FAQ
Answers to many of the frequently asked questions can be found here. More detailed support for PrairieLearn and PrairieTest can also be found be visiting their support pages linked here: PrairieLearn Support / PrairieTest Support
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Steps to enroll a course in Test Center at the beginning of the term
Here is the list of steps that you must complete at the beginning of the quarter. Below this list, each step will be explained in more detail.
- Speak with the test center administrator to make arrangements to use the test center. They will make a course for you in PrairieTest and give you the access you will need to complete necessary tasks in that system.
- If you will be using PrairieLearn, continue to step 3. If you will be using Canvas, continue to step 5.
- If you will be using PrairieLearn, you will need to have a PrairieLearn account. If you already have one, you may skip to step 4. If you need to create a PrairieLearn account, submit a request at this website:
Request Course | PrairieLearn. You may be required to login to submit this form. Choose to login using google and login with your UCR affiliated google account (netID@ucr.edu).
- If you will be using PrairieLearn, once you have received confirmation from PrairieLearn that your account has been set up or if you already have an account, you need to Create a course instance in PrairieLearn. Continue to step6.
- After the test center administrator has created your course in PrairieTest, you will need to add your class roster. Complete the steps in Adding students to a course in Prairie Test and Adding students to a course in PrairieLearn.
- After you have added the roster, you will need to add any accommodations or extended time for students that are allowed extended time. Complete the steps in Adding Accommodations to PrairieTest.
- That is it! You should be all set up for the quarter.
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Steps for scheduling an exam during the quarter
- To have the exam proctored in the test center, you will need to create an exam reservation in PrairieTest. Follow these steps to create an exam in PrairieTest.
- You can decide what media you would like to use to host the exam. PrairieTest links really well with PrairieLearn but you can also use canvas or a written exam. If you would like to use a different media, please discuss with the center administrator. When you decide, you will need to create an exam. If you plan to use PrairieLearn, you can follow these steps to create an assessment in PrairieLearn. If you plan to use Canvas, you can follow the steps in Linking To a Canvas Quiz.
- Sometimes students will need to take an exam outside of the scheduled exam period. For example, they were out sick during the exam period. You can give them permission to take the exam in the proctoring center up to a week after the exam period ends. Please follow the steps to allow an exam override.
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Create a course instance in PrairieLearn
Course instances might be used if you have different sections of a given course or if you teach the same course in a different quarter. To create a new course instance follow the steps below:
- Login to prairie learn.
- From the main menu, Click on the name of the course you would like to link to a prairie test exam.
- Click on “Add course instance” in the upper right hand corner.
- You will have to change the name of the instance. To do this click on the grey button that says “Change CIID” and name the instance what you would like. Click okay.
- Then, you might want to modify the infoCourseInstance.json so you can change the long name of the instance. I like to have a very descriptive name. Click on “Save and sync” in the upper right corner to save any changes to the json file.
- You will need to allow access to the instance so students are able to access exams created in that course. From the files tab, click “edit” next to the infoCourseInstance.json file.
- In the allowAccess block, add this code:
{
“startDate”: “2023-01-10T00:00:01”,“endDate”: “2023-03-30T12:59:59”
} between the []
Where “2023-01-10T00:00:01” means the course starts on 01/10/2023 first thing in the morning and “2023-03-30T12:59:59” means the course ends on 03/30/2023 right before midnight. You can adjust these dates and times to match the dates you would like your students to be able to access the course. I like to align these dates with the dates of the quarter. Click on “Save and sync” to save changes.
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Linking to a Canvas Quiz
For each Canvas quiz you would like to have proctored in the test center, you will need to add IP filtering to limit access to the quiz from only computers in the test center. There are two types of canvas quizzes, classic quizzes and new quizzes. The steps to add IP filtering for both types of quizzes can be found below.
Classic Quizzes:
- In canvas, click on the quiz you would like students to take in the test center.
- Click on "Edit" at the top right hand corner of the screen.
- Scroll down to “Quiz Restrictions”.
- Click the box next to “Filter IP Addresses”. The box should turn blue and have a white checkmark in the box now.
- In the ip address box, put the range “169.235.28.0/25”.
New Quizzes:
- In canvas, click on the quiz you would like students to take in the test center.
- Click on "Build" at the bottom of the screen.
- Under settings, toggle "Filter IP address" to on. It will show a green background when it is on.
- Fill out the Allowed IP address range. It should be 169.235.28.0 to 169.235.28.127.
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Adding students to a course in Prairie Test
Instructors must add students to their course in PrairieTest before the students can make a reservation and take an exam. To do this, follow the steps below”
- Login to prairietest.org by clicking on login.
- Click on “sign in with google”.
- Login to UCR using your @ucr.edu email address and complete authentication.
- From the home page, under the list of “Courses where you are staff”, click on the course you will be adding students to.
- From the top of the page, click on “Students”.
- Click on “Add students” from the right hand of the page.
- Enter your students @ucr.edu email address. I do this by exporting the roster from eLearn.ucr.edu. Then, I open the gradebook in google sheets. I add a column for the students email address. To populate this column, I concatenate the student’s netID with “@ucr.edu” using the concat function in google sheets. Then, I copy that column and paste in the “Add students” window in Prairietest.
