Getting Started with Inspera

Exam Briefs are designed to provide students with all the information they need for a specific assessment. This information is accessed from Assessment Information button on the course home and ensures that the information about the exam is available to all students from the start of the course.  

The Exam Brief contains links to the specific guidance that will support students when they are preparing for their exam and accessing feedback. It is therefore important to update the Exam Brief template.  

Using the template  

To add specific exam brief information: 

• Make a copy of the required template 

•  Navigate to the Exam Brief in the Assessment Information module.  

• Click the three dots to the right of the template name 

• Select Duplicate 

• The duplicate version will appear in the list of Assessment Information 

• Open the copied template by clicking the name of the template 

• To begin editing the information, click Edit, the page will reload and update the view 

• First, edit the Page title, so it clearly identifies the exam the page relates to. It could also include the wording Exam Brief 

• The rest of the content that needs editing is displayed in the rich content editor box. 

• Any text highlighted in yellow must be updated. Once edited, remove the yellow highlight. This can be done by selecting the text  

• While the text is selected, click on the drop-down arrow next to the Background Colour Icon, and select Remove Colour, which is indicated by a white box with a diagonal red line through it.    

The sections that require information updating 

• Exam Details
• Exam Information
• Alignment to Learning Outcomes 
• Guidance and Exam Rules
• Revision and Exam Preparation
• Grades and Feedback
• Submission Requirements 
• Policies 
• Important Additional Information

When all the information has been added, click Save and Publish and ensure the page is published.  

Inspera is integrated in Canvas using LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability). In order to create/activate your Inspera account, you need to access Inspera via Canvas.

How to access Inspera via Canvas?

There are two ways to do this:

Option 1: Create a new Inspera test using the Canvas Assignment function in a course in which you are an instructor. We recommend that you use your personal sandbox course to do this. If you do not have a sandbox course, please email IT.ServiceDesk@newcastle.ac.uk. 

Option 2: Access a pre-existing Inspera test from within a Canvas course where you an instructor via the Canvas Assignment area. Please note: you must have Teacher or Teaching Assistant access on the course in order to access Inspera.

Option 2 is the quickest and easiest option but if you do need to use option 1, you can find some instructions on this page. A short video demo is available that demonstrates both options.

How to create a test Inspera exam in your Canvas Sandbox

1. In your Canvas Sandbox, add a Canvas assignment from the assignments area and give it a name such as 'Inspera Access'.
2. Under submission type, select external tool and then click on 'find' to locate and select 'Inspera Assessment'. Ensure 'load this tool in a new tab' is ticked.
3. You do not need to set another other settings on the assignment other than a name and the settings under submission type.
4. Scroll down and click save or save and publish. Click on 'load Inspera test in a new window' to be taken into Inspera. You will now have your access and you can navigate away from the page you are taken to in order to access the rest of the Inspera system.

You will then able to access Inspera at any time through Canvas to view any questions or question sets created by you or shared with you by colleagues, or access any tests on which you are set as a contributor. You would simply click the grey load button that appears on any Canvas Assignment that has been set up as an Inspera exam.

Once you have logged into Inspera it is possible to manage your notification settings. from within the interface.

The Inspera Navigation is broken up into five 'modules' which are accessed from the top of the screen. These are essentially initial access points to specific areas of the system.

Author and Deliver

The Author module is where you will create and manage questions and question sets.

The Deliver module is where tests that you are listed as a contributor for can be found. Tests should always be created as a Canvas assignment first as this is how students are enrolled onto Inspera tests. Once an Inspera test has been created in Canvas, you can update the Inspera test settings from here.

There are Inspera videos available that give a detailed introduction to the Author and Deliver modules.

Monitor

The Monitor module can be used to make adjustments while a test is open to students. For summative exams this will be handled by the Digital Exams Team in LTDS. The functionality of Monitor can also be accessed directly from a test in Deliver. There is guidance available for all of the functionalities in Monitor in the Inspera Help Centre. You can also check out our Inspera Monitor webpage.

Grade

The Grade module is where test results are confirmed before marks are released to students. Any questions that require manual marking can be accessed from here, and you can review automatically marked questions here too. See our Marking Exams in Inspera webpage for information about marking tools and workflows for an Inspera test.

Report

The functionality of the Report module is limited. Please contact Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk if you wish to discuss result analytics.

