Applies to: Renaissance Growth Platform
Products: Accelerated Reader, Planner, Star CBM, Star Custom, Star Early Literacy, Star Math, Star Reading
Platform: Macintosh, Windows
Last Updated: 1/11/2022
Issue
Network traffic estimates for Renaissance Growth Platform applications.
Resolution
These estimates can be used to approximate bandwidth requirements for one or more Renaissance web-based applications hosted by Renaissance.
Below is a chart showing bytes sent to, and received from, a Renaissance Growth Platform site while performing various common tasks within the applications. Only traffic to and from the client computer is represented here.
These estimates are based on best-case program use scenarios. User expertise in these scenarios was at a level with someone very familiar with the applications, so very little traffic is generated by error messages, unnecessary browser navigation, etc. Users that are of a more novice level may generate more traffic than is represented here. A district level administrator account was used to complete any task that isn't a student activity. All testing was done starting from loading the initial login page to the completion of the specified task and then logging back out.
Note: Each task was tested multiple times after the task was performed once to populate the browser's cache. The averages are posted below.
| Application | Task | Sent to Server in KB | Received from Server in KB | Total KB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Accelerated Reader | Reading Practice Quiz (10 questions), TOPS | 631.6 | 542.7 | 1174.4 |
| Literacy Skills Quiz (12 questions), TOPS | 630.0 | 564.4 | 1194.4 | |
| Reading Practice with Voice Quiz (10 questions), TOPS | 763.2 | 980.3 | 1743.5 | |
| Diagnostic Report, Reading Practice: 30 students | 282.0 | 386.3 | 668.3 | |
| Read Article, Take Quiz, TOPS | 862.9 | 3145.0 | 4007.9 | |
| *Planner/Star Custom | Assignment (5 to 6 questions) | 508.3 | 1410.4 | 1918.8 |
| Teacher Assigning an Assignment | 311.7 | 1838.1 | 2149.8 | |
| **Star CBM | Passage Oral Reading, Grade 1, Mixed Format | 179.4 | 554.4 | 733.8 |
| Star Early Literacy | Test with Demonstration and Practice | 1290.8 | 2920.1 | 4210.9 |
| Diagnostic Report: 30 students (On Screen) | 272.3 | 391.8 | 664.1 | |
| Diagnostic Report: 30 students (PDF) | 383.1 | 624.8 | 1007.9 | |
| Star Math | Enterprise Test: 34 Questions | 811.6 | 1768.7 | 2580.3 |
| Test with accommodations | 2111.8 | 2303.7 | 4415.4 | |
| Diagnostic Report: 30 students (On Screen) | 243.3 | 448.2 | 691.6 | |
| Diagnostic Report: 30 students (PDF) | 391.0 | 656.7 | 1047.7 | |
| Star Reading | Enterprise Test: 34 Questions | 516.1 | 195.7 | 711.8 |
| Test with accommodations | 2747 | 687.4 | 3434.5 | |
| Diagnostic Report: 30 students (On Screen) | 254.8 | 465.2 | 719.9 | |
| Diagnostic Report: 30 students (PDF) | 386.1 | 872.7 | 1258.8 |
*Star Custom and Planner contain many third-party resources and user-created content which may use substantially more bandwidth than what is used during a 5-question skill check assignment. Depending upon available bandwidth and technology, districts may choose to set local limits for educators to follow regarding test length and multimedia content.
**The Star CBM task was completed using a Mixed Format Passage Oral Reading assessment for Grade 1. Online assessments will use additional bandwidth, as will those for which the "Record audio" option was enabled.
See the example below of how you can use the information in the above chart to calculate bandwidth usage for a specific testing scenario.
Example
Your K through 12 school has 2,000 students. It is the beginning of the first marking period, and you will be testing 800 students in Star Reading. You have a computer lab with 35 computers and that is the maximum amount of students you will test at one time. You would calculate bandwidth usage as follows:
35 students × 711.8 Total KB = 24,913 KB for the session
Most bandwidth calculations are completed in bits, not bytes, so the following conversion is needed:
24,913 kilobytes (KB) × 8 (8 bits in each byte) = 199,304 kilobits (Kb) per session. This is equal to 199.304 megabits (Mb) per session.