BYOD-Exams

Please note:
If you would like to conduct an online exam, please contact the person responsible for exam planning in your department before (!) planning it. The information on this page will help you to estimate the time and resources required for online exams and show you how to do it. The following planning instructions are particularly relevant for you, if a 'paper exam' that has already been planned is to be subsequently rescheduled into an online exam, or if there is no central exam planning in the department.

In this guide you will learn how to conduct a Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) exam with your students on campus at the University of Konstanz. In a BYOD scenario, students use their own laptops (or comparable devices) within the university WiFi to take an online exam:

online exams no longer have to be written in the university's computer labs.
fewer university devices are needed, there are no overlaps and fewer bottlenecks in bookings
students have a more familiar environment and better sense of security when using their own computers

BYOD exams are generally written using the Safe Exam Browser (SEB).

SEB creates a secure exam environment on the student's computer for the duration of the exam.
only the corresponding exam content can be edited with the device on ILIAS.
copying of own files on the computer is prevented
research on the internet is blocked.

1. Planning BYOD exams

For planning and room reservation we recommend this order, which is also followed by the sections in this text:

Determine the time needed for the exam
Clarify the availability of assisting staff (e.g., student assistants).
Check whether your students can meet the minimum technical standards.
Decide which rooms you would like to use for your exam
Check the availability of the desired rooms and of substitute devices.
Reserve the rooms at the room scheduling department.

1.1. Time planning

In addition to scheduling the exam, please also consider other preliminary considerations. Determine the allowed writing time in advance and add extra time for delays, technical problems, compensatory measures, etc. In addition allowed writing time, allocate a buffer of about 15 minutes before and after. This is where the process is explained, replacement devices are handed out, if necessary, note paper is distributed, and students log into the systems. At the end of the allowed riting time, every substitute device has to be collected again.

1.2 Personal support

Clarify the availability of support for your BYOD exam (e.g., assisting staff). You will receive additional personal support from us as follows:

You always have a personal contact for any topic related to your exam.
We clarify all questions you might have together with you, regarding your BYOD exam and workin with the Safe Exam Browser
We support and advise you on all topics concerning the preparation of exams in ILIAS.
At least one trained member of the e-learning team will be present during your BYOD exam for technical support.
If you do not have a personal contact yet, please feel free to mail us at digitale-lehre@uni-konstanz.de for general organizational and technical questions, and please write to ilias-support@uni-konstanz.de for ILIAS questions.

1.3. Technical requirements

The private devices of the exam participants must meet certain minimum requirements in order to use the Safe Exam Browser (SEB):

Windows 8.1 or Mac 10.11 operating system, or higher.
Screen size of at least 13.5 inches
Use of the SEB is not possible on devices running Linux, Chrome, or Android
Devices must have at least 3 hours of battery life for a 120-minute exam
Devices must be equipped with a working WiFi adapter
If students are unable to meet these standards, the KIM will provide substitute devices.

Notes on the use of the SEB:

It is theoretically possible that the operating system can be damaged in the event of a power failure while running the SEB in exam mode.
Therefore it is very important that students can guarantee the appropriate battery life
The participants need an entry password to open the SEB and to get to the ILIAS-exams platform.
Closing the browser can be done either automatically after submitting the exam in ILIAS, or again by an exit password
These individual access passwords are stored in a start file - we provide this file for your students
With the start file and the entry password the students can start the SEB

IMPORTANT: Ask your students if their devices can meet the minimum standards for a BYOD exam (see above).

Chromebooks can be used as substitute devices under the following conditions:

the ILIAS exam environment is used.
no software other than the SEB is needed on the devices (such as text editors for writing essays, as an upload task in ILIAS).

Inform your students about the SEB program and that an installation is necessary in order write the exam. The installation files can be downloaded directly from our page Installing the Safe Exam Browser. Here your students will also find additional short installation instructions.

1.4 Recommended exam rooms

In general, all rooms with a strong enough WiFi signal are suitable - for larger groups, the lecture halls in the R-building are particularly suitable. For smaller groups, the seminar rooms which you are already using, may also be suitable. Please also check the following overview of suitable rooms for online exams. If you are unsure, please contact us directly (digitale-lehre@uni-konstanz.de).

