VII_74_Training_Exams

Last Update:

October 2010 Release 7.4

Activities: Exams 足 Translation Table This lesson is specifically designed for users responsible for creating and/or scheduling exam section meetings in the Astra Schedule system.

Astra Schedule VII 足 Training Manual Ad Astra Information Systems, LLC. 6900 W. 80th Street, Suite 300 Overland Park, KS 66204 www.aais.com

Table of Contents

Lesson Objectives

3

Concept Introduction

3

Area Overview

4

Exam Types

5

Exam Preferences

6

Exam Security

7

Exam Sessions

8

Create Exam Meetings

9

Scheduling Exam Meetings

12

Page 3 路 路 路

Instruct administrators on the steps necessary to create exam sections within the Astra Schedule system Walk administrators through the various areas of the application used in exam creation and scheduling Cover exam preference configuration and room assignment tools

Concept Introduction

Lesson Objectives

The exam feature of Astra Schedule allows customers to create single meeting exam records for a given period of each term and schedule them using the section scheduling tools. Exam creation in Astra is based on the traditional method of clustering sections by common meeting pattern to avoid student/ instructor conflict. Exam session and course configurations will drive event meeting creation. Once created, users will map section meeting patterns to specific exam times. Room assignments may then be added through the room optimization tool or the ad hoc feature available at the meeting level.

Page 4

Notes:

In this lesson we will cover the process for creating and scheduling exam meetings in Astra Schedule.

This is done in three general phases: Setup, Creation, and Room Assignment.

Area Overview

·

Setup includes the system exam configuration and definition required to support exam creation and scheduling. This includes information that must be configured to perform exam scheduling, but only needs to occur one time. Once configured, this phase does not need to be revisited unless changes are required.

·

Creation is comprised of the steps necessary to generate the section exam meetings for a specific exam session and term. Exam creation must be performed every time new exams are required.

·

Scheduling occurs after the exam meetings are created and assigns rooms to the exam meetings. This phase is similar to scheduling sections for an academic term and may be performed manually or by using the optimizer.

Vocabulary Terms: Exam Type: A Section record is a term­specific offering of a course.

Exam Meeting Type: A section that has components of its meeting pattern that are undetermined.

Cross­Listed: Two or more sections that share meeting patterns and room assign­ ments for the entire term or session. This is often referred to as a combined section.

Meeting Type: Meeting Types are a subdivision of courses, defining the instruc­ tional delivery type for a course section offering.

Term: Terms are defined date ranges during which course sections are offered.

Terms are manually created and configured before section records are imported.

Page 5 Exam types are created as a way to define specific preferences and course needs for the various exam sessions held on campus.

Exam Types

In order to maximize preference options for the exam sessions, an event type should be created to represent each individual session. Sessions may run simultaneously as necessary.

Example:

To create a new exam type and associate it to the appropriate sections: 1. Select the Exam Types link located in the Academics Admin area of the Academics tab.

2. Click the Add an Exam Type button.

3. Enter a Name and Description.

4. Select a Conflict Rule.

5. Add affected Meeting Types and

If all lectures will utilize the same default room options and exam meeting patterns, then an exam type of “final” may be suffi­ cient for creating all exam records for the lecture sections selected in a given term.

If however, some lectures have oral final exams and some written and the default room settings, or exam meeting times will differ based on this, exam types should be created for “Final­Written” and “Final­Oral”.

Determine how the exam meet­ ing will handle section conflicts.

Choose the section meeting types that will have this type of exam and set default room preferences.

default room settings.

6. Associate Courses.

7. Click Save.

Courses may be associated with exam types individually at the course level or in bulk at the exam type level.

Exercise #1 Create an exam type that utilizes the “Exam Preferences” option and associate it to all the courses of one subject.

Notes:

Page 6

Notes:

When creating exam types in the system, users have the ability to set default room preferences at the exam meeting type level. This may be all that is necessary for room optimization. If it is not sufficient for all of the exams, global preferences may be created in a special “exam� set, or added by exam meeting type to a current preference set.

Exam Preferences

As exam types are added to the system by a user, exam meeting types are automatically generated based on selected settings.

Because exams have specific meeting types, the meeting type attribute will be used in any preference rules that are specific to exams. It is through the exam meeting types that scheduling preferences are made specific to exam meetings.

Do not forget to add the exam meeting type attribute to any rule created specifically for exam meetings.

Exam meeting preference rule.

Page 7

Exam Security

Exam­specific security settings are provided within a role to define whether or not a user may configure exam settings and/or work with exam section meetings.

To edit user security settings for exam features: 1. Select the Setup Tab. 2. Click on the Roles link.

3. Select the desired role and click on the edit icon.

4. In the Academic Sections area, allow users to create and edit exam types and exam records by checking the Manage Exams option in Admin Permissions.

5. Configure the Exam Permissions area to allow the users to schedule, edit, or delete exam meeting records.

6. Click Save to maintain the role changes.

Exam Permissions are filtered based on the role’s section edit settings.

Notes:

Page 8

Notes:

Exam "sessions" are the actual exam periods within an academic term. Exam sessions must be de足 fined to inform the system of the specific exam types and exam dates being offered per term. Multiple exam sessions may be created within a term as needed.