- Then click “Add Students” in the bottom right hand corner of the window.
- The “Students” screen should now be populated now with your roster.
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Adding Accommodations to PrairieTest
Sometimes, students will be given accommodations from SDRC that include extended testing time and/or other accommodations. For other accommodations, please reach out to the test center at testcenter@cs.ucr.edu to confirm that the test center is prepared for what might be needed. For extended time, PrairieTest requires that this is entered by the course staff. Although time can be extended on an exam by exam basis, it is best to add accommodations at the beginning of the term that will apply to all future exams.
To apply accommodations to all future exams:
- Login to prairietest.org.
- From the home page, under the list of “Courses where are you staff”, click on the course you will be making accommodations.
- From the top of the page, click on “Students”.
- Navigate to the student that will receive accommodations and click on the modify box in their row in the “Accommodations” column. This is the modify box all the way to the right.
- Enter the time you would like them to have. 100% is normal time and 150% is time and a half.
- Click on “Save”.
- You should see the accommodation listed in the accommodation column.
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Make an Exam in Prairie Test
Prairie test is the program used to schedule and facilitate exams. The course instructor must make an exam in prairie test before an exam can be proctored. Follow these steps to make an exam.
- Login to PrairieTest.
- From the home page, under the list of “Courses where you are staff”, click on the course you would like to make an exam for.
- In the exams tab, click on “Add exam”.
- Name the exam and enter the amount of time a student should have to complete the exam.
- Click on done.
- The exam should now appear in the exam list
- If you would like your students to be able to schedule their own exams (this is true if you want the students to take the exam in the proctoring center), you will need to change the visibility of the exam. Continue to step 8 to change the visibility. If you plan on scheduling the exam (usually happens if a student is allowed a special circumstance where the exam will be proctored someplace other than the test center), you may skip the rest of these steps.
- From the list of exams, click on the name of the exam you would like to make visible.
- Click on the setting tab to reveal the settings of the exam.
- Click on the box with the pencil next to the row labeled “Visible”.
- Click on the box next to “Visible to students”. A check mark should appear. Click “save”.
- Verify that the word “Yes” appears in the “Visible” row now.
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Create an assessment in PrairieLearn
Follow the steps below to create an exam in PrairieLearn.
- From PrairieLearn home page, click on the course you would like to create an assessment for.
- Click on “Assessments” from the top of the page.
- Click on “Add Assessment” from the upper right corner.
- The assessment will be created with default settings. These default settings should be changed to better align with your assessment. To change the settings, click on “Edit” next to infoAssessment.json.
- The type of the assessment will be set to Homework. If this is an exam, you will need to change that line to look like:
“type”: “Exam”
- The title of the assessment will be set to “New”. You should replace the word “New” to a descriptive name of your exam such as “Quiz Week 1”.
- In “zones”, you will add questions to the exam. You will need to put it
{
“questions”: [
{ “id”: “name_of_question”, “points”: 1},
Etc.
]
}
- Click “Save and sync” from the upper right hand corner to save any changes.
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Link Prairie Test Exam to Prairie Learn Exam
There are two things that need to happen for an exam to be proctored. You must have a room reservation and an actual exam. This mirrors in person exams where the room is reserved and the instructor brings a physical paper that students will work on. The prairie test exam is the room and the prairie learn exam is the physical copy of the exam.
The physical copy of the exam you want the students to take during that time frame needs to be linked to the prairie test exam. This is so students arrive at the room and have access to the correct exam. We are using PrairieLearn but this could grow to Canvas or gradescope, etc. Below are the steps to link to a PrairieLearn exam.
- Login to prairie learn.
- From the main menu, Click on the name of the course you would like to link to a prairie test exam.
- Click on the course instance that has the prairie learn exam.
- Click on the name of the prairie learn exam you want to link to the prairie test reservation.
- Click on the “Settings” tab.
- Click on the “Edit” button next to infoAssessment.json.
- In “allowAccess”, you will need to add the json code from prairieTest. Leave prairie learn open on this browser tab. Open a new tab, and complete the following steps.
- Login to prairieTest.
- From the home page, click on the course you want to take the prairie learn exam. This will be found under the “Courses where you are staff” list.
- Click on the exam.
- Click on the “Settings” tab.
- Copy the json code in the “PrairieLearn access” block.
- Paste this code in the open tab that has prairie learn open. Code should be pasted in “allowAcess” [].
- Click on “Save and sync” to save changes.
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Allow an Exam Override
- Login to prairietest.org.
- From the home page, under the list of “Courses where you are staff”, click on the course that the exam is associated with.
- In the reservations tab, check to see if the student has a current reservation that they missed. If they don’t, their row will be empty except for their name and email address. If they do, you will need to cancel the reservation by clicking on the edit button in the session column. The session will usually be the name of the test center.
- Next, in the override tab, click on “add override”.
- Type the student’s UCR email address in the Student UID field. Change the end date and time to be one week from the completion date of the original test period. Click add override.