Start of the test

At the same time, you start the two conference rooms you have created via Greenlight (meet.gwdg.de). The first candidate accesses the link to the BBB exam room with a Google Chrome web browser and waits in the waiting room of the BBB exam room. Once all examiners have joined the exam room and a technical check (microphone & camera check of the examiners) and the relevant arrangements have been made, the examinee is admitted to the BBB exam room. A short technical check is carried out with the examinee to ensure that the examinee's microphone and camera are working properly. Once a stable condition has been reached in the conference room, the exam can begin with the questioning. Depending on the examiner's role assignment, the examiner can activate his/her microphone to ask the questions.

Using the meeting PlugIn in Stud.IP is currently not possible, because waiting rooms cannot be activated via the PlugIn. We hope to offer this possibility with an update of the interface in the winter semester.

End of the exam

At the end of the test, the examinee remains in the BBB examination room. The examiners deactivate their microphones and cameras in the BBB examination room and go to the BBB meeting room.

Grading agreement

The examiners activate their microphones and cameras in the BBB meeting room to discuss the evaluation of the exam performance and the grade. The examiners deactivate their microphones and cameras as soon as the grade is given and return to the BBB examination room.

Announcement of the grade / feedback

The examiners activate their microphones and cameras in the BBB examination room and announce the grade to the examinee and give short feedback if necessary. At the end of the grade announcement the examinee leaves the BBB examination room.

Notes:

• This procedure is iterative and is carried out in the same way for the other candidates.
• The examination protocol caller can write the examination protocol in a Word file on his/her PC and can release this protocol to the other examiners via the function "screen sharing" in the BBB meeting room.
• The “Shared Notes” function offers another possibility: The notes have to be exported before leaving the room in order to be saved as exam protocol. This step can be skipped accidentally.

You can find our support and instructions here:

• Quick guide to using BigBlueButton for oral exams

Notification to your Dean of Studies about the implementation of a virtual oral examination

According to the General Examination Regulations of the University of Göttingen (APO), virtual oral examinations via web conferences require the approval of the Dean of Studies. If your Office of the Dean of Studies has not determined any other procedure, please inform your Dean of Studies via email about the planned type of examination.

Creating two conference rooms with BBB

Go to meet.gwdg.de/b (Greenlight) and create two BBB conference rooms (examination room and meeting room). The examination room is the conference room for the examination and the examinees have to be actively admitted by the examiners. For this purpose, you have to activate the function "Waiting room" for the examination room. The meeting room is the conference room for the examiners where the evaluation of the examinee’s performance can be discussed internally.

You can find our support and instructions here:

• Information about BigBlueButton (BBB)
• Brief instructions on how to use BigBlueButton for oral exams

Communication of the examination procedure to the students to be examined

After you have set up the rooms accordingly and determined the course of the examination, you communicate the exact procedure to the person to be examined, including:

• The scheduled time of the student’s examination
• The web address of the testing room (please note that Google Chrome is preferred for more stable connection and audio quality)
• The procedures with the waiting room (what awaits those to be tested)
• The general examination procedure from start to grading.

Note: Please refer to the checklist for oral examinations to find out about the technical and organisational requirements.

Basic rules

BigBlueButton (BBB) is the only system allowed for oral examination via web conferences at the University of Göttingen. If you should experience technical interferences during the exam leading to a dysfunction of BBB, you can continue the exam via Zoom. Therefor the following four rules apply:

(1) A disruption of an individual examination occurs

Zoom may only be used if an individual examination via BBB is inexecutable due to technical reasons. Individuals to be examined may experience difficulties to participate at a BBB conference due to problems with internet accessibility, Firewall etc. Should these problems prevent individuals from participating, switching to Zoom is an on-premise alternative.
This permission is only valid for the concrete individual examination and not for all students to be tested.

(2) Zoom on-premise has to be used

Should a shift to Zoom be required, you may only use Zooms’ on-premise Version. This version is partially using servers hosted by the GWDG instead of the regular cloud provided by Zoom itself. In order to achieve this, the host is required to change the setting of his account at the GWDG to the on-premise version.
Please keep in mind that changing your settings affects your account and thereby all your Zoom meetings and events. Currently the maximum number of participants with the on-premise version is limited to 50, which may affect your Courses.