Exam Sessions

To add an Exam Session: 1. Click the Add a Term button or choose a term to edit.

2. Once term information has been completed, click the Add Exam Session button.

3. Select an Exam Type.

4. Set the session Start and End Dates.

5. Name the session and add an optional description.

6. Click the Save button.

Exercise #2 Select a term and add an exam session for the exam type created in Exercise #1.

Page 9

Create Exam Meetings

With exam settings configured and an exam ses­ sion created for a term, the system is ready to automatically generate exam meeting re­ cords. The process of generating exam meetings creates new section meetings for applicable courses. Each course section meeting type that has an exam will have a corresponding exam meeting.

To create the new meeting records: 1. Open the term for editing.

2. Click on the “plus” icon on the desired exam session.

The exam meeting generation process can be repeated if required to add new exam meetings due to configuration or data changes. Only new exam meet­ ings are created. Section meetings with existing exams are ignored.

If the exam requires the same room or preference as its parent section, or 2x seating, these attributes are applied when the record is created. Likewise, if the parent section is in a cross­list group, the exams will be cross­listed as well.

Time Mapping The exam scheduling tool in Astra Schedule allows institutions to map exam time­to­meeting pattern rules and apply them to exam meetings term after term. The initial process of mapping exam time to meeting patterns is man­ ual. However, once exam times have been created for the bulk of your meeting patterns for a given term, those times can be rolled forward and applied to exams for the next exam session.

Notes:

Page 10

Notes:

To map section meeting patterns to exam times: 1. Open the term and click on the edit icon next to the exam session.

2. If exam meeting times have previously been added to the system, check the desired meeting patterns to associate with a specific exam time.

3. Click on the Multi­Edit button.

4. Choose the exam meeting pattern.

5. Edit the exam meeting date if necessary.

6. Click the OK button.

To add Exam Meeting Patterns: 1. Open the term and click on the edit icon next to the exam session.

2. If exam meeting times have previ­ ously been added to the system, check the desired meeting patterns to associ­ ate with a specific exam time.

3. Click the Add Exam Meeting Pattern button.

4. Enter a Start and End Time.

5. Select the Day Met. 6. Click the OK button.

Exam Meeting Patterns may also be added in the Meeting Patterns link in the Academic Admin area of the Academics tab.

Exam meeting pattern mapping may be rolled forward from term to “like” term using the Roll Forward Exam Times button.

Apply Exam Meeting Patterns Once the exam meeting pattern mapping is complete for the session, users will need to apply these patterns to the previously created exam meeting records.

Prior to applying dates and times to the meetings, they will appear in the section Exam Meeting Filter.

Exam Meeting.

Page 11 grid with no meeting pattern information. They will not be available to the room optimizer, but may be manually scheduled by users with the correct security ac足 cess.

To apply the exam meeting patterns: 1. Open the term and click on the apply icon next to the exam session.

2. When completed, click the OK button.

The exam section meetings should now display valid meeting patterns when viewed in the sections list area.

Exercise #3 Create the exam meeting records for the exam session created in Exer足 cise #2.

Exercise #4 Create some exam meeting patterns and map 5 or more of the section meeting patterns to these exam patterns. Apply these meeting times and days to the exam records.

Notes:

Page 12

Notes:

Exam meetings will use the same room assignment tools as any other section meeting. This includes the Ad Hoc room assignment tool in the section edit form, and the room optimization feature available in the Sandboxes link.

Scheduling Exam Meetings

These academic scheduling tools are covered in detail in the Academics section of the training modules.

Filtered to exam meeting types only.

Page 13 Exercise #1 Create an exam type that utilizes the “Exam Preferences” option and associate it to all the courses of one subject.

· · · · · · ·

Select the Exam Types link located in the Academics Admin area of the Academics tab.

Click the Add an Exam Type button.

Enter a Name and Description.

Select a Conflict Rule.

Select a meeting type and set the room settings to “Exam Preferences”.

Filter the course list down to a single subject an associate these courses with the session.

Click Save.

Exercise #2 Select a term and add an exam session for the exam type created in Exercise #1.

· · · · · ·

Click the Add a Term button or choose a term to edit.

Once term information has been completed, click the Add Exam Session button.

Select the Exam Type created in exercise #1.

Set the session Start and End Dates.

Name the session and add an optional description.

Click the Save button.

Exercise #3 Create the exam meeting records for the exam session created in Exercise #2.

·

Click on the “plus” icon next to the exam session created in the exercise above.

Exercise #4 Create some exam meeting patterns and map 5 or more of the section meeting patterns to these exam patterns.

Apply these meeting times and days to the exam records.

· · · · · · · · · ·

Open the term and click on the edit icon next to the exam session.

Click the Add Exam Meeting Pattern button.

Enter a Start and End Time.

Select the Day Met. Click the OK button.

Check the desired meeting patterns to associate with a specific exam time.

Click on the Multi­Edit button.

Choose the exam meeting pattern.

Edit the exam meeting date if necessary.

Click the OK button.

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