executed in a rather archaic fashion. I do not argue the abolishment of pen and paper. That would be ludicrous, and when a pen is the best tool for the job, use it. But actually, why hasn’t there been a platform for digital hand-ins for ages at this point? You don’t even need to accept multiple formats; accept PDF only, and have it be standard procedure that some exams are digital, along with properly informing students of the procedure for doing so, for creating a single PDF with all your images, or exporting from a TeX editor or word processor to PDF and done. Then nobody would’ve had to rush so hard to get a new system up for the current situation and people would already be familiar with the process.
Again, not bad mouthing anyone, and as I mentioned I’m not well enough informed about the structure of the American education system as a whole for these comments to be taken as anything more than reflections from an outsider’s perspective.
Wrong. You have no idea what you're talking about.
Your press release is by HEVC Advance. HEVC Advance is one of three major patent pools, along with unaffiliated patent holders. HEVC Advance holds a relatively small number of companies. Importantly MPEG LA does charge for software implementation, so it still isn't free.
The big unknown is Velos Media who does not publicly disclose their policy and is rumored to charge content fees. Notably Velos Media has hardware companies but doesn't have any content providers, so you can see their incentive to charge for content, not per unit.
You know you can just edit the photo and then tap the Live Photo icon and it turns Live Photo off. Then the photo automatically becomes JPEG. A lot simpler than sending it to yourself and back and forth stuff.
I don't want to get into a fight -you seem well intended. What I read and what bothered me was that you said it's something the schools should have taken care of. Schools (educators..teachers..administrators...custodians...instructional assistants) have been doing herculean work since we were moved into remote learning for the quarantine with little to no time to plan, including finding ways to take AP tests. Collegeboard didn't want to pay back the testing fees, so they went forward with screwed up versions of their tests without properly testing their systems first. AP is a scam and should be abolished. Most universities hate it anyways. They rarely do their courses justice with collegiate level work. Collegeboard also just got nailed by the University of California opting out of accepting SAT and ACT in admissions (the two largest standardized tests in the country). Good riddance!
university-california-sat-act.html
Apple expects users to provide detailed problem reports, but they make the Feedback Assistant application painful to use.. On high resolution monitors, the text is too small to read without straining. There is no ability to increase text size. The text entry field is too small to write a detailed problem description and it can't be resized to show more text. Is this a form of suppression to discourage people from sending problem reports?
I don’t consider it a fight regardless, merely an exchange - You’re clearly more informed than I am, and involved with it all unlike me. I can only appologise if I worded some things more strongly than I meant or in a way that misrepresents what I mean. See, I do believe the schools should’ve done something to ensure something like this didn’t happen; But that doesn’t mean I believe the schools or any individual working for or on behalf of them is responsible or at fault. If there is a system that means their hands were tied and this was the best option they had, then that’s the real issue. The schools should’ve prevented this from happening; how why and/or whether they could is different, and the issue could very well be more fundamental and not be about any of the schools. Could be the universities, could be political, I don’t really know enough to say, though I appreciate you sharing some of your knowledge in your last message.
I acknowledge and appreciate the, in your own words, Herculean work done by everyone involved, and I don’t think anybody did any less than they should - But you yourself even seem to point out that there are issues with the system as a whole when you talk about AP classes, and that’s more or less what I’m getting at.
So yeah, I don’t think we’re necessarily that much in opposition, and I appologise for having phrased my earlier remark in a perhaps offensive manner, and hope I’ve been more clear since then That I don’t blame any school or their staff
Interesting to me though that it’s possible for a university to just opt out of accepting SATs. I thought that was actually federally mandated.
By the way, hope you’ve been dealing alright with everything, pandemic wise.
Education is actually constitutionally run at the state level in the USA...although there is a federal department of education (which is run by a moron named Betsy Devos who has deep connections to charter schools....) and there is a lot of questionable activity from this department. Some has been good, at least in theory over the decades, demanding equity and opportunities for all students no matter their disability or race...they just often will put mandates out there without fully funding them, as they do with special education funding (Look up IDEA). There's also been a bunch of federal grants or mandates coming down from the federal government in the last few administrations that have muddled the waters here even more. It crosses party lines (Race to the Top, NCLB). One of the big ones was Common Core. This was not a federal mandate but rather something that had funds associated with it states essentially had to take or they couldn't function. They technically don't "Have to" get involved with common core but it's a way to create a national curriculum without it being a legal thing to do since states are supposed to run education. Bill Gates had a big part in making this happen...and he now says it failed...anyways...rabbit hole...
There is no requirement for a college or university to consider SATs or ACT in admissions. Most just did and schools generally used it as their Junior (3rd year of HS) level standardized exam to meet the requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act (the previous incarnation was No Child Left Behind - you may have heard of it with that name). Collegeboard has a very inappropriate connection with Pearson, a for-profit company (whom I think just changed their name to SAVVIS or something in fact recently). They basically run standardized testing in the US and own a big part of the textbook industry which dictates the curriculum that prepares kids for the tests... It's big money and scammy all around. Tech c
\frac{\sqrt{2}{\psi}
Simple. Or you could use something like Maple. Been doing math exclusively on computers since first year of high school, and it’s frankly much, much faster than pen and paper to write out - and fix mistakes
Edit:
Computers are made for math. By mathematicians.
As for Music Software... Look up Tantacrul on YouTube for a laugh about how terrible the notation programs are. Music production software is pretty good, notation software isn't
What bothers me is how is this not tested first by the school board in terms of these scenarios. This should of been caught prior to launch.
So you work out your math in LaTeX? (Also notice how your LaTeX code is actually incorrect)