In 2021/22 Inspera will be the standard tool for centrally supported digital exams, and will be used for all modules that have a present-in-person digital exam in MOFS (with the exception of any specialist digital exams that require Numbas). The Digital Assessment Service team will contact module leaders about how to begin preparing for their Inspera digital exam at the start of the relevant semester.

Inspera will be available for additional new digital exams from 2022/23 onwards. There will be opportunities during the academic year to see demonstrations of the software and learn more about the new types of assessment it makes possible.

To discuss a potential new Inspera digital exam please contact digital.exams@newcastle.ac.uk.

Some Inspera exams will be delivered on students’ own laptops. In 2021/22 this will be the recommended delivery method for any Inspera exam that includes written questions. If this applies to your exam the Digital Assessment Service team will contact you to explore whether Bring Your Own Device is appropriate to your exam requirements.

Taking a digital written exam on their own laptops is preferred by students, as it allows them to produce written work using a machine they are familiar with from producing coursework assignments.

Students taking a BYOD exam need to install and test the Safe Exam Browser software on their laptops ahead of the exam. Any student who does not have a suitable laptop they can use to take the exam can complete a form to request to use a university computer for the exam.

There are resources available with all of the information that students need to prepare for a BYOD exam, see Preparing your students for their Inspera digital exam below.

Module leaders who have a digital exam in their 2021/22 MOF will be contacted at the start of the relevant semester with guidance on preparing for the exam.  The steps to prepare an Inspera exam are:

• The module team is required to complete a digital exam form to provide the Digital Assessment Service with details of the exam. The deadlines to complete the form are:

• The module team are responsible for preparing the exam questions in Inspera. The module team will inform students that they will be taking a digital exam in Inspera, and provide them with links to the student resources (see Preparing your students for their Inspera digital exam below) 
  • To create new questions in Inspera training and guidance is available for all colleagues (see Training and resources below)
  • If you have existing quiz questions in Canvas that you would like to reuse for an Inspera exam the Digital Assessment Service team will provide support to transfer the questions from Canvas to Inspera. To request this please provide the required details when you complete the digital exam form. Once the questions have been transferred the module team will be required to check them in Inspera.

• The exam questions must be finalised in Inspera by the following deadlines:

• During the first year of Inspera implementation in 2021/22 the Digital Assessment Service team will create the exam in Inspera with the required settings. In future years these steps will be the responsibility of the module team, and training and support will be available from the Digital Assessment Service team.

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 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. Note that the demo exams use example general knowledge questions, and are not subject-specific.

How to prepare for a Bring Your Own Device exam. If this applies to your module, please emphasise the following to your students:

• You must download and test the Safe Exam Browser software on your laptop before you come to the exam.
• If you do not have a laptop you can use to take the exam you must complete the form to request a university machine (available on the Academic Skills Kit webpage) for the exam by Friday 12 November 2021 for a semester 1 assessment period exam, or by Friday 11 March 2022 for a semester 2 assessment period exam.

2.  Add the Inspera student information module from Canvas Commons into your Canvas course. To do this:

• Search for 'Inspera Digital Exam' in Canvas commons (link to instructions in Canvas Orientation)
• Follow the steps to import content from Commons into your Canvas course (link to instructions in Canvas Orientation)

3.  Optionally you can set up a subject-specific practice test for your module using Inspera. To learn how to do this see Training and resources below. 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

4.  If your students will be taking the exam on their own laptops, before the exam remind them to make sure they come to the exam with their laptop prepared as explained on the Academic Skills Kit webpage. You could do this by email and/or using an Announcement in Canvas (link to Canvas guide). 

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 grades. This is required for every Inspera exam, even if your exam contains only automatically marked questions, in order to push the grades into the Canvas Gradebook. 
• releasing grades and feedback to students.  

To learn about these steps book onto an Inspera Digital Exam Marking webinar or workshop, or refer to the Inspera Guidance Canvas course. 

Synchronous training is available for Inspera Digital Exams, see Workshops and training (Learning and Teaching webpage) for more information and to book a session. Training sessions cover:

• Creating an Inspera digital exam
• Inspera digital exam marking

You can choose whether to attend a 60 minute online webinar, or a 90 minute in person workshop. Workshops include time to practice using the software with the workshop leader available to answer questions. 

There is also an Inspera Guidance Canvas course available for colleagues, simply click the link to self-enrol. The course covers all steps in the process of creating, delivering and marking an Inspera digital exam. You can access the course at any time, and return to it for reference when you need to.