Inspera

There are a few different types of Inspera Digital Exams that we run at Newcastle: 

Current

In Person Locked Down – the most common exam type that we host. For summative centrally supported exams, the Central Exams Office will arrange invigilators to be present who help host these exams. 'Locked down' mean that students can only access the exam content.

In Person Non-Locked Down - For summative centrally supported exams, the Central Exams Office will arrange invigilators to be present who help host these exams. 'Non-Locked down' mean that students would be able to access specialist software if required for the examination.

Past

BYOD – Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) exams were used within and prior to the 22/23 academic year. Usage has been paused since the 23/24 academic year.

Take Home Open Book – these are less common. Open book exams can be open for a set period, such as 24 hours, or you can set these as timed exams, for example 60 minutes, for students and complete to access within a 24 hour period. Students can access any resources and material. The Inspera Digital Exams Team do not support set up of Take Home Inspera Exams, as we recommend using a Canvas Quiz for take home open book assessment.

Module leaders who have a digital exam in their Module Outline Form (MOF) for the current academic year will be contacted at the start of the relevant semester with guidance on preparing for the exam. They will be invited to complete a Digital Exam Form. For more information, you can see our Getting Started with Inspera webpage.    

Please see our key deadlines for semester 1 and 2 assessment periods in 2024/25:

To access an Inspera digital exam, students need to log into a campus computer or compatible device using their University credentials. It is highly recommended that students are reminded of this before their exam. If they have forgotten their password, they can reset it via it.servicedesk@newcastle.ac.uk.

Should a student not be able to log in to a device on the day of the exam, students may be allowed - where possible - to take a paper version of the exam. Paper back up exams are often created using the Inspera question set designed by module teams, and colleagues from the central Exams office organise printed versions to be made available in the exam venues.

However, if exam content cannot be replicated in paper format (due to allowed use of webpages, video and or audio content), Schools should consider if the student should take their assessment at the next usual occasion or submit PEC. Please also consider that a back-up paper may not always give students the same experience as an interactive digital exam (e.g. allow-listed use of PDF, word count limits).

If a module team wishes to include content that cannot be replicated in paper format, but wishes students to use a back-up paper, please discuss mitigations and alternative approaches further with the Digital Exams Team (contact via digital.exams@ncl.ac.uk). You can also read about how we are reducing reliance on paper-based back up papers on our dedicated webpage.

Module teams should inform students as early as possible that they will be taking a digital exam using Inspera.  

To ensure that your students are fully prepared for their Inspera exam you should: 

1. Share and draw their attention to the student resources on the Inspera Academic Skills Kit webpage. Information on this page includes how to access demo exams to try out the Inspera software. This is recommended for all students, to familiarise themselves with Inspera before their exam. There are locked down exams available, which can be taken in University PC clusters, as well as open book exams which students would be able to try on their own devices.

2. Optionally you can set up a subject-specific practice test for your module using Inspera. If you choose to set up a practice test you can decide whether to book a specific time and venue on campus, or whether to allow students to take the practice test in their own time. You can check out our 'Getting Started with Inspera' webpage for details on how to set up your own practice tests.

3. For summative centrally supported Inspera exams, the Digital Exams Team will share communications with you ahead of your Inspera exam for you to share with your students, e.g. as a Canvas Announcement or via email.

Once the exam has taken place, the module team are responsible for:  

• checking the results of automatically marked questions (for example, multiple choice questions) 
• marking manually marked questions (for example, short written answer or essay questions)  
• confirming the final marks (If you wish to push the marks through into the Canvas Gradebook this step is required for every Inspera exam, even if your exam contains only automatically marked questions)
• releasing grades and feedback to students.   

To learn more about marking an Inspera exam, you can sign up for our Inspera Marking webinars on Elements. You may also wish to check out our dedicated Marking Exams in Inspera webpage for more information around marking workflows and some helpful video demos.

Please note that the Inspera Digital Exams Team do not support or complete the set up of Inspera Take Home exams.

Inspera exams can be hosted as open book (non-locked down) but take place in University PC clusters as person exams, which you could consider instead of a take home exam if you are looking to set up an Inspera exam yourself.

If you would like to host a take home exam, our team would recommend using a Canvas Quiz test instead, or you could consider a Canvas Assignment.

It is possible to export your question set from Inspera as a QTI file. The Team have created instructions covering Exporting QTI from Inspera and Importing into Canvas guidance 2025, so that the content can be used in a quiz.

If your semester 1 or semester 2 assessment period digital exam used Inspera and there is a need for an August assessment period exam for students who are resitting or who deferred, you may wish to use Inspera. 

In person August assessment period exams

• For the 24/25 academic year, there is no minimum student number threshold for an in person August assessment period exam to be run using Inspera. Any Inspera exam from Semester 1 or 2 can run an Inspera resit in the August assessment period.
• If the August assessment period exam is run using Inspera, any student who needs to sit the exam overseas will need to do so on paper, it is not currently possible to support in person Inspera exam sittings at overseas venues.
• All in-person, on campus August assessment period digital exams will be delivered in University PC Clusters.