(3) Documentation with the examination protocol

Please document any interferences and switches to Zoom equally as to regular exams in the examination protocol.

(4) Other platforms may not be used

Even with interferences, the usage of alternative platforms such as Microsoft Teams, WebEx, Skype etc. as well as Zoom (using the regular Zoom Cloud) is not permissible.

Background

Usually there are little to no interferences with BBB in small groups – as in examinations common. If single individuals should experience interferences, one common reason is the used browser in combination with the computers’ settings or the internet access. Since these interferences rarely occur spontaneously, participants are kindly asked to test their respective access to BBB in advance. It is advised for participants to use current versions of either Chrome or Firefox.

If Zoom is being used via browser access and not via the respective client, there is a high likelihood of experiencing the same problems as with using BBB.

Log in to FlexNow

Students registered for the exam log in to FlexNow via eCampus as usual. In FlexNow, a link to the photo identification website appears for the relevant exam date. Normally, the identification website does not require a second login.

The photo identification procedure

The test specimens go through several steps. In the first step, the students have to submit a declaration to work on the exam without unaurthorized aids and their physical capability to take the exam. Furthermore, they have to confirm to have taken note of the various notes on data storage and the possible verification by plagiarism software. In the next step, the students have to take an up-to-date picture of themselves and their student card. In the third step, the examinees then receive the necessary information about the exam. In the case of an open-book exam with upload on FlexNow, this would be the exam file available for download.

Please note: If students wish to use their smartphones for photo-identification, it is required to use Google Chrome for Android and Safari for iOS. Students shall make sure that alternative browsers (such as Samsung Internet, Mi-Browser) are not granted access to any QR-codes.

The processing of the exam

The exam is processed according to your specifications (time, file format, software etc.) During this time, students do not necessarily have to be online. It is important, however, that the necessary software is installed on the computer of the examinee in order to be able to solve the tasks. This must be clarified with the students in advance of the exam. A PDF file must be created at the end of the exam.

Upload to FlexNow

The upload of the finished exam file can be done by the students via FlexNow. Only PDF files of examinees who are registered for the exam in FlexNow are accepted. The files are registered with a time stamp during upload.

You can find support and instructions here:

• FlexNow website for online exams (for students)
• Video for an online exam (for the students)

**Please inform your students in time.**

If you choose examination type of an open-book written exam @ home, you have to take the following steps:

1. Notice to the Office of the Dean of Studies about your choice of an online exam as exam type
2. Activation of the online exam by the examination office
   After activation, the links for setting up the photo identification process should appear in FlexNow.
3. Creation of the exam
   Please create an exam document which the students are to work on. Inform the students in time about the technical requirements (e.g. Office program).
4. Setting up the online exam procedure in the identification system by the examiner.
   To do this, use the link in FlexNow that appears there after step 2. Enter the appropriate times and upload the exam to the photo identification system. Note: If you want to create the online exam procedure in the identification system outside the university network (e.g. in the home office), you need VPN access.
5. Start and execution of the exam on the specified date
   In order to avoid overlaps in examinations, the rules for scheduling synchronous examinations must be observed!
6. Carrying out the identity check
   The identification system enables you to verify the student’s identity by checking the uploaded photos. Note: You must carry out the identity check within three days after the exam. This is your responsibility. After seven days the photos will be deleted automatically and irrevocably.
7. Option: Plagitas control with iThenticate
   Via the GWDG you have the possibility to use software to support plagiarism detection. For open-book exams the service iThenticate is recommended, because it enables the comparison of exams with each other. GWDG offers training courses on request (please register by e-mail to Mr. Groh).
   Further information on the GWDG's plagiarism prevention services.
   Registration for iThenticate
8. Correction of the exam
9. Entering the exam results in FlexNow

You can find support and instructions here:

• General guidelines for teachers
• Step-by-step instructions for creating an online exam
• Video for creating an online exam
• Video for performing the identity check
• Instructions for downloading the online exams (identical to term papers)
• Video to download the online exams (identical to term papers)

**Please inform yourself about specific deadlines and workflows of your faculty on the pages of your Dean of Studies or Examination Office.**

The implementation of open-book exams requires a different formulation of questions and tasks, which is far from the inquiry of factual knowledge. The goal of open-book exams is to test the application, analysis and synthesis performance by means of open question types. These types of questions/tasks prevent the possibility that the answers can be found directly by browsing the internet. The advantage of these questions/tasks for students is that they have the opportunity to demonstrate their acquired competences instead of their memorized knowledge.

