Creating Final Exam Schedules in EMS
- Max Klinkert
Background
Final exams are held during the one-week, bylaw-defined exam period starting the week after the last day of classes each fall and spring term. Exams are held during standardized two-hour blocks during exam week. Each day during exam week has five blocks going from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a 30-minute gap between each.
Exams are grouped into each block based on the class meeting time during the semester to minimize student conflicts. Classes are mapped to each exam block using final exam grids:
Except for common exams, exams should be scheduled in the same room in which the class was held during the semester whenever possible. Room assignments for common exams are typically provided by the department; common exams are only scheduled for certain ACCT, CHEM, MATH, and PHRX classes.
Common Exams are exams for multiple sections of the same class held in the same classroom. For example, the Chemistry department will schedule the exams for multiple lab sections of CHEM 1127Q in the same room during the CHEM Commons exam block even though the discussions do not meet together during the semester. The schedules for these exams are not based on the class meeting times; instead, the department determines which room and which common exam block to schedule the exam.
The fall final exam schedule must be published by October 1. The spring final exam schedule must be published by March 1.
Relevant Final Exam Policies
Critical Info and Prep
The following process(es) must be completed prior to following the instructions below:
Exam preferences should be complete and accurate in CLSS. Registrar’s Office will send a reminder via the Academic Scheduling LISTSERV shortly after the start of the term with exam information.
Details of all CHEM, MATH, PHRX, and ACCT common exams should be provided by departments.
Any changes to the Final Exam Schedule Template in EMS should be finished (this is only necessary if we wish to change the template; the existing templates can be applied unless there are substantial changes to the Final Exam Schedule Grids).
The exam session creation process MUST NOT be started until after Day 10 to ensure that enrollments have stabilized.
Instructions
Setting Standard Final Exam Settings in EMS
Before the Final Exam Session can be created in EMS, exam settings must be set for all courses. While CLSS is used to collect final exam preferences from academic departments, the data from CLSS is used to populate two User Defined Fields in EMS that can be used to assign preferences to sections in bulk in EMS.
How Final Exam Preferences get from CLSS to EMS
To set exam preferences for a course in EMS, navigate to EMS > Academic Planning > Courses > Academic Browser.
Select the course you wish to update and then, in the Academic Browser menu, navigate to Tools > Set Final Exam Settings.
Exam Settings for Standard Exams
For all sections except those with common exams, choose from one of two settings. For sections that do not require an exam, select Final Exam Not Required. For sections that do require an exam, select Require Current Room to ensure that the exam is scheduled in the same room in which the class was held during the semester.
Using Filters to Update Final Exam Settings
In order for the the Final Exam Preference filter to display accurate exam preferences, this data must be accurate and set correctly in CLSS. The values in this field come directly from CLSS so, if you are not sure that your exam preferences are recorded accurately in CLSS, you will need to set exam preferences manually.
Use the Academic Browser to filter on certain criteria so that you can update the settings for many sections at the same time.
First, navigate to EMS Academic Browser > Filter > All Fields and then select Course Dates > Final Exam Not Required and Course Dates > Final Exam Require Current Room.
For each of these filters, select Does Not Equal for the condition and Yes for the value. Using these filters together will ensure that the courses listed in the results are only those for which final exam settings have not already been set.
With those filters in place, navigate to EMS Academic Browser > Filter > All Fields and select Course > Final Exam Preference. For this filter, select Equals for the condition and N for the value.
To view the filtered results, select Get Data, which will bring you to the Results tab. Be sure that the “Browse For” window is set to Course Dates.
Be sure to set all sections of ENGL 1007 to not require an exam.
On the results tab, select all the course dates that are displayed, then navigate to Tools > Final Exam Settings. Select Final Exam Not Required and then select OK.
Next change the value of the Final Exam Not Required filter to “Y.” In the Results tab, select all displayed courses, and then navigate to Tools > Final Exam Settings and select Require Current Room.
Be sure to review the preferences set by departments to be sure they are valid. For example, a department may indicate that the discussions sections of a course should have a common exam but also fail to indicate that the lecture does not require an exam, which could result in two exams being created for the same course.
Because online asynchronous and “by arrangement” classes do not have meeting times, exams cannot be created for them in EMS. While most classes using these modes do not have exams, the small number that do will need to be added directly to Student Admin. See the Adding Asynchronous Exams to Student Admin section for more information.
Setting Common Exam Settings in EMS
For each section that will have a common exam, the department must indicate two pieces of information: (1) which exam block the exam will be scheduled in; and (2) which room the exam will be scheduled in.
Because there is only one CHEM common exam block, the first piece of information is not necessary for CHEM common exams. The ACCT and MATH departments should specify which common block to use. PHRX courses are scheduled throughout exam week, so the department must provide the details for each section.
As you are setting common exam settings, it is helpful to have the following filters set to exclude sections for which final exam settings have already been set:
Final Exam Not Required does not equal Yes;
Final Exam Require Current Room does not equal Yes;
Special/Common Exam does not equal Yes.
ACCT, CHEM, and MATH Commons
In most cases, multiple sections of each ACCT, CHEM, and MATH courses will be assigned to the same room, which will be specified by the department. To filter by subject to work on one department at a time, navigate to EMS Academic Browser > Filter > All Fields > Course > Subject and select the subject from the list, then select OK and Get Data.
Most of the ACCT sections will be combined with sections of their equivalent BADM courses.
