Altius’ e-Learning Platform

Delivering real MCAT experience for prospective medical students

Altius is a teaching and consulting company. They help students prepare for medical college admission tests. The company also provides personal instruction to prospective medical students.

Problem

Altius wanted to integrate its e-Learning platform into medical students’ curriculum. This would allow the company to sell its exams as individual products across the US and Canada.

The client faced a rather tight deadline and a lack of technical vision to roll out the system in time. They needed a partner for a proper implementation scope. They turned to Softeq to create and integrate an educational web application.

Solution

The solution consists of two parts: the Admin Portal where tests are created, and the User Portal, hosting the prospective students’ accounts where the users can take tests, among other activities.

The Admin Portal provides the possibility to:

Create a test (e.g. set the topic, sub-topic, and category; select questions, correct answers, and assign scores for each answer) and modify it
Set the time for completing the test
Set the difficulty level for the test
View a report with the test results for each user and select user group
Export the report into an Excel file

The application stores text content and images. On test completion, the application analyzes the student’s answers and calculates the total score based on specific rules.

The User Portal enables:

To take a full-length test (composed of 47 sections; presupposes four 1-hour breaks within the examination time)
To take a mini-test covering one subject
For non-registered users to take a free test (the test link expires once the test has been completed)
To view the resulting score report
Once the test has been finished, to run the test again with correct answers showing
To export the report into an Excel file

While taking the test, the user can navigate around it, going back and forward to assess the number of questions unanswered and time left for the test to finish. Besides, for added visual convenience, the user can manipulate the text (e.g. strike through, highlight).

To make the Admin Portal seamlessly connect to the User Portal, built using a different technology stack by a 3rd party service provider, the team carried out system integration. Other critical functional features added include single sign-on (taking a free test that expires after a designated time) and automatic score calculation with a relevant score range allocation.

To support secure connection between the client app and the server, the team applied SSL certificates to the pages transmitting sensitive data.

e-Learning

Lauren Curtis —

Founder and CEO, Altius Test Prep

Your team has translated our instructions into practice almost perfectly. I work with many vendors and rarely find someone who is able to pay attention to, understand, and follow through on, detailed instructions. So often, we must repeat, correct, and rehash what was stated clearly in the original instructions. Not so in this case. Your communication and follow through have been EXCELLENT. Thank you!

Result

The system has been rolled out to accommodate the exam preparation needs of potential medical students across U.S. and Canada.