We are finally in the last week of classes of what has been a historic semester. We commend you all on dealing with the abrupt disruption to your daily lives and handling all the challenges as well as possible. There is one last hurdle as final exams begin next week. To help make this experience go smoothly, check out these tips on setting up and taking tests online in Sakai. If you need any assistance, please submit a help request . We’re here to help you!
Students
Your instructor may administer exams through Sakai. Here are some tips on submitting online Tests and Quizzes :
- Confirm you have good internet connection – run a “speed test” in your search engine to check connection
- Use the Firefox browser on a computer
- Open Sakai in only one browser tab – see Important Note below
- Use Sakai’s built-in navigation buttons
- Sakai automatically saves your answers every 5 minutes but it’s good practice to manually save your answers and confirm your answers are recorded
- Keep a backup copy of your written responses on your computer in case of technical problems
- If your test is timed, be aware of the countdown clock at the top of your assessment
- Click “Submit for Grading” when you are done. You should then see confirmation of your submission and receive email confirmation.
Important Note on Tests & Quizzes: When taking a test, remain in one browser tab of Sakai. Do NOT open Sakai in additional browser tabs or windows. Doing so could cause you to lose your work. If you must access other parts of your course in Sakai, save and exit your test before navigating away. Then reopen the test to continue and confirm your answers are saved. Don’t forget to submit when you have finished.
Remember the COVID-19 Student Care Hub is available if you need any assistance.
Instructors
Keep Teaching Website
Before you start creating your exam, please review the Keep Teaching Exams page for resources and strategies. You will find testing FAQs, common assessment tools, and other things to consider for your exams. You can also review and post to the Keep Teaching Help Forum for testing ideas from your colleagues and campus support staff.
Set up Assessments in Sakai
If you plan to administer your exams through Sakai, we highly recommend creating your test questions using the Markup text option . This will save you valuable time, especially if you already have your test questions written up in a document.
Please be as flexible as possible with your students, especially now while students are dealing with slower internet connections off campus, sharing connections with family members at home, or potentially sitting in their cars to drive to a location with Wi-Fi. Here are options to consider to help your students who may run into problems:
- Increase time limit or remove time limit altogether
- Provide additional submission attempts
- Give students larger window to take exam
- Put all test questions on one page instead of one question per page to decrease how many times test pages must be loaded
- Break up your exam into multiple assessments – if a student has a problem and needs to resubmit, they will hopefully only have a problem with one assessment instead of the entire exam
You may also want to be available to students in Zoom in case they need to contact you while taking their test, instead of relying on checking emails.
Accommodations
You could have students who need accommodations. They may have been approved by Accessibility Resources and Service or could have extenuating circumstances at home. Whatever the reason may be, you can easily make accommodations for those students through the “Exceptions to Time Limit and Delivery Date” tab in the assessment Settings. You can set these exceptions for individuals or a group of students who have the same accommodation. See more on extending time for accommodated students , and reach out to Digital Accessibility if you have any questions about making your content accessible.
NOTE: If you’re creating Sakai Groups of students for accommodations, do not include student names in the Group titles as these are visible to all site members.
Good luck with finals! We’re here if you need help.