Exams in ACE

We have introduced many features that make administering exams with ACE easier and more secure. This document describes how to use ACE to administer exams.

Preparing the exam

1. Enter the exam questions in the question bank.
2. On the courses list page, press Add course to create a new course that students will use only for the exam. Set the time that the students will be able to enter the course to the start time of the exam, and check the box that indicates that the course will be used for exams.
   • You can choose to tell ACE to omit calculated products from feedback to responses to synthesis questions. (Incorrect responses to synthesis questions sometimes elicit feedback that shows the products that ACE calculates from the reaction. Students can use this feature to calculate the answers to "draw the products" questions on an exam.) If you choose this option, then, after a student enters this course, he or she will no longer see calculated products in the feedback to synthesis questions in any course.
   • You may choose to restrict the IP addresses that students may use when entering this course. This restriction does not apply to the instructor or TAs. You may enter each IP address individually as "a.b.c.d", you may enter an entire domain in the form "a.b.c", you may use an IP address along with a subnet mask in the form "a.b.c.d/w.x.y.z", or you may use CIDR notation in the form "a.b.c.d/n".
   • You may choose to require a course password to enter the course. This feature is useful if you decline to use random exam IDs (see below). If you choose this option, proctors should log students into the exam remotely without revealing the course password to the students so that students cannot log into one another's accounts and see each other's work on the exam.
   • If you are going to offer the exam at more than one time, you have two options.
     • You can use this option if you are using exam IDs. After the first offering of the exam, go to the courses list page, press the Edit button next to the exam course, and set the time to enter the course to be the start time of the next exam offering. Reenter the exam course, press the Assignments tab, and press Edit exam features (or, if there is only one assignment, press the Edit 2 button). Set the due date and time of the exam to the start time of the next offering of the exam, and save. Then press Edit exam features again, and, in the box next to Unused exam students, enter the amount of time (in minutes) that the students will have to take the exam.
     • Create a separate course for each exam offering. (You may find it easiest simply to clone your first exam course with the button to the right of the first exam course's name on the courses list page. This button will copy the course information and the assignments of the cloned course into the new course, but not the enrollment list. If you are going to give the same exam each time, exercise this option after you have assembled the assignments so that you do not have to reassemble them or export and import them.) Incorporate the time of each exam into the name of each course.
3. Assemble the questions that you wrote into assignments, flagging the assignments as exams.
   • Set the due date and time for each assignment to the end time of the exam.
   • Set question- and attempt-dependent grading parameters for each assignment.
   • You may choose to save all students' responses to the database, rather than only students' final responses. If you exercise this option, you will be able to use the gradebook to look at all of a student's responses to a question.
   • You may choose to delay grading for the assignment until after the exam is completed. If you choose this option, students will receive only the feedback, "Your instructor will evaluate your response."
4. Under the Enrollment tab, select Create exam IDs. Enter a number slightly greater than the number of students who will be taking the exam. (You can skip this step if you choose to use a course password and proctors will enter the password that allows students to enter the exam course.)
5. Special situations:
   • If you are going to offer the exam at more than one time, create enough exam IDs in each course for the number of students who will be taking the exam at that time.
   • If you are going to allow students to log themselves into the accounts, then choose the option to make the passwords identical to the login IDs. Export the enrollment list to a spreadsheet and print the login IDs on slips of paper to distribute to students.
   • If you or proctors are going to log students into their accounts yourselves, choose the option to make the passwords different from the login IDs. Copy and save the login IDs and corresponding passwords; you will not have another opportunity to see the passwords, and only the ACE administrator has the ability to change the passwords. Assign each login ID to a student.

Starting the exam

• If you are allowing students to log into ACE themselves, and you are using exam IDs:
  1. Give one slip of paper bearing a random login ID to each student about to take the exam. Tell the students that the password is identical to the login ID. Some students will disregard instructions and use their regular login IDs or passwords. When they call for help, explain that they have failed to follow instructions. IMPORTANT: Take care that you do not give two students the same exam ID, or unfunny hilarity will ensue.
  2. Instruct students to press My profile after they log in and change the student name and student ID number associated with the random login ID to their own. (They may change the password, as well.) Some students will disregard these instructions as well.
  3. Instruct students to print and sign their names on their slips of paper and return them to you as they leave. This step will allow you to identify students who did not enter their name and student ID number in My profile. The signature will also help you identify ringers, if you suspect any.
• If you or proctors are logging the students into ACE, and you are using exam IDs:
  1. Take control of the students' desktops, and log them into the exam account.
  2. Return desktop control to the students, and instruct them to press My profile and change the student name and student ID number associated with the random login ID to their own. Some students will disregard these instructions.
     • Students will not be able to change their passwords, so if they log out during the exam, you will have to log them back in again.
• If you are not using exam IDs:
  1. Allow students to log into their own accounts.
  2. Take control of the students' desktops, and log them into the exam course.
     • Students will not know the course password, so if they log out during the exam, you will have to log them back in again.
• In any case:
  1. Remind students that they are responsible for submitting saved-but-unsubmitted responses before they leave the exam. If a student has saved but not submitted a response to any assignment in the course, ACE provides a button on the assignment list page that allows the student to submit all such responses at one time. Note: The button works even after the exam has ended.
  2. When you are ready to begin the exam, press My courses, press to the right of the exam course, check the box that enables the course, and save the change. Students who have already logged into ACE will need to press Refresh on the course list page (user home page) to see the exam course.

