Inspera Ad-Hoc Exams

What is an ad-hoc exam?

Inspera can be used for centrally-supported, summative digital exams that take place outside of main assessment period.  These are more often referred to as ad-hocs, or mid-semester exams.

Summative ad-hoc exams

The Inspera Digital Exams team support summative ad-hoc exams which are utilising invigilation from the Central Exams Office. The Digital Exams Team will liaise with the Module Team to obtain your question set in Inspera, before going ahead and setting up the exam for your selected date and timings.

Formative ad-hoc exams

If modules wish to host formative digital exams using Inspera, Module Teams would need to complete the set-up of the Inspera exam themselves. If centrally-supported invigilation is being provided, the module team can choose to ‘lock down’ the exam with Safe Exam Browser. If Module Teams choose to complete their own invigilation, then the exam should not be locked down. Full instructions on how to set up an in person, non-locked down exam is available on the Getting Started with Inspera webpage under the header ‘Setting up mock or practice Inspera exams’.

For formative Inspera ad-hoc exams, the Inspera Digital Exams Team would be happy to check over your exam settings ahead of your exam provided at least 1 weeks’ notice is provided.

Best practice around ad-hoc exams using Inspera

It is strongly recommended that all Inspera digital exams are not scheduled too early within Semester 1 due to the requirement of the Student Health and Wellbeing Service (SHWS) to review evidence supplied for relevant SSPs (Support to Study). Not all SSPs will impact examinations, however students are advised that if they have a long-term disability or a specific learning difficulty that may affect their exams they should contact Student Wellbeing. 

SHWS deadlines can be found on via the Newcastle University Inclusive Arrangements webpage each academic year. Semester 1’s deadline will usually fall in early November.  

If, for example, you are planning an ad hoc Inspera exam in October of Semester 1, please be aware that: 

• Exams Office cannot guarantee the appropriate support can be provided in terms of AA requirements (i.e. individual venues, extra time, exemptions from the lockdown browser on Inspera).  

• AA requirements will only be supported where an SSP has been created and approved by the SHWS by the time that the exam is scheduled. Once the exam is scheduled no further arrangements can be accommodated. If a student complaint arose, invigilators would advise students to contact their School. 

For student equity we recommend that Inspera digital exams are scheduled after the deadlines have passed for supporting evidence to be shared with SHWS regarding alternative exam arrangements. You may wish to consider alternative assessments instead of the digital exam if the assessment must take place prior to SHWS deadlines. If you’d like to learn more about the creation of possible alternative assessments, please see the Inclusive Assessment: Exams Learning and Teaching webpage. 

INFORMATION

Low Stakes Summative Digital Exams

If you are interested in running a low stakes summative ad-hoc exam with Inspera without centrally supported invigilators (i.e. you would invigilate the exam yourself), please get in touch with the Inspera Digital Exams Team to discuss being part of a pilot.

You can contact the team via email on digital.exams@newcastle.ac.uk.