Z scores are also known as ‘standard deviation units’. To understand them you need to know a little bit about statistics. For example, a z score (or standard deviation) of +1.0 signifies that the student’s raw score was one standard deviation above the mean of the statistical population on which the test was standardised, and a z score of –0.5 signifies that the student’s raw score was one standard deviation below the mean of that population. Z scores can be converted to standard scores (which have a mean or average of 100 and a standard deviation of 15) by multiplying the z score by 15 and either adding it to 100 if the z score is positive or subtracting it from 100 if the z score is negative. For example, a z score of –0.67 is equivalent to a standard score of 100 –(0.67 x 15) = 90.

Lucid Research’s computer-based assessment products offer many advantages over conventional assessment methods (i.e. assessment delivered by the teacher), including:

• Consistent and precise presentation
• Improved accuracy of measurement
• Speedier administration (especially adaptive tests as in LASS)
• Little training needed to administer (since the computer does most of the work!)
• Labour (and cost) saving
• No need to spend time scoring results and looking up tables of norms
• Results available instantly (computer-based assessments produced by some other companies do not have this benefit)
• Enjoyable for children (many children, especially those with poor performance greatly prefer computerised assessment to conventional assessment)
• Confidential for adult self-assessment

Reference
Singleton, C.H. (2001) Computer-based assessment in education. Educational and Child Psychology, 18, 58-74.]

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The licence expiry and software expiry are two different things. Your software licence agreement begins from your invoice tax date and runs for 1, 3 or 5 years.

Your software expiry may exceed this date depending on when it was installed. As you approach the software expiry, the program will notify you that you will need to renew by entering a new serial number. A new serial number is supplied when you purchase a renewal of your licence agreement. If an upgrade to the software is available, a new CD will be supplied with your renewal pack.

Click here for some important details of Licences for Lucid Software

You can usually find the date upon which the software will either stop working or shut down some of its funcionality by clicking on the 'Licence information' button which is at the top-right of the Start-up menu.

From 90 days before the software will shut down a warning message appears on the opening screen reminding you to renew the licence. Even after the 90 day warning period has passed you may be given a grace period during which the software will still partially or fully work as normal.

This is quite straightforward. Because your school or organisation's licence details are held within a database file, by transferring this file to the second computer your licence details including serial number will be transferred too.

Lucid's serial numbers normally employ a special format which only allows them to be used within a particular time scale. This means that if you wish to install the software onto a different computer the serial number may not be accepted. If you experience this issue it can be rectified by transferring the licence information from the original computer it was installed on (the fact sheet below gives instruction on how to do this).If you are unable to transfer from one PC to another the serial number issue can be overcome so please contact us for information on how to do this. In the later editions of the software such as Version 5, it may be permitted to install during the calendar year following the issue of the serial number if the licence period is 3 or 5 years and if the user provides the invoice month and year when the registration screen asks for it.

Our stand-alone software is designed to run on:

Microsoft ® Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8.

This may be a file or folder permissions issue. The database file in which students and their test results are stored may not be writeable because a folder on the computer is ‘Locked Down’.

To check for this, try going to the part of the Reports and Administration module in your Lucid software where you normally add new students or individuals. Add a new student with a made up name and choose ‘Save’. Now go back to the previous menu and choose ‘Delete an individual’. If your new student does NOT appear in the list of registered individuals then there is probably a permissions problem on the computer which needs to be addressed by your ICT support.

To find out about which folder needs Write permissions please click on this link

Yes, this is quite straightforward. Because your school or organisation's licence details are held within a database file, by transferring this file to the second computer which has your Lucid software installed upon it, your licence details including serial number will be transferred too. Please see the fact sheets below for detailed instructions.

Transferring Lucid results and software licence to another computer

Lucid's serial numbers (excluding Recall and Boosters) use a special format which only allows them to be used within a particular time period. This means that if you wish to install the software onto a different computer the serial number may not be accepted, especially if you have a one year licence issued in the previous calendar year.

If you have been using the software on a different computer but now wish to install it onto a different one, you can transfer the database file from the original computer to the new one, and this will transfer your software licence too.

See the question number (3) above for details.

If you have not installed the Lucid software before and you have a one year licence issued to you in the last calendar year, please contact Lucid Research and we can advise you how to complete your software registration.

Lucid Recall (single user edition) is tied to one particular computer, normally the one you first register the software onto. If you wish to move Lucid Recall to another computer you should first Save a database archive (see System Housekeeping in the Lucid Recall software) and then email or ring Lucid Research and our support staff will nullify the Lucid Recall registration on your first computer and allow you to install the software onto a different computer.

You may then load the archive you saved previously into your new copy of Lucid Recall to restore your student results.

Please email technical@lucid-research.com, telling us your software serial number (this has the generic format 99999-9999A-A999999 or 99999-9999A-AA99999 where 9 represents a digit and A a letter of the alphabet) and the approximate date you expect the software to expiry. If there is a problem with the expiry date we will email you a small utility (program) which you can run on your computer and which will correct the expiry date for you. Please note the serial number we require is the one shown on the login panel when you launch your software. If you have a second serial number (for example, one sent to you with a recent software renewal) which is not the same as the one shown when you launch your software please mention this to us in your email.