In the Results tab, select the sections that will be scheduled in the same room together, then select Tools > Final Exam Settings
In Final Exam Settings, select the Special/Common Exam Time checkbox, select the Common Exam Room checkbox, and then specify the exam date and time in the Special/Common Exam Settings section, and the select the room specified by the department in the Room Required field. The Seat Fill Percentage field does not need to be edited.
PHRX Common Exams
The PHRX exams aren’t true common exams - rather than exams for multiple sections being scheduled in a single room, the exams are for single sections that are always scheduled in two rooms to accommodate spaced seating. The rooms are always Pharmacy/Biology Building rooms 129 and 131.
Each PHRX exam should be scheduled the same way as the other common exams with the exception that it will not be necessary to select the Common Exam Room checkbox (though selecting it won’t hurt anything).
Although each exam will be administered in both PBB classrooms, ONLY select PBB 129 in the Room Required field. PBB 131 should be reserved in EMS for each exam block as a event.
While EMS does allow courses to have multiple exam bookings, duplicate exams cause the API to fail.
Additional Information
For additional information about setting exam preferences in EMS, see Set a Final Exam Schedule on the Accruent EMS help site.
Creating the Final Exam Session in EMS
Once exam settings have been updated for all courses in the term, create a new Final Exam Session in EMS to start the process of publishing the final exam schedule.
A separate exam session will need to be created for each campus; they do not need to be published simultaneously. If there are significant errors in an exam session, it is possible to create a new session to replace it. Be sure to delete the original exam session before publishing the new one; otherwise, the bookings from the first session will create conflicts with the second session, resulting in most exams not having rooms assigned.
To create, edit, or delete a Final Exam Session, in EMS navigate to Academic Planning > Courses > Final Exam Sessions.
The Domain is the campus the session is for. Select the Term to review existing sessions or create new ones.
Select New to create a new session, Edit to revise an existing session, and Delete to delete an existing session.
Deleting a session will delete all exam bookings, so only choose this option if you wish to start over.
Print displays a list of rooms included in the exam session that can be exported in PDF, Excel, or Word format. View displays a list of all exam bookings once the session is published. The Publish button is used after the exam session is created and is ready to be published.
Creating a New Final Exam Session
Navigate to Academic Planning > Courses > Final Exam Sessions and select New.
On the Final Exam Session tab, give the session a Description that includes the campus and term, and then enter the Start Date of final exam week.
On the Rooms tab, it is important to include all rooms on the campus including any placeholder rooms like “No Room Required - Storrs” or “Pending Department Room Assignments.” Because exams are assigned to the rooms in which the class was held during the semester, it is important to include every possible room where a class could be assigned. There is no harm in including non-academic spaces in EMS that won’t have exams, but failing to include rooms where exams are held will result in those exams not being assigned to a space.
To include all rooms on campus, select the Building drop-down. In the drop-down, select (all) at the top of the list. Because the session is being created for a particular campus, it will only include rooms on that campus.
When you select this option, all the rooms in that area will be displayed in the Available window. Select every room and then select the double arrow that points to the Selected window to move the rooms over to Selected.
Once you’ve selected all rooms, select OK to save the final exam session.
Publishing a Final Exam Session
Once the exam session has been created, navigate to Academic Planning > Courses > Final Exam Sessions and select the Domain and Term. Then select the session and select Publish.
The days and times listed when publishing the final exam session represent every meeting pattern for every course to be included in the exam session.
The first step of publishing an exam session is mapping class meetings to exam blocks. Most of these mappings can be done automatically by applying a Final Exam Schedule Template. These can be created ahead of time and usually do not need to be updated; they can be reused from term to term.
To apply a Final Exam Schedule Template from the Schedule Template dropdown, selecting the template for the appropriate campus and term.
In addition to applying the template, also be sure to select Ignore Room Capacity. This will ensure special placeholder rooms like No Room Required will be assigned to the correct classes.
Once the template is applied, only the class meeting patterns not included in the template will remain unmapped and these will have to be mapped individually. While there will always be some meeting patterns not included in the template, it may be possible to reduce the number of unmapped meeting patterns by creating a new template.
Because the meetings listed in this view includes meetings for courses that do not need exams, you can also determine on a case by case basis whether a mapping is needed. To do this, select the unmapped meeting pattern and then select Courses to view the list of courses using that meeting pattern. If none of the courses require an exam, you can skip the mapping for that meeting. Please note, however, that you will need to manually create exams for any courses with unmapped meeting patterns.
In this example, the only course using the F 9:30AM-12:00PM meeting pattern is a lab course that does not require an exam. The mapping for this meeting pattern does not need to be done.
Manually Mapping Exam Schedules in EMS
Each unmapped meeting pattern should be mapped to the exam block it fits most closely using the Final Exam Schedule Grid for that semester.
How to select the correct exam block from the exam schedule grid
Once you’ve determined the correct exam block for a meeting, select the meeting to map and then select Set Date.
Using the exam schedule grid, select the correct Final Exam Date, Start Time, and End Time and select OK. The mapping will then appear with the rest of the mapped meetings. Repeat this step for each unmapped meeting except for those that you have determined apply only to classes that do not require an exam.
Once all meetings have been mapped, select Next.
The next screen is Review Special/Common Exams. This is just meant as an opportunity to double check the common exam settings applied previously. Once you’ve confirmed the common exams are correct, select Finish.
Reviewing the Final Exam Schedule after it is Published
Once you select Finish, EMS will generate the final exam schedule results, starting with a list of unassigned classes.