In summary, the questions/tasks in open book exams should be formulated in such a way that students:

• apply their acquired knowledge
• perform analyses and comparisons
• evaluate and judge facts based on their knowledge
• transfer their knowledge to new horizons (e.g. develop new solutions for problems)

You can find support and instructions here:

• Tips on suitable task and question formats for open-book exams

• Students are able to upload term papers or exams written at home into Flexnow
• Uploaded Files will automatically receive a cover page with a QR-code to allow filing in the “Elektronische Studierendenakte” (ESA)
• Lecturers can download uploaded files via Flexnow-grading
• The upload feature may has to be activated by the examination office (general setting for each module, not for each exam date)

• Graded term papers or online exams can be placed within the student file (e.g. via the cover page assigned during upload) and afterwards made accessible for online exam review
• Students can download their own graded exams

• Graded exams can be placed in the ESA and thereby archived
• Suited for digital and paper-based exams alike
• Simplified filing with cover pages assigned during the process of uploading

Log in to FlexNow

Students registered for the exam log in as usual via eCAMPUS in FlexNow. In FlexNow, a link to the photo identification website appears for the exam date. Normally, the identification website does not require a second login.

The photo-identification process

The students go through several steps. In the first step, students have to submit a declaration to confirm that they will take the exam without using unaurthorized aids and that their physical capability to take the exam. Furthermore, they have to confirm to have taken note of the various notes on data storage and the possible verification by plagiarism software. In the next step, the students have to take an up-to-date picture of themselves and their student card. In the third step, the examinees then receive the necessary information about the exam. In the case of an online exam in ILIAS, these information consist of the exam password. The ILIAS exam is accessible via the Stud.IP course where the password can be entered.

Please note: If students wish to use their smartphones for photo-identification, it is required to use Google Chrome for Android and Safari for iOS. Students shall make sure that alternative browsers (such as Samsung Internet, Mi-Browser) are not granted access to any QR-codes.

The exam in ILIAS

Your students access the exam you have prepared via the Stud.IP course and work on the exams on their own PCs in the exam time defined by you. After the exam, the results of your students are directly available to you. The system automatically evaluates the closed questions. You evaluate the open questions manually and have the possibility to write an individual feedback to each person about the given answers. Depending on the settings, your students can view their exam results in ILIAS directly after the exam or as of the date set by you. Alternatively, they can look up their results in another way, e.g. via FlexNow.

You can find support and instructions here:

• The FlexNow website for online exams (for students)
• Video on how to take an online exam (for students)

**Please inform your students about this in time.**

If you choose online exam @ home as a form of examination, you have to follow these steps:

1. Inform to the Office of the Dean of Studies about your choice of an online exam as exam type
2. Activation of the online exam by the examination office
3. Creation of the exam in ILIAS
   You develop your exam directly in ILIAS extep using the object "Test" and the question types available there (e.g. Single Choice question, Multiple Choice question, Kprim Choice, cloze, free text etc.). Depending on your exam scenario, you can also define relevant settings, e.g. the duration of the exam or the grading system according to which the answers are evaluated. You can also define an exam password which you will send to the students after the identification process. Finally, you link your completed exam to the Stud.IP event so that the students can find and start the exam at the scheduled time. You can find out how to create and manage your exam in the video tutorials which can be found in the Stud.IP event "online exams with ILIAS".
   
   NEW: You can now create a course in Stud.IP via FlexNow in order to conduct an online exam. If you use this option, a new course will automatically be generated in Stud.IP, to which only in FlexNow registered students will have access to. This allows a separation between exam and course in Stud.IP and provides access only to those students actually taking the exam. Lecturers but not tutors will be transferred as well. For further information please use the respective instruction.
4. Creation of the online examination procedure in the identification system by the examiner.
   To do this, use the link on FlexNow, which appears there after step 2. Enter the corresponding duration and provide the relevant information about the ILIAS exam (e.g. an exam password) in the photo identification system. Note: If you are outside of the university network (e.g. in your home office) and want to create the online exam in the identification system you will need a VPN access.
5. Start and execution of the exam on the date set by you
   In order to avoid potential exam collisions, the rules for the scheduling of attendance exams must be observed!
6. Carrying out the identity check
   The identification system enables you to verify the student’s identity by checking the uploaded photos. Note: You must carry out the identity check within three days after the exam. This is your responsibility. After seven days the photos will be deleted automatically and irrevocably.
7. Correction of the exam
8. Entering the exam results in FlexNow