Please see below the deadlines for August 2025 assessment period exam preparation:

A basic digital drawing tool can be made available for students to use when answering essay questions in Inspera. If your students need to create more sophisticated drawings as part of the answer to a question, or to handwrite content such as equations on paper, there is the option to use Inspera Scan.

Inspera Scan enables students to hand draw part of an answer to a question in their Inspera exam. After the exam the completed scan sheets will be returned to the School for scanning. The scans are uploaded to Inspera and can be marked online as part of a student's answer to the relevant question.

There are 2 different types of Inspera Scan sheet available, a Grid Scan Sheet and a Blank Scan Sheet. If Inspera Scan is required for your exam, when you complete the digital exam form you will be required to state how many of each type of scan sheet each student sitting the exam will require.

Note that Inspera Scan sheets are designed for content that students need to submit to be marked as part of their answers to questions in the exam. Scan sheets are not intended for rough work. As standard students are provided with a small amount of paper for rough work for all digital exams. If you require your students to be provided with more paper for rough work during your exam you can request this separately from the Exams Office when providing instructions relating to the exam.

If a Module Team is interested in using Inspera Scan for their Inspera exam, they should contact the Digital Exams Team via Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk.

A Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) exam is where an exam is delivered on students’ own laptop devices. They were used for some Inspera Digital Exams in the 2022/23 academic year to facilitate more exams on campus.

Please note that all exams will be hosted in University PC clusters for the 2024/25 and 2025/26 academic years.

Module teams are welcome to host formative or mock exams on Inspera for their students. Please note that the Digital Exams Team only support the set-up of summative Inspera exams. 

There is guidance available to support Module Teams to set up formative, non-locked down Inspera exams. This includes: 

• Full guidance detailed on the Getting Started with Inspera webpage.
• Video demonstration of non-locked down in-person Inspera exam set up.

Professional Services colleagues may wish to check out our dedicated Professional Services colleagues webpage for more video demonstrations around processes. 

If you have any questions around the technical set up of your exam, you are welcome to contact Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk with any queries. Please note that we request a minimum of 1 weeks' notice prior to the exams taking place to give us sufficient time to check your queries.

Information about using Safe Exam Browser (SEB) during exams

The Digital Exams Team encourage that if Schools wish to host their own formative locked-down exams, they should liaise with the Central Exams Office to arrange for invigilators to manage the exam who are trained in Inspera troubleshooting. We do not recommend that Schools host their own locked-down, but there is information on the Exams Office Invigilators website containing the troubleshooting guidance. We strongly advise against Schools running their own Summative locked-down exams using SEB, unless all the appropriate training has taken place, and appropriate invigilation is arranged.

You can also visit our dedicated Safe Exam Browser webpage, which has a variety of frequently asked questions.

Troubleshooting

Various teams across our University work together to ensure students are supported during centrally supported summative Inspera exams. The Digital Exams Team, Central Exams Office, NUIT and invigilators support the digital exams in various ways.

Invigilators receive annual training on digital exams and are present in the room to support students in a live exam. There is troubleshooting support from the Digital Exams Team during main assessment periods where colleagues work with IT, Exams Office and Invigilators to ensure students can access their Inspera exams online. Invigilators can telephone the Central Exams Office with queries, who either resolve the query or post a message on a Microsoft Teams site where the Inspera Digital Exams Team or NUIT will pick up the query and provide the appropriate support. This allows teams to quickly react and action appropriate responses.

Logging in and password resets

Students receive communications ahead of examination periods about the importance of knowing their login details. In liaison with NUIT, password resets can be carried out if students arrive 20 minutes before the exam starts.

Guidance for students

There is a dedicated page on the Academic Skills Kit which covers various support for students around their Inspera Digital Exams.

Demo/practice exams

Students have access to practice an Inspera Digital Exam, via Canvas ahead of taking their main exam. There are two types of exam available, both contain the same questions. One is an open book exam and one is set up to be completed in a cluster rooms, so the student can experience accessing the Safe Exam Browser software that locks down the exam. 

Please note that the above is applicable for Inspera Digital Exams and the work supported by the Inspera Digital Exams Team. There is similar equivalent support available for Numbas exams by the dedicated Numbas Team.

Inspera Assessment has some inbuilt functionality that students can use to support them within an Inspera Digital Exam. 

This includes ability to: 

• Increase text size of question and information text. 

• Increase text size of answer text. 

• Change colour contrast. 

It is also possible to zoom in using keyboard shortcuts.

Students who are using ClaroRead as assistive technology to support them during a Digital Exam, can watch a video demo to show how the tool can be used with the Inspera Assessment digital exam system. Students can practice using the functionality of ClaroRead by using the Open Book Inspera Demo Exam on any University PC cluster device.

If students have questions about the use of ClaroRead ahead of their digital exams, they can speak with the Student Health and Wellbeing Service (SHWS). If students have questions during your digital exam, they should raise their hand and speak to an invigilator. If students have queries following an exam, they can contact the Central Exams Office. For more information about the accessibility tools within Inspera please see the Inspera Academic Skills Kit webpage.

If you have any questions about the inbuilt functionalities within the Inspera system, you can contact the Digital Exams Team via: Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk.