Organising digital exams
Below you will find all information on hosting digital exams, the support available, and how you can prepare to ensure a smooth assessment proces.
On this page:
- Assessment tools
- Assessment locations
- Requesting digital examination
- Getting started with Ans and digital assessment timeline
- Technical support during exams
Assessment tools
Digital examination can take different forms. Generally, all on-campus exams use Ans, the university's assessment software. Take-home exams are usually administered via Brightspace.
More information on available assessment tools can be found here.
Assessment locations
There are several options for taking digital exams on location in Leiden and The Hague. Depending on the content of your exam and the number of students, certain locations may be most suitable.
In the University Sports Centre large groups of students (max. 936) can take exams on university Chromebooks. The Chromebooks are secured, allowing students access to the testing environment only.
In addition to regular invigilators, e- invigilators are present to help students with technical problems.
Note: switching keyboard input to type foreign characters and audio/video is currently not supported at the USC.
In the computer rooms in the Lipsius and Wijnhaven there are fixed computers on which tests can be taken. The PCs allow students to install any keyboard they may need themselves and all forms of media are supported. Testing in PC rooms reduces the risk of technical problems for students.
Students do need to bring their own headphones for tests containing audio or video.
Students can also take exams on their own device (BYOD). There is a variety of rooms available with sufficient power outlets or power banks for students to take a BYOD exam.
BYOD exams are especially convenient for exams that call for the use of foreign alphabets and/or characters.
The use of tablets is not supported. Loan laptops are available to accommodate students without a laptop or technical issues.
Digital exams can be hosted remotely (from home). Remote exams cannot be monitored/protected, but are suitable for open book exams or exams where students are allowed to collaborate. These exams are generally administered through Brightspace.
You can choose to use Ans if you want to:
- reuse questions from your question bank in Ans;
- use a question pool from which each student is randomly assigned a selection of questions;
- want to restrict students from going back to previous questions or already completed blocks of questions.
Requesting digital examination
In preparation for the coming academic year, the Education Coordinator of your program will inquire how you plan to host your exams. Please inform them:
- whether your exam will be digital;
- whether the exam will be taken using Ans or Brightspace;
- if you prefer the exam to be scheduled at USC, a PC room, as a BYOD exam or remotely.
When your exam is scheduled as a digital exam, you do not need to submit a separate request for support (anymore) to ECOLe. They receive the exam schedule at the beginning of each semester and will send a confirmation of registration to teachers who have their exams scheduled as digital.
Changes during the semester
Do you want to change and have your exams scheduled as digital during the semester? Contact your Education Coordinator as early as possible. Provided a suitable room is available, the coordinator will forward your request to ECOLe. Note: ECOLe maintains a deadline of at least 20 working days before the exam for such requests.
Request changes to time, date and place with your Education Coordinator. They will inform ECOLe on any changes.
Getting started with Ans
If you are hosting an exam on campus you will make use of Ans. Ans is a user-friendly tool that allows teachers to easily set up digital tests themselves.
More information about Ans can be found here.
Onboarding module
The onboarding module will become available shortly: Before your first exam, you have to go through the Ans onboarding module to get familiar with the assessment proces and determine the level of support you want to receive from ECOLe. If needed, you can request ECOLe to digitalise your exam for you.
Timeline of the digital assessment proces
ECOLe will assist and support you throughout the entire testing process and will ensure the exam is hosted as smoothly as possible. To ensure this ECOLe will request information from you and will also inform you on the procedures during specific steps in the digital assessment proces.
The timeline for this is as follows:
- Beginning of the semester
You will receive a mail from ECOLe confirming your scheduled digital exam(s). This will include instructions and deadlines to submit your exam questions and/or settings form by. - 3 weeks before the exam
You will submit you exam questions and/or settings form with ECOLe. - 2 weeks before the exam
If you have requested us to do so, ECOLe digitizes the exam for you and we will ask you to check the exam content once it is ready. - 1 week before the exam
You will receive information about your tasks during the exam as well as information for students on how to take the digital test. - Day of the exam
You or a colleague must be present at the exam and follow the teacher's instructions received to start and monitor the exam.
Technical support during your exam
Technical support is available for exams on campus that make use of Ans. Whenever possible, somebody will be on site at the start of your exam to fix any issues starting up. In addition, ECOLe is always available online to resolve technical issues remotely. Information on the chat tool we use for this will be provided to you via email once you have a digital exam scheduled.