This document gives a brief overview of the workflow involved in managing examinations, divided up according to the various roles of people who interact with the system. The combined workflow is also available.
The intent is that all roles who need to interact with the system are included here. Any routine action not mentioned here is done automatically by the system without direct human intervention.
Seat Assignment
This section defines the actions that relate to seat assignment to be performed by the various roles in the system.
Undergraduate Office
All of the tasks performed by the Undergraduate Office (in the Faculty of Math, the Math Undergraduate Office) are mostly automatic. Manual intervention will be required in order to deal with special cases because not all required information exists in computer-readable form. Although this role is referred to as “Undergraduate Office”, these tasks may be delegated to appropriate staff in different departments. For example, in CS it may be appropriate for ISG to handle these steps.
- Done (auto) Ensure existence of appropriate admin units when needed. Admin units can be thought of as courses but with the flexibility to split or combine courses together. The admin unit setup should match the way the courses are actually administered. Mostly this can be automated based on “one course, one admin unit” but when courses need to be split or combined manual intervention is required.
- Done (auto) Adjust admin unit activation every term. This can mostly be done automatically based on rules which control which class sections are attached to which admin units but manual intervention is sometimes required to deal with special situations.
- Done Adjust authorization when needed. Most authorization information can be obtained from the instructor records, but course coordinators need to be authorized as Instructional Support Coordinators and occasional exceptions will need to be handled.
- Enter room floor plans in the system. This is required only for new or renovated rooms.
- Attach booked rooms to examinations whose room bookings are handled by the Undergraduate Office.
Instructional Support Coordinator
The Instructional Support Coordinator role is for the people responsible for administrative tasks related to the course. This role can be filled by an Instructional Support Coordinator (typical in lower-year CS courses), the designated Course Coordinator (typical in multi-section Math courses), or the sole instructor (typical in one-instructor courses).
- Done Create examination and record its date, time, and duration (if not done by Undergraduate Office).
- Done Attach booked rooms to examinations (when not done by Undergraduate Office).
- Done Override seat/sequence number order if needed.
- Done Override selection of candidates if needed.
- Done Create special sittings if needed.
- Done Override candidate sitting allocation if needed.
- Done (auto) Designate seats for use in seat assignment. This is mostly automatic with the ability to override when necessary.
AccessAbility
The AccessAbility office (formerly Office for Persons with Disabilities, OPD) provides the information concerning which candidates should be writing with the AccessAbility office (and therefore which examination papers need to be delivered there). AccessAbility has a designated staff person who communicates with instructors and course staff to ensure the correct number of papers are delivered to OPD.
- Done Periodically, receive from the system a list of course sections involved in examinations for a period of time (typically, one week for midterms, and the entire final examination period for final examinations).
- Done Upload list of students writing examinations with AccessAbility.
While the system is not handling printing, this provides a standardized way for course staff to become aware of which students are writing at AccessAbility, and allows the seat assignment system to automatically avoid giving those students seats in the regular sittings.
Once printing is implemented, this will also allow the printing process to send exactly the right papers to AccessAbility.
Instructor
Instructors qua instructors do not participate in the examination management workflow. They only have access to see what is happening. Typically, however, the Authorized Uploader will also be an Instructor, and often the Instructional Support Coordinator is also an Instructor. Therefore, many Instructors actually will participate in the workflow due to their role as Authorized Uploader or Instructional Support Coordinator.
Candidate
Candidates can access the schedule lookup page to view their upcoming examinations. Seats should always be assigned at least a couple of days before the examination in order to ensure that candidates can view their information well in advance of examination time.
Course instructors may announce in class, via LEARN, or via whatever other methods they use for announcements that seat assignments have been done and are available for students to see.
Printing
This section defines the actions that relate to printing to be performed by the various roles in the system.
Instructional Support Coordinator
In addition to the steps to be performed for seat assignment:
- Done Set Authorized Uploader.
- Done Override spare counts if necessary.
AccessAbility
In addition to the steps to be performed for seat assignment:
- If needed, download approved PDF masters from the system in order to print any examinations not obtained on paper.
Authorized Uploader
The Authorized Uploader is the individual designated to upload the PDF master into the system. Their involvement can start whenever the examination has been created.
- Done Upload PDF master.
- Done Download stamped version of PDF master and check layout.
- Done Repeat as necessary.
- Done Mark PDF master as approved. This signals to the system that the PDF is ready to be printed. Printing will happen once both the PDF master is approved and the seat assignments are done.
While the system is not handling printing, this serves to give AccessAbility an alternate way of obtaining examination copies if they are missing one. It also gives course staff a way to impose the standard cover template, including a space for the labels, on the master prior to printing through Graphics.
Once printing is implemented, this is an essential step as it provides the master to the system in order to allow the print jobs to be created.