This document gives a brief overview of the workflow involved in managing a single examination. This is also available from the various user role perspectives. This is broken into three parts: the “Configuration Workflow” which concerns setting up the course and its examination(s) in the system; the “Seat Assignment” workflow which concerns assigning candidates to seats; and the “Printing Workflow” which concerns printing the examination papers.
The notes on whether items are automatic or if not who is responsible describe how the system is intended to work once the current upgrades are complete.
We have begun noting the status of the various items below. In Progress means the item is the subject of active current development. Ready means the item has been developed but not deployed to production; testing may still be required. Done means the item has been deployed to production.
Configuration Workflow
Before either seat assignment or printing can take place, the examination must be set up in the system. This implies that the course is itself set up in the system.
- Done (auto) Ensure existence of admin unit for the sections involved. Typically the admin units are one per course but sometimes courses are split up or combined (Mostly automatic with some manual override).
- Done Ensure admin unit is enabled (offering created) for the relevant term, and designated for assigned seating.
- Done Authorize course staff (instructors, coordinator) to access offering (Mostly automatic; may require some manual override or entry).
- Done Attach class sections to offering (Mostly automatic; occasional special cases require manual override, probably by Undergraduate staff). A few strange cases might still need DBA override. However, these would not be routine and would result from unusual changes in the schedule.
- Done Create examination and set date, time, and duration (Manual entry by course or Undergraduate staff).
- Done Set seat and sequence number assignment order (Mostly from defaults, overrideable by course staff).
Once the above steps are done, the system is ready for the remaining two workflows to start.
Seat Assignment Workflow
Referring to the Seat/Candidate Classification may be helpful in understanding this part.
- Done Select candidates for the examination (usually automatically based on class registrations, but sometimes special cases need to be added manually as well).
- Done Allocate candidates to sittings. This mostly consists of allocating candidates to the primary sitting (automatic), but also involves moving OPD candidates to the OPD sitting (OPD) and moving candidates to special sittings as needed (ISC).
- Done (auto) Select and allocate seats for the examination (sometimes should be done first, as in the case when MUO books rooms for first- and second-year midterms).
- Done Designate seats for use in seat assignment. This may also involve making adjustments to the seating plan, for example to cram in a few extra candidates when needed, or to minimize use of certain rooms (Automatic procedure with opportunity for course staff to override).
- Done Assign spare counts (Automatic according to default formula, then overrideable by course staff).
- Done Perform seat assignment (Automatic procedure).
Printing Workflow
This concerns preparing the examination for printing.
- Done Set authorized uploader for examination (Default from authorization information; overrideable by course staff).
- Done Upload PDF examination master. This may be repeated as many times as desired by the authorized uploader (Authorized uploader).
- Done Approve PDF examination master for printing (Authorized uploader).
- Done Assign sequence numbers to all examination papers. This requires that the “Seat Assignment Workflow” be completed (Automatic process).
- Done Produce the print job and submit it for printing (Automatic process). Alternatively, make PDFs of signature lists and labels available to course staff.