Chromebook-Exams
In this guide you will find the most important information about planning and conducting online-exams with Chromebooks on campus at the University of Konstanz. At some points, we refer to our documentation related to the use of the ILIAS exam platform. There you will find all relevant information for preparing the content for an ILIAS exam course.
Please note that, as for conventional exams, you as a teacher are responsible for the organizational implementation of the exam. Please clarify with your department how you can receive support for your exam concerning room reservation, and how a subsequent change request of room reservations can be implemented. The KIM will assist you by providing Chromebooks and infrastructure for your online exam. The following will tell you where, in turn, the KIM may need your assistance in this process.
1. Scheduling Chromebook Exams
For scheduling and reserving, we recommend the following steps, which also builds the structure of this article:
- Determine the time needed to complete the exam and add the additional time needed for handing out and collecting the devices and informing the participants.
- Clarify the availability of personnel support (e.g., auxiliary staff).
- Decide which exam rooms you want to use.
- Check the availability of the exam rooms.
- Confirm the availability of Chromebooks for your preferred date.
- Reserve the exam rooms through the room scheduling department.
- Confirm the sccesful reservation of the exam rooms to us.
1.1. Time Planning
When calculating the total duration of the exam, please take into account the time required for:
- Handing out of the Chromebooks (approx. 5 minutes if handed out individually; approx. 15 minutes if Chromebooks are distributed to the seats).
- Informing the exam participants (approx. 5 minutes)
- Actual Time to work on the exercices
- Collecting the Chromebooks (approx. 0-5 minutes if they are handed in when leaving the room; approx. 15 minutes if Chromebooks are collected).
The time required is largely determined by the distribution procedure of the Chromebooks in the exam rooms and the number of people assisting. Therefore, you should first decide how the Chromebooks will be handed out. We would like to show you two examples below, which might be suitable:
| Example 1: Drop off Chromebooks at the entrance, one time slot, use one of our recommended rooms in R, M6 or P6 |
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Total time required: 105 minutes, time reserved at room scheduling department: 90 minutes, here from 10:00 - 11:30 a.m.
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| Example 2: Distribution of Chromebooks to seats, two time slots, use of a room not recommended by us. |
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* (9:00): Helpers organized by you will pick up the Chromebook cabinets in the entrance area of the N library and bring them to your exam room
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1.2. Personnel Support
KIM staff can provide you with the Chromebooks directly in the particularly suitable rooms in the R-building as well as on M6 and P6 in time for the beginning of the breaks (see below). If you would like to use the Chromebooks in other parts of the university building (please see our overview of suitable rooms in the following section), you will have to organize and carry out the transport of the Chromebook cabinets with your own personnel (e.g. by auxiliary staff). We will then hand over the cabinets to you in the entrance area of the N Library. Please note that transport times may be significantly extended due to the use of freight elevators. Based on experience, you should allow at least 45 minutes total to transport four Chromebook cabinets across the university with four people (our recommendation). Transporting the cabinets via ramps will require two (strong) people per cabinet due to the heavy weight of the cabinets. Transporting the cabinets over cobblestones is not permitted.
If you choose to distribute the Chromebooks to seats before students arrive, you should plan for enough helpers to distribute them: you will need about four helpers to distribute 100 Chromebooks to seats in a (large) lecture hall within 10 minutes.
You will need about the same number to receive the Chromebooks at the end of the exam. The following procedure has proven successful: The participants are informed before the exam that they are only allowed to leave the exam room at certain exits, where they hand in the Chromebook to one (!) person designated by you in advance. This person will receive the Chromebooks and place them on a table (request this from housekeeping if necessary), from which other assistants will distribute the Chromebooks to the lockers. For large lecture halls, the supervising person should keep an eye on all exits and make sure no devices are stolen.
Since the Chromebooks are distributed among four cabinets, you can also distribute them among multiple rooms. However, to avoid damage in transit, do not remove Chromebooks from the cabinets and transport them individually to other rooms. Please make sure that there are enough people in all rooms to help you distribute and collect the devices.