You can find support and instructions here:

• General guidelines for teachers (DE only)
• Step-by-step instructions for creating an online exam (DE only)
• Video on how to create an online exam (DE only)
• Video on how to perform the identity check (DE only)

**Please inform yourself about specific deadlines and workflows of your faculty on the pages of your Dean of Studies or Examination Office.**

Access to the extEP-ILIAS examination system

Access to the extEP-ILIAS examination system works exclusively via Stud.IP. The procedure is slightly different depending on whether you design your exam alone or together with your colleagues or tutors. You either create your exam directly in your own ILIAS data folder or you do it via a Stud.IP course, e.g. the actual exam event. We have explained how to access ILIAS in a video tutorial ("extEP-ILIAS 1. Access to ILIAS"). You can find it in the Stud.IP course online Prüfungen – Anleitungen und Hilfsmaterialien (online exams - instructions and support materials) in the section "Media".

The creation of tests and question pools

You can either create the questions for your exam directly in the exam object (test) or use one (or more) question pool(s) for this purpose. If you plan to use ILIAS for your future exams or to develop a common collection of questions for your exams together with your colleagues, it is recommended to work with question pools. Thereby, you can organize the questions better and use them later in your tests. Furthermore, it is possible to conduct different online exams individually where each examinee receives different questions to answer. All information about the test creation, use of question pools and question types available to you can be found in our video tutorials ("extEP-ILIAS 2. Online Prüfung erstellen " and " extEP-ILIAS 3. Fragenpools einsetzen") in the Stud.IP course online Prüfungen – Anleitungen und Hilfsmaterialien (online exams - instructions and support materials) in the "Media" section. Instructions for the creation of individual question types can be found under the tab "Learning modules".

• Important, if listening comprehension is being used! For every kind of question, you have the opportunity to offer the respective question as a listening comprehension task via the option “activate listening comprehension ”. Please keep in mind, that embedded audio files are not being inherited while compiling a copy of the exam or importing questions from the question bank into the exam. Remember to check these questions thoroughly before making the exam accessible to all participants and, if necessary, to update the audio files in question.
• Important, if open-text questions are being used! Make sure to not place open-text questions at the end of the exam. If your exam consists of only open-text questions or you randomize the sequence of questions, we recommend you referring students to our guideline on how to work on open-text questions (tab “Current guidelines for students”).

Essential settings

Before offering the exam to your students, it is important to adapt the existing settings to your exam scenario. Among other things, you define the maximum time allowed for your exam, the grading scheme and the time period during which students can access the exam. To ensure that students can find your exam, it is also very important to put it online in the ‘Settings’ section before you can actually release it. You can find out about possible settings in a video tutorial ("extEP-ILIAS 4. Mögliche Klausureinstellungen"). It is available in the Stud.IP course online Prüfungen – Anleitungen und Hilfsmaterialien (online exams - instructions and support materials) in the "Media" section.

• Processing time - we recommend to add 5 minutes to the regular processing time in order to mitigate possible delays due to loading times.
• At time limited availability a period has to be given in which the exam can be accessed. We recommend to set the beginning of the exam as start and to add a buffer of 30 minutes at the end (for example: beginning @ 4 pm, end @ 5:35pm with an original processing time of 60 minutes exclusive 5 minutes and a buffer of 30 minutes)
• After a time limit has been set, the test can be made available by choosing online.
• If you plan to implement some kind of identity control, we recommend to use a test password in order to access the exam and to announce it within the identification system. By using this you can make sure, that participants actually go through the identity control before they start the exam.
• For the grading system we recommend to adapt it in accordance to the respective grading levels as written in the common examination regulations.
• The option printable catalogue of questions can be found at "Score" and is activated by default. It functions as an overview of every single question with the respective personal answers, which can be saved as a PDF document or directly printed after the exam. If you wish to deactivate this function, because you, as an example, plan to have a second exam with similar questions, just uncheck the corresponding box.
• Important! We urge you to check the exams’ settings after linking the respective exam with your course in Stud.IP. If the exam is linked as a copy you may find some settings (“time limited availability”) not being adopted and thus need to be carried out again.