Room Places Type Delivery of Chromebook replacement devices by the KIM. ! Note

~~A600~~ ~~701~~ ~~Audimax~~ locked.

R712 243 Lecture hall Bio/Ch yes

R711 242 Lecture hall Ph yes

~~A701~~ ~~Lecture Hall~~ locked

R513 177 lecture hall Math. yes

R611 168 Lecture hall Ch yes

M629 150 Lecture hall yes

~~A703~~ ~~Lecture Hall~~ locked

D434 112 seminar room no

~~A704~~ ~~107~~ ~~Lecture room~~ locked

~~A702~~ ~~105~~ ~~Listening room~~ locked

C336 100 seminar room no

C425 100 seminar room no

E404 100 Seminar room no

G300 100 Seminar room no

C230 90 Seminar room no

R512 84 Physics lecture room yes

R511 79 Bio/Ch lecture hall yes

P603 69 Lecture hall ja

M627 68 Exper. Lecture Hall

G309 60 Seminar room no

C423 54 Seminar room no

ZT1202 54 Seminar room no

M628 52 Exper.lecture room yes

P1138 50 Seminar room no

D432 48 Seminar room no

M630 47 Seminar room no

F426 46 Seminar room no

G307 46 Seminar room no

G421 46 Seminar room no

Y311 46 Seminar room no

C427 42 Seminar room no

F429 36 Seminar room no

D436 34 Seminar room no

E403 34 Seminar room no

G308 34 Seminar room no

D522 32 Seminar room no

ML630 32 Seminar room no

D247 30 Seminar room no

F428 30 Seminar room no

M901 29 Seminar room no

G306 28 Seminar room no

H308 28 Seminar room no

H309 28 Seminar room no

M701 28 Seminar room no

G304 26 Seminar room no

L829 26 Seminar room no

F423 24 Seminar room no

M631 24 Seminar room yes

P812 24 Seminar room no

P912 24 Seminar room no

Z1003 24 Seminar room no

C426 18 Seminar room no

D435 18 Seminar room no

M801 18 Seminar room no

M1001 18 Seminar room no

M1101 18 Seminar room no

G302 16 Seminar room no

P1012 16 Seminar room no

1.5. Checking room availability and substitute devices

Here you can check if the rooms you would like to use are available (no registration required!):

Overview of current room occupancy: http://134.34.26.182/roomresrrm/

Once you have found a suitable exam room, notify us of the number of required substitute devices on your exam date, so that the equipment can be reserved for you.

Please submit a reservation request for a BYOD-Exam using this form:
https://www.kim.uni-konstanz.de/services/forschen-und-lehren/e-learning/formular-byod-klausuren/

Please note that we can only deliver the substitute devices (Chromebooks) to the rooms, where a delivery option is explicitly mentioned in the table above (in section 1.4). If you want to use other than these rooms, you will have to organize and carry out the transport of the Chromebooks yourself. For each way with one mobile Chromebook cabinet you should expect about 45 minutes, we will hand them over to you at the entrance of the N-Library.

1.6. Room reservation for your exam

If you cannot or do not want to use the rooms that might already be reserved for you by your department (within the scope of the usual event planning of the departments), please get in touch with your department first. Clarify whether they can reserve the rooms you would like to use for you - or how room reservation requests for online exams are to be registered at your department in future. If this is not currently possible, please reserve the rooms you would like to use directly and send an e-mail to the room scheduling department, after having checked the availability, as described above (section 1.4):

Reservation request : Lehrraumvergabe@uni-konstanz.de

2. Preparing the exam

2.1 Using the ILIAS-exams platform

It is recommended to conduct your BYOD exam in combination with an exam course on the ILIAS-exam server. This is secure in terms of examination regulations and archiving of the examination results. To do this, proceed as follows.

Step 1

We set up a course on the ILIAS-exams platform for you, after you have informed us about your planned exam.

Instructions and hints on how to conduct online exams with ILIAS can be found here: https://www.kim.uni-konstanz.de/en/services/research-and-teaching/e-learning/online-exams/

Step 2

Create your exam on the ILIAS-exams platform - we support you and give advise on creating tasks and exams.

See also the corresponding instructions: https://www.kim.uni-konstanz.de/en/services/research-and-teaching/e-learning/online-exams/instructions/

Ideally, you have your exam prepared on the platform four to six weeks before the date of the exam, so that we can carry out a final check for you - i.e. whether the exam is realistically designed in terms of writing time, the overall conception, regarding the use of the question types.