1.3 Recommended Exam Rooms
We recommend using the following rooms for Chromebook exams, as we can provide Chromebooks directly to you there:
- Lecture halls in the R-building
- Seminar rooms on P6
- Seminar rooms on M6
During the exam period at the end of the semester (approximately two weeks before and four weeks after the end of the lecture period), we can provide you with up to 128 Chromebooks in four mobile cabinets in the exam rooms there on the desired dates. Since only part of the room capacity can be used due to the spacing between participants usually required for exams, it may happen that several rooms are needed at the same time for large exams. Therefore, it may be necessary to adjust the exam date to accommodate room availability.
If you do not (can not) use the rooms mentioned above, you will find here an overview of all rooms basically suitable for e-examinations. Please note that for the rooms marked with 'no' there, you will have to organize and carry out the transport of the Chromebooks yourself.
| Room | Places | Type | Chromebook delivery by the KIM | ! Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| locked. | ||||
| R712 | 243 | Lecture hall Bio/Ch | yes | |
| R711 | 242 | Lecture hall Ph | yes | |
| locked | ||||
| R513 | 177 | lecture hall Math. | yes | |
| R611 | 168 | Lecture hall Ch | yes | |
| M629 | 150 | Lecture hall | yes | |
| blocked | ||||
| D434 | 112 | seminar room | no | |
| blocked | ||||
| blocked | ||||
| 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 |
1.4. Check Room Availability
Here you can check if the rooms you want are available (no registration required!).
| Overview of current room occupancy: |
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| http://134.34.26.182/roomresrrm/ |
1.5. Chromebook request and reservation
| Please submit a reservation request for a Chromebook retreat using this form: |
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| https://www.uni-konstanz.de/lehren/beratung-hilfsmittel-service/digital-unterstuetzte-lehre/formular/ |
If there are enough devices available on the date, we will confirm the Chromebook reservation, create an empty ILIAS retreat course for you in the retreat ILIAS, and provide you with access information.
Only then, as described in the following section, please reserve the room(s) at the teaching room allocation!
If there is not enough equipment available, you will receive alternative date suggestions from us. Please proceed as described in section 4 to determine room availability, please additionally consult Teaching Room Allocation in problem cases. Then please inform us about the new date and the new room, we will create the empty ILIAS exam course for you and give you the access data to prepare.
1.6. Reservation of Rooms
If you cannot or do not want to use the rooms possibly already reserved for you by your department (within the scope of the usual event planning of the departments), please first clarify with your department whether it can reserve the rooms you want for you or how future room reservation requests for e-examinations are to be registered with it. If this is not currently possible, please reserve you (!) please reserve the rooms you want directly by e-mail at the teaching room allocation after you have convinced yourself of the availability of the rooms you want as described in point 4:
| Room reservation by emailing the 'Lehrraumplanung': |
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| Lehrraumvergabe@uni-konstanz.de |
2. Prepare Exam
2.1 Prepare Exam Course
Chromebook exams can only be taken in connection with an exam course on the ILIAS exam server. Detailed instructions as well as exam legal information on how to conduct e-exams or exams with ILIAS can be found here:
https://www.uni-konstanz.de/lehren/beratung-hilfsmittel-service/digital-unterstuetzte-lehre/pruefen/
Attention: In the course of the summer semester 2023 we will adjust the configuration of the ILIAS exam server in such a way that during the execution of a Chromebook exam the exam server is exclusively accessible via the Chromebooks. During this time, no preparation work or reconfiguration of exams from other devices will be possible. If you still need access to their administration interface during the retreat, please use a retreat Chromebook to do so.
2.2. Mock Exam
If you or the participants in your course do not yet have experience with e-exams on the Klausuren-ILIAS, we recommend conducting a mock exam off-campus without using the Chromebooks: this allows participants to familiarize themselves with the login process (making sure they know their account name with password) and learn how to find, start, edit, and complete the exam course. Students who have not used the exam ILIAS before will also need to complete the profile completion required when logging into the exam ILIAS for the first time during this process.
The mock exam does not necessarily require the use of Chromebooks: No special knowledge of the students is required, as the Chromebooks turn on when opened and automatically connect to the exam ILIAS. We therefore recommend that you only use Chromebooks for the mock exam if you want to check the reliability of the network connection on site and/or want to specifically practice the process of provisioning with your staff and have already reserved rooms for this purpose.