During the exam

1. ACE includes on the questions list page and the question-solving page a clock that counts down to each student's exam end time, so you do not need to announce how much time is left in the exam. However, this clock may stop when the focus is taken away from the browser, then restart when the focus returns to the browser, so it may indicate that the student has more time than she actually has. The solution is to refresh the browser page after returning the focus to it.
2. If any student has technical trouble, you can grant that student an extension on all assignments without having to edit each assignment individually. Press Edit exam features on the assignments list page, click Extensions, enter the length of the extension (in minutes) next to the name of the appropriate student, and submit the change. ACE will overwrite all extensions on individual assignments with the information that you enter this way. You can also use this button to change the due time of all exam assignments for the whole class. A student's extension will take effect after he or she returns to the assignments list page.
3. If a student "wastes" an attempt because of a technical glitch, you can reset the number of attempts. Press the Grade Book tab, click on the assignment number, click on the name of the student, click alter under the appropriate question, change the number of attempts, and press Alter this record now.

After the exam

1. If you did not use a course password, press My courses, press to the right of the exam course, and disable the course again.
2. If you chose to tell ACE to omit calculated products from feedback to responses to synthesis questions, press My courses, press to the right of the exam course, and uncheck the box next to "Hide calculated synthesis products?" When you save the changes, ACE will allow all students registered in this course to see the calculated synthesis products again.
3. Press the Grade Book tab. If you see a student named ZZZRandomStudent who has submitted responses to the exam, it means that a student who took the exam failed to press My profile and enter his or her correct name and student ID number. The first name of ZZZRandomStudent is the login ID of that student, so you can find the student's name either by finding the slip of paper that you collected after the exam that bears that random login ID, or from your list assigning login IDs to students. The absence of the correct name and student ID number makes transferring the student's work from the random login ID to the regular login ID a little more cumbersome, but you can still do it. Nevertheless, you may want to login under the random login ID and change the student's name and student ID number yourself, or you may want to email the student and request that she do it herself.
4. Click on the number of any assignment that shows ??? for ungraded questions.
   • If you chose to delay grading on the assignment, press the Regrade all button to grade all of the questions in the assignment. ACE will turn off the assignment's "delay grading" flag when the regrading is complete so that students can see the feedback to their responses. You can regrade individual questions by choosing the question number from the pulldown menu next to Regrade.
   • If any questions remain that require you to grade them manually, press Hide names to make the students anonymous, and click on a student ID number. Click alter under a question that requires grading, read the response, and enter a grade between 0 and 1. Enter a comment on the student's response if you wish, and press Alter this record now. ACE will apply the question- and attempt-dependent grading parameters for that assignment to the grade that you enter. Repeat for each student.
5. You can comment on any student's response to a question. In the gradebook for the assignment containing the question, click on the student's name, and click the alter link under the appropriate question. Enter your comment in the text box, and press Alter this record now. ACE will append your comment to the response feedback on the student's problem-solving page and will also display it if the student looks at his or her last response in the gradebook.
6. If you have used exam IDs, then, under the Enrollment tab, choose Transfer exam work. Choose the regular course in which the students are enrolled with their regular login IDs and passwords, and choose whether you want ACE to use names, student ID numbers, or both to match enrollees in the exam course to enrollees in the regular ACE course. ACE will match as many students as it can, and, if you approve of the matches, it will then transfer the students' work from their random login IDs to their regular login IDs. If any random login IDs remain unmatched, for example because of typographical errors, ACE will allow you to match them up manually. ACE will also ask your permission to delete any unused random login IDs.
7. Export the grades as a spreadsheet.
8. Press My courses, press to the right of the exam course, and enable the course again (or delete the course password). Students will now be able to log in with their usual login IDs and see their exam results.

Miscellaneous comments

• If you have chosen to store all responses to exam questions in the database, you can see a student's earlier responses to a question in the detailed gradebook: simply press the attempt or alter link and choose a response number from the pulldown menu in the popup window. Please note that this method will not allow you to view responses that were saved but not submitted. If you want to view those responses as well, use the link discussed below.
• On the assignments list page, links to two downloadable files follow each exam assignment.
  • The first link is to a table of all student responses to each question in the assignment. The table lists the student name, the number of the question in the assignment, the question ID number, the response number, the time of the response, the IP address of the computer from which the response was entered, and the response string. You may use this file to look at students' responses to questions prior to their final responses, including responses that they saved without submitting. The information may be useful for verifying student claims of a correct response being marked wrong, for catching copiers, etc. ACE makes this table available to you regardless of whether you chose to save every response to the database. You may save the table and open it in a spreadsheet or word-processing program. (We do not recommend Microsoft Excel, as it starts new lines at return characters in the response strings.)
  • The second link is to a table of all student entries into the exam course, including student name, host and IP address, and time of login. You may use this file to verify that no one logged into the exam from an unauthorized location.