Question Mark Opens Australian Office.

Business/Technology Editors

STAMFORD, Conn. and LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 8, 2001

Question Mark, the leading provider of testing and assessment software, announces the opening of a new office in Melbourne, Australia.

The company, which also has offices in London, England, and Stamford, Connecticut, has been marketing its products in Australia for 10 years through independent distributors. Now it aims to further serve the unique distance learning needs of Australia and Asian Pacific Rim countries through its own regional office.

"Given the importance of the Pacific region to Question Mark and the substantial time zone differential between the UK/US and this region, we needed a local presence to support and assist distributors and clients based here," says Murray Benadie, who was selected to head Question Mark Pacific. "The opportunity of working with the Question Mark team in this dynamic, exciting and burgeoning industry, where we can add real value to our customers, is one that I could not pass up."

Benadie has been involved with computer-based training and distance learning for eight years and marketed Question Mark in South Africa for six years before relocating to Melbourne. He founded Pace Career Center in South Africa, which offers web-based career guidance assessments. He worked for IBM for three years and was a director of of ADvSOURCE, part of the ADvTECH Group, and Ennovative Solutions (SA). Throughout his management career, Benadie has brought increased revenues and profits to the companies with which he has been affiliated.

About Question Mark and Perception

Question Mark has been producing testing and assessment software since 1988, enabling educators and trainers to write, administer, and report on tests and surveys securely using individual PCs, local networks, the Internet, and intranets.

Question Mark Perception software allows people to create question files without programming experience or knowledge of HTML. Users can create multiple question banks from which to assemble tests and surveys, organizing questions into topics and sub-topics. They can shuffle questions and answers for each participant and preview sessions to see how they will appear post-deployment. Question types include multiple choice, multiple response, numeric, word response, essay, fill-in-the-blank, matching/ranking, hot spot, drag and drop, and matrix. They can present questions with videos, graphics and a wide variety of styles.

Perception can deploy assessments in Windows or Web environments. For high stakes exams, where the content is valuable, Perception Secure Browser can be used to limit printing, navigation and save-to-disk functions. The participant receives the feedback that the test author has specified. Answers are then saved to a file for scoring and analysis with Enterprise Reporter, which offers a variety of report formats.

Businesses, governments, schools, colleges, and universities in more than 45 countries use Question Mark software. Typical applications include exams, quizzes, study aids, diagnostic tests, pre-course skills assessments, and course evaluations. Question Mark is actively involved with the IMS Global Learning Consortium and supports open standards.