Delivery

As discussed in the last lesson, the terms test and delivery are often used synonymously, but they are not the same thing. The TAO Glossary defines a Delivery as "The published version of a test".

A test and the delivery created from it are, in essence, the same core entity, but they are different forms of that entity. A test is dynamic. It consists of a number of test items put together and configured in a certain way. The items, however, can be changed or deleted, or new ones added. The configuration may be altered.

The delivery generated from the test, on the other hand, is a static entity; it is a published version of the test. It is a frozen version, and as such it is immutable, equivalent in form to a published book that you might find on the shelves of a bookstore. Books in bookstores can no longer be modified (in contrast, the author could still make changes to the original text, and publish a different version of it, which is also the case with tests in TAO). There is some confusion surrounding the term delivery, however. The everyday meaning of the word delivery can be one of two things. It either denotes a thing that has been delivered, or it denotes the process of delivering something. The way the term is used in TAO, however, doesn't mean either of those. Rather, it is a test which is 'ready for delivery'.

The image below shows George's assessment in delivery form – as a published test.

George's Delivery

You can see that a delivery contains more information than just the test and the items in it. For example, in the delivery you can define the time period when test-takers can take the test, and if guests (people who are not registered as test-takers) can take it, as well as information about proctoring.