Set a password to access your exam on the ILIAS-exams platform

2.2 Practicing procedures and infrastructure mock exam

If you or the participants of your course do not yet have any experience with BYOD exams and the use of the exam ILIAS, we strongly(!) recommend conducting a trial exam:

Students can familiarize themselves with the installation and use of the Safe Exam Browser (SEB) on their own device and the login process (making sure they know their account name with password). They will learn how to find, start, edit and complete the exam course. Students who have not yet used Klausuren-ILIAS must also complete the profile completion required when logging in to Klausuren-ILIAS for the first time.

Here you can find a guide on how to use Safe Exam Browser for students:
How to write an exam using the Safe Exam Browser

Teachers should test the function of the selected configuration in the test exam: Please check whether your settings for the availability and access period and the processing time work (including the settings for compensation for disadvantages!). Also test the following as examples
- all desired question types (note: assignment and arrangement questions do not work on tablets!),
- the scoring of the answers (especially for multiple-choice questions) and
- if desired, the functioning of the grading scheme.

Please let us know your preferred date for the mock exam in good time by sending an email to ilias-support@uni-konstanz.de. Please plan and reserve it using the same procedure as for "real" BYOD exams. Due to the limited availability of rooms and devices, no mock exams with Chromebooks (as replacement devices) can take place during the exam period at the end of the semester.

2.3. Inform students about the procedures

Before the start of the exam, inform the students about the procedures and tell them what they need to know in order to take part in your BYOD exam.

Important note:
Here you will find a prepared text template with the information that you can adapt and send to your students

2.4. ILIAS-exam final check

Be sure to have made a final check to your ILIAS exam, to ensure that the test is accessible for the students in ILIAS on the day of the exam. This also includes a check whether all questions and the marking scheme have been entered correctly. We are happy to carry out this final check together with you.

Please use this checklist as a guide for your final check:

Checklist for the final inspection of ILIAS exams

3. Conducting the exam

Provide your students with the start file for your BYOD exam in time before the exam. For this purpose, you can use your existing ILIAS course folder or a mailing list. Advise your students to download the start file and to have it ready on their own devices on the day of the exam.

Security guidelines for BYOD exams

The use of any other digital device or handheld (phone, smartwatch etc.) must be strictly prohibited.
A password for the online-test on the ILIAS exam platform must be set.
The test password must not be announced before the start of the exam.
The test password may only be announced on site in the exam room.
Students must not be allowed to leave the exam room before the end of the writing time.

Before the exam begins

Verify student identites using registration lists, student IDs with photographs - logging into the ILIAS-exams platform with the student account credentials is no proper identity check.

Inform the students about the procedures before the exam starts.

Ask students to turn off their phones, set them to flight mode, and tell them to stow them away to their bags.

To eliminate any chances of phone usage, you should also ask students to move their bags (including phones) to the front or the sides of the room.

Point out that students should close the screen halfway when they leave the seat during processing, e.g. for going to the toilet.

Do not tell your students the start password for the SEB and your exam on the ILIAS until they are in the exam room - make it visible in the room (on the board or whiteboard).

Start of the exam

The student...

...opens the SEB with the start file and the entry password, and is directed to the ILIAS-exams platform.
...logs in with firstname.lastname and the account password and gets to the exam
...logs into the exam with the set exam password and starts writing the exam

During the exam

In case of technical questions or problems, students can and should report immediately at any time.

Record these cases and log the problem description, type of problem solution, as well as the time of the incident

End of Exam

Students click on 'End Test' in ILIAS to hand in their exam - thereafter they cannot edit the exam anymore or make any changes to it.

Only after submitting the exam in ILIAS, students are able to close the SEB via a button and unlock their device.

4. Evaluation, post-exam revision, make-up dates

Please refer to our Guide on how to configure on-campus exams in ILIAS (in German) and the documentation on how to use the ILIAS-exams platform:

https://www.kim.uni-konstanz.de/en/services/research-and-teaching/e-learning/online-exams/instructions/.

In case of any paticipants' objections regarding hardware or software errors after the exam, please contact us immediately so that we can review the case with you.