You can find further support materials and instructions here:

• Empfohlene Einstellungen für online Klausuren mit ILIAS (Szenario 1)
• Empfohlene Einstellungen für online Klausuren mit ILIAS (Szenario 2)

The activation of the exam for the students

You make the final written exam available to your students via Stud.IP in the corresponding course. Depending on whether you have created the exam on your own or in cooperation with other lecturers/tutors, you will either find it in the section "Learning modules" or attach a copy of it. We have described all the steps you need to take to activate your exam for your students in a video tutorial ("extEP-ILIAS 5. Online Prüfung für Studierende freischalten"), which you can access in the online Prüfungen – Anleitungen und Hilfsmaterialien in the "Media" section.

The evaluation of the exam

Immediately after the exam, you can access the current results of your students in the "Statistics" section. The closed questions are automatically evaluated by ILIAS. However, you also have the possibility to access individual questions and, if necessary, to change the rating assigned by ILIAS. Open questions have to be graded manually and the points awarded are automatically transferred to the general results overview. The exam results are available in the form of detailed statistics on individual performances, group performances as well as results on individual questions. More information on the evaluation in ILIAS can be found in a video tutorial ("extEP-ILIAS 6. Prüfung auswerten") in the section "Media" in the Stud.IP course online Prüfungen – Anleitungen und Hilfsmaterialien (online exams - instructions and support materials).

Cooperation with other teachers and tutors

The lecturers registered in the respective Stud.IP course are assigned the role of course administrator in ILIAS and can access all materials in the corresponding ILIAS course, edit them and create new ones. In addition to this, lecturers with a lecturer account have their own author rights and their own area in ILIAS where they can create personal tests or question pools themselves.

Tutors in Stud.IP are assigned the role of course tutors in ILIAS. This allows them to edit question pools in the linked course but not the tests themselves. They can create questions in pools but only the lecturers decide on their use exams. Tutors have no rights outside of the course. They cannot create their own tests or question pools.

Tutors in Stud.IP are assigned the role of course tutors in ILIAS. This allows them to edit question pools in the linked course but not the tests themselves. They can create questions in pools but only the lecturers decide on their use exams. Tutors have no rights outside of the course. They cannot create their own tests or question pools.

Question types in ILIAS

For the creation of your exams ILIAS mainly offers closed and semi-open question types. On the one hand, there are tasks with given answer options (e.g. single choice questions and multiple-choice questions, Kprim Choice, cloze questions with selection gaps, assignment and arrangement questions) that have to be recognized and selected accordingly. On the other hand, there are tasks that require the students to provide short and concise answers (mostly in one word or number) (e.g. cloze question with text gap, naming of picture elements, numerical question, formula question). A great advantage of such question types is primarily their automatic evaluation by ILIAS. There is no need to correct these tasks and you can retrieve detailed statistical values. As closed questions can be answered quickly, you can schedule more tasks in your exam than you could in exams with open questions. The disadvantage of using the above-mentioned question types is mainly the increased risk of guessing and thus the probability that learners will be able to solve the tasks correctly without actual knowledge. Furthermore, creative, inventive and analytical achievements can hardly or not be tested at all with the format. In order to minimize the success of guessing strategies and to sufficiently differentiate the students' level of knowledge, it is essential to create questions with a high cognitive demand. The most important tips and tricks for this can be found in the following instructions: Tips and tricks for creating closed question types (DE only).

Extracting question variants from a question pool (individualization)

ILIAS tests enable the possibility to offer an individual online exam for each student so that it is almost impossible for students to copy from one another. In order to do so you as a lecturer create questions not directly in the test but in question pools. The ILIAS test is then set up in such a way that it randomly compiles and arranges questions in a randomized way. Each examinee is thus given an individual exam.

In order to achieve the same level of difficulty for all examinees and a comparability of the exams, it is best to create a small pool with 3-5 questions of equal value. Your test will be set up in such a way that it draws the desired number of questions per pool but randomizes the questions. In comparison to a test that "wildly" selects a certain number of questions from a large pool of questions, it can be guaranteed that the difficulty of the exam is about the same.

