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Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

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Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#121

Post by scott_s »

acqq wrote: post #102
scott_s wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm trying to square this with the fact people pointed out downthread, which is that iPhones will automatically convert HEIC images to jpeg from an HTML input form. Perhaps it's the `isAllowedExtension` check? If `e.target.files` is the actual file names on disk (and not whatever temporary file the browser made out of the HEIC file), that would cause a problem.

Apparently somebody claims to have been able to change the extension and submit the picture, but got "file corrupted" later: "Senior Dave Spencer took a demo test before his Calculus AB exam to make sure he understood the process for uploading photos. He Airdropped an iPhone image of his responses to his Mac and tried to convert it by renaming the HEIC file to PNG. Changing a file’s extension does not guarantee that…

That anecdote is inline with my explanation: the student manually changed the file extension on disk, then uploaded that. That would pass all of the checks, but it would still be in the wrong format, as manually changing the file extension does not cause a conversion to take place on disk, and that probably prevents the automatic conversion of HEIC to jpeg the iPhone itself does on such input fields.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#122

Post by maxwindiff »

diebeforei485 wrote: post #43

Who doesn't test their upload forms with common flows like uploading an iPhone photo? Sounds to be like the college board contracted this out to the lowest bidder.

Honestly this is the most stupid part. And I don't think College Board (or whoever made the site) didn't do any testing -- if that's the case the site should be way more broken. It's probably a problem of setting non-realistic test cases.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#123

Post by bsder »

ver_ture wrote: post #89
II2II wrote: post #52

While it sounds like the College Board may be at fault for some of the issues, like the test timing out when HEIC images were sent or the initial communication of the issue, I wouldn't be so quick to place all of the blame on them. Part of the problem is how we more-or-less glorify an ignorance of technology. This can be seen in both students trying to change the file type by changing the file extension and JPEG bein…

Exactly. Simple tech literacy was missing in the 1% of students that failed this test through their HEIC submissions. Even though I acknowledge the panic of a weird circumstance during an important test, editing the extension in file explorer is just too far from logical. Apps are becoming so streamlined and gesture intuitive that children and young adults might actually be regressing in their tech competence while i…

> Apps are becoming so streamlined and gesture intuitive that children and young adults might actually be regressing in their tech competence while increasing their reliance on it.

This is truer than you might imagine.

I recently had to explain to a 16-year-old intern that their phone is a computer. And that "apps" are recipes for that "computer". And that humans made all those recipes sitting on the phone.

This was clearly a quite shocking revelation. It wasn't a hard conceptual leap, but the "app abstraction" is so total that it completely cognitively blocked the idea that their desktop computer and their phone are effectively the exact same thing.

Of course, at that point, the obvious questions started: "So, I could run on my phone? Why can't I do on my phone?" etc. Eventually heading to the inevitable "Why do the phone manufacturers prevent you from doing something you want to do that the phone is perfectly capable of?"

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#124

Post by vaidhy »

nmstoker wrote: post #74

Clearly needs to be solved and fast, and I have huge sympathy for those affected. However to me the more interesting point is why anyone would want to submit a handwritten script when they could type it. Not to sound like an old foggey, but in my day the only people who got to type were dyslexic and it gave them a huge advantage (no doubt why so many parents were having their children tested). Even if you could write…

AP stat/ AP Chem/ AP Phys etc are about math formulae and explaining the calculation. I do not want my kids to learn TeX or figure out word formula editor just before the AP exams.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#125

Post by MattGaiser »

cm2187 wrote: post #93
Hokusai wrote: post #77

> Basically, only Apple (and, more recently, Samsung) use the HEIC format — most other websites and platforms don’t support it. Even popular Silicon Valley-based services, such as Slack, don’t treat HEICs the same way as standard JPEGs. This is the key part. Many in the software industry still believes that the start-up mindset of break things move fast applies to us. The economy depends on software, governments depe…

Plus the backend doesn't move fast. The .net framework only got a json serializer recently. I am not holding my breath for system.drawing to handle HEIC!

> The .net framework only got a json serializer recently.

What do you mean by recently? I am not a .net user, but this seems quite basic.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#126

Post by wiredfool »

supernova87a wrote: post #115

I think this year is going to have to be written off in terms of secondary education. These AP tests, which are already probably one of the few objective competence-based exams, are going to be not trustworthy given all these issues. While probably not being grossly cheated on under this new format by huge numbers of students, it just is not believable that they're producing results fairly comparable with controlled…

I think you’re confusing credentials with education.

While education may also be in a questionable state this year, it is a different issue than not being able to submit the answers on an exam.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#128

Post by megiddo »

vosper wrote: post #94
cm2187 wrote: post #84

What saddens me the most is to see those kids who grew up with a smartphone in their hand trying to convert a picture by renaming it. It is a problematic form of computer illiteracy.

> What saddens me the most is to see those kids who grew up with a smartphone in their hand trying to convert a picture by renaming it Why shouldn't that work? I think it would be pretty great if changing the file extension popped up a helper that asked me if I wanted to convert from HEIC to JPG? Really, no-one should have to think about file formats when they're trying to do something that has nothing intrinsically…

Maybe for common formats, but that assumes the file was correctly named to start with. It also assumes there's a trivial or reasonable conversion between formats. What happens if I rename a CAD file to MP3?

The failure of engineering was clearly with the test authors - they should have been validating their inputs.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#129

Post by j45 »

coffeefirst wrote: post #49

"Our system broke, you're screwed now, sorry" is never an acceptable answer. Do they really not have anyone who knows how to get stuff done? 1. Take the files and figure out what to do with them so they can be read. This isn't a hard problem. 2. Ask everyone affected to email you the photo or a new photo of the documents. We'll just take it on trust that you do so honestly because there's no way you would've seen thi…

Far too many technology decisions and implementations in post-secondaries are made by academic/bureaucrats who have no expertise or background in technology.

It's honestly one of the biggest conundrums facing academia.

Year by year, incoming students generally have a higher base level of digital literacy than their instructors, because academic institutions did not prioritize developing those skills 10-20 years ago and the proof is showing in the pandemic pudding.

Re: Students are failing AP tests because the College Board can’t handle HEIC images

#130

Post by rock_artist »

This might sounds trivial. But proprietary codecs are hard for commercial usage. They cost money. If it’s just uploading a file. Ok. But if the system designed to decode it in any way this might lead to more expensive system.

The codec “war” and Apple’s decision going with HEIC over opened source WebP is also to be questioned if portability of media is expected.

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