Another message sent to the OU after an oral exam

I just had my L211 French oral exam on Elluminate and neither the moderator nor the poor soul who had to share my group session could hear a word I was saying after the first few seconds. I had logged on 45 minutes early to check my settings and when I found the problem I called the computer helpdesk, who couldn't help me. I have never had this problem before either with Elluminate tutorials or with my L194 Spanish oral last week, so I don't think it's suddenly my headset that's causing the problem, but I fetched the external microphone from my dictaphone anyway in case the headset had got knocked or something in the last week. The problem persisted.

Will I be able to re-take the assessment at all? I don't especially want my technological problems to be 'taken into account' because if no one could hear anything I said it's not as if there's any recording for the assessors to go on. My French is good and I should be given an opportunity to demonstrate that. I was even looking forward to this exam because I was confident that I would do well and get a good mark. Now I'm looking at a fail for not actually contributing at all, or at best a 40% pity pass from a kindly assessor.

Elluminate is a TERRIBLE way to assess speaking competence. It should only be used in extreme circumstances, for example for students who live in countries where there are no OU centres. The lady who was in my group coped admirably and her French is excellent so I'd have thought she wouldn't need anything to be taken into account, but in case there's a borderline mark or anything I hope that the challenge she faced brilliantly in being effectively all on her own in the exam will be recognised.

I have worked very hard for this course and got good marks for my TMAs, but I am now bitterly disappointed and very worried. I have a disabling helath condition and this situation will only make my health worse. If I hadn't put a down-payment on my next course, and if I had any other option than the Open University, I would withdraw from the degree path.

Anne