Accessing and Inspera Test via Canvas

To access an Inspera test from Canvas, you should navigate to the Assignments area in the Canvas course, and click on the assignment link. Then you click on the 'load test in new window' button to be taken to the test in Inspera. You must be an Instructor on the course in Canvas to access Inspera tests in this way.

Accessing an Inspera Test via Inspera

Once tests have been set up in Canvas, any that tests you are a contributor on in Inspera can be accessed from 'Tests' within the Deliver module of Inspera.

Yes, you can. The list views and filters available allow you to display content that is relevant to you in Inspera. You can save different views of content to be reused, and share views of content with colleagues. It can be used in any area of Inspera where you see the options below.

There is a short video from Inspera below demonstrates how to use list views and filters. 

You can also check out a blog post about using label filters on the Learning and Teaching @ Newcastle Blog.

Completing a Digital Exam Form and Creating your Question Set

Module Teams are required to complete the Digital Exam Form*, and to finalise their question set in Inspera by the deadlines stated on the Inspera homepage of the Learning and Teaching website under 'How to prepare for a Inspera digital exam'. You can find out more about how to create questions and a create a question set on our Creating Questions in Inspera webpage.

*The Digital Exams Team will contact Module Teams who have an Inspera Digital Exam listed on their MOF with a link to the Digital Exam Form to complete. For Semester 1 this will be shared at the beginning of the academic year and for Semester 2 this will be shared at the end of Semester 1. If you have not received an email about your centrally supported Inspera exam, please contact Digital.Exams@newcastle.ac.uk. 

Question Set Technical Check

Once your Question Set is ready, it is the responsibility of the Module Team to check the content and quality of the questions, including the correct set up of automatically marked questions. When you are finished with the question set, you can quality check it by using the eye icon in the upper right corner. You will then get a preview of the question set that corresponds to what the candidates will experience when the complete the test.

You will submit your question set to the Inspera Digital Exams Team where a member of the team will complete a technical check of the question set.

Setting up the exam

For any centrally-supported summative Inspera Digital Exams, the Digital Exams Team will set up the test in Canvas to be accessible to students at the scheduled time.

Marking the exam

Once the exam has taken place, the Module Teams will then grade the exam and release marks (and can choose to release feedback) to their students. You can find out more about how to mark Inspera exams our Marking Exams in Inspera webpage.

The Inspera Digital Exams Team within LTDS host a series of online webinars for colleagues to sign up to on the Inspera Elements page. It may be possible to arrange School-specific sessions. Please contact digital.exams@ncl.ac.uk for further information.

• The Digital Exams Team will start the process by contacting the Module Leader with an invitation to complete Digital Exam Form by a set deadline. 
• The Module Team are required to collate their exam questions in the Inspera Assessment system by creating what is known as a ‘question set’.  
• Once the question set has been finalised and reviewed by external examiners, the question set needs to be sent to the Inspera Digital Exams Team by submitting the name and URL via a dedicated form before a set deadline. A member of the Module Team will complete this.
• The Digital Exams Team will complete a check on the question set before attaching this to the exam. Please see the next section for details on what this entails.
• Once the exam timetable is released by Central Exams Office, the Inspera exam point will be created in Canvas and in Inspera. This is completed by the Digital Exams Team.
• The Central Exams Office to ensure any requirements relating to student support plans are met within the Inspera system.
• Once the exam has taken place, the Module Team are responsible for marking the Inspera exam and confirming the grades. Once grades are confirmed in Inspera, this pushes them to the Canvas Gradebook. 
• The Module Team are responsible for creating and hosting any formative or mock Inspera Digital Exams. You can find out more on this page about how to set up your own formative exams.

There is a deadline for each assessment period in terms of when the question set needs to be shared with the Inspera. This allows the team sufficient time to review all the question sets ahead of setting up the exams. 

Note: The Digital Exams Team do not review content material or correct answers. The Team check that the question set is ready to be taken by the students and check for any formatting or functional issues that may impact the exam. The Team also ensure that appropriate instructions are added to the exam for Inspera features – such as if your exam is using allow listed resources. 

Before submitting your question set, Module Teams are advised that they should have completed the following: 

• Previewed your question set to see how your questions appear to your students. This is also a chance to check the number of marks assigned to each question. 

• Reviewed the correct answers selected (if using auto-marked questions). 

• Ensured that any PDFs are either added as a stimulus or as an allow listed resource. 

• Completed an inversion check on your questions if you are using any images, graphs or tables.