Instructions on how to create question pools and ILIAS tests with question pools can be found in the course online Prüfungen – Anleitungen und Hilfsmaterialien (online exams - instructions and support materials) in the "Files" section.

High number of closed items

Another way to increase the difficulty of an online exam is the option of a 100-questions-in-60-minute exam. To do this, you create a large number of questions that have to be answered in a very limited time. You can also allow all aids for this type of exam, because ultimately, the number of questions completed determines whether someone has learned well or not. Looking up an answer takes time, so that a candidate who has to look up a lot can automatically receive fewer points than someone who has learned the material.

Fixing answers

Students are, by default, allowed to switch in between questions during the exam and thus going back and forth to already given answers, possibly correcting their answers. In order to increase difficulty of the exam, you can deactivate this option at “automatic response and fixing answers”. The first answer given can afterwards not be changed anymore by the participant. If you plan to apply this setting, it is advised to inform participants in advance (e.g. in your introduction ahead of the exam), especially since the answer will be saved, as soon as the participant continues to the next question.

Support for online exams@Home

It is advisable to be available to students during the period of the exams. You can do this through various channels: A BigBlueButton-room activated in the Stud. ip course (via the Meetings-PlugIn) allows students to ask you questions directly in the chat or live (if necessary, you can communicate 1 to 1 with the examinee via the direct chat).

A specially created channel in RocketChat also allows for just-in-time support.

It is also helpful to meet before the exam to clarify open questions once more.

Below we listed a few guidelines based on inquiries we received:

Web-Browser

It is required for you to use Chrome or Firefox running the current version in order to secure a safe procedure of the exam. We kindly ask you to refrain from using Safari, Edge or alternative web browsers.

Navigation

Please refrain from refreshing (circle formed button or F5 button) or forwarding/backwarding (arrow forward/backward). Do not close the tab or the browser, which may result in a loss of your unsecured answers. Exclusively use the navigational elements embedded in ILIAS.

Open-text questions

• Please pay attention to the listed guidelines above as well as the following guidelines concerning open-text questions.
• Safe your answers on a regular basis. Your respective processing status will be saved on servers.
• Consider not working on an open-text question until the last possible moment. After the allowed time limit is reached, the test will automatically be completed and your answer up to that point will be saved. This can lead to occasional cases of submitting unintended and incomplete answers, if you are for instance still in the process of answering.
• We recommend therefore to finish answering at least 1 minute before the end of the processing time and then saving your answer. Loosing content can thereby be avoided. In order to guarantee your regular examination period, 1 minute of additional time has been added.

Finishing the exam

Please make sure to press “end test” three times in order to finally end your exam. Only then will all your answers be saved entirely.

If the examinee deviates from the recommendations for use set out below, this is at his or her own risk.

• Taking the exam via smartphone is not recommended.
• We recommend a minimum screen size of 12 inches and a minimum resolution of 1024 x 768. If you use a smaller monitor size or a lower resolution, make sure that all tasks are displayed correctly when you start the examination. Otherwise, it may help to reduce the page zoom ("CTRL"&"+") or deactivate the question list.
• Internet-enabled device with a current version of Chrome or Firefox. Safari is not officially supported. The use of mobile devices is not recommended.
• Physical keyboard with German or English layout (depending on the exam language).
• Stable, fast internet access for the entire duration of the exam. We recommend at least 16k bandwith and the use of LAN-Cable, if possible.
• Deactivation of PopUp-Blocker.
• Content-Filter like AdBlock/Anti-Virus, etc. must not hinder communication.
• Activation of Java Script (Active Scripting).
• Allow http-Session-Cookies.
• If you are using a mouse or touchpad, please use the desktop view of the page (not officially supported).
• If you make entries with the touch screen, please activate the mobile view of the page (not officially supported).
• Please note that additional requirements per examination may be announced by the examiners.

If for instance StudIP is not accessible, system errors occur or the network connection is overloaded, then this can be checked and, if necessary, refuted by us.

These challenges can occur, but cannot be tracked by us. It is up to you to check for their credibility. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide a technical support hotline which will assist you during an exam if technical difficulties of any kind should occur.