Please let us know your preferred date for the mock exam well in advance by emailing ilias-support@uni-konstanz.de. If you would like to conduct the mock exam with Chromebooks, please schedule and reserve them using the same process as for "real" Chromebook retreats. Due to limited room and equipment availability, no mock exams with Chromebooks will take place during the end-of-semester exam period.
3. Conduct retreat
3.1. Provide Chromebooks
The process is already described above in points 1 & 2. You only have to take care of the provisioning, i.e. the transport of the Chromebooks to your exam room(s), if you do not use one of the rooms we recommend (point 3). In this case, the Chromebook cabinets will be handed over to you at the circulation desk of the N-Bib at the time you specified when making your Chromebook reservation. Depending on the distance, you will need to allow up to 45 minutes for transport with up to four helpers. The same amount of time/staffing will be required to return the lockers at the end of the retreat.
If you use one of the rooms recommended by us, this point does not apply. We will then arrange for the Chromebook cabinets to be staged outside the rooms at the beginning of the break before the retreat time slot.
For the subsequent transport of the cabinets to the room, we ask for your assistance: the cabinets should be placed there near the entrance with the doors open.
3.2. Distribution of the Chromebooks
- If you have chosen to issue Chromebooks at the seating areas, we will assist your retreat supervisor or aides in distributing the devices around the room.
- If you have opted to hand out as you enter the room, the retreat supervisor will direct those entering to the lockers where the aides will hand out the devices.
Please plan in advance who will perform these duties and inform your aides well in advance so they can be ready.
3.3 Informing Students about the Procedure
Before the retreat begins, inform students of the process as usual. For the Chromebook exam, the following additional information must be given here:
- Login: With firstname.lastname and the account password. If you have set an additional password for the retreat, post that as well.
- Interruptions: Advise students that when they leave the room to go to the restroom, they should close the Chromebook halfway (so that the processing time is still accounted for correctly and no one can view the screen contents) and sign out to you.
- Help with technical problems: Advise students that if they have technical problems that they cannot solve themselves, they should contact you immediately for assistance from us or your support staff. Log these instances, noting the time, description of the problem, and how it was solved, also noting the time.
- Ending the Test: Advise students that if you want them to "turn in" the test, they must end the test by clicking "End Test" and that they will not be able to take the test after that.
- Returning Devices: Inform students at which exit which person will receive the devices. Point out that the room can only be left if a Chromebook is handed in there.
3.4 Keeping a Log
If students experience technical problems while taking the exam, please record the following information in the log: time, student number, Chromebook number, time, problem, type of problem resolution, time of problem resolution.
3.5 Use of Chromebooks
The Chromebooks are pre-configured in such a way that they automatically connect to the WLAN after opening, start the web browser and display the login page of the Klausuren-ILIAS. There, students can log in with their university account name (usually firstname.lastname) and the corresponding password. After logging in, they will see their dashboard and find the link to the exam course there.
3.6 Support for technical Problems
At least one person from the KIM E-Learning team will be present at the beginning of the retreat to assist with any questions or technical issues. They will be given a phone number to reach this person during the retreat for immediate assistance.
3.7 Receiving the Chromebooks
We will also assist you at the end of the retreat in receiving the Chromebooks of participants who leave the room. The following distribution of tasks has proven effective in this regard:
- One person constantly watches the room and makes sure no one leaves via the side exits.
- One person is exclusively responsible for receiving the Chromebooks at *one* drop-off location.
- Multiple people pick up the Chromebooks there and distribute them to the lockers. The first part of the Chromebook number indicates the cabinet to which the Chromebook is assigned. If a large number of Chromebooks are returned in a short period of time, they can also be temporarily stored on top of the cabinets before being sorted into the drawers. Please make sure that each Chromebook is sorted into the correct drawer (also numbered) in the cabinet. It is not necessary to connect the Chromebooks to the charging cables in the cabinet.
3.8. Removal of the Chromebook Cabinets
The same staff scheduling requirements and procedures as described above in the "Staging the Chromebooks" section apply to the removal of the cabinets: If the retreat took place in the rooms we recommend, the KIM team will take care of the removal of the cabinets; otherwise, please return the cabinets immediately to the N Library consultation desk with your own staff.
4. Evaluation of the Exam, Inspection of the Exam, Post Exam
Please refer to our documentation on how to use the Klausuren-ILIAS: