§ 15 · Teaching & assessment

Online tests

The Online Test module is a complete examination engine in four movements — Build, Run, Mark, Review — and the sidebar is laid out in exactly those four groups. A paper is not sittable until it has climbed all four statuses, which is where most first attempts stall.

What it is for

Setting and running assessments students take on screen.

Who can do it

Exams OfficerLecturer (authoring and marking)InvigilatorHOD

Needed first

An assessment structure with a component to attach the paper to
Questions in the question bank
Eligible, registered students

Where it ends

Marks transferred into the student record, where the normal result workflow takes over.

Build, Run, Mark, Review

The Assessment Papers screen: sidebar groups BUILD, RUN, MARK and REVIEW; tabs for question bank, guided builder, results review, assessment structures and exams dashboard; five tiles counting papers, draft, awaiting approval, approved and published; a Create a paper panel; and a filtered table of papers with course, period, structure, out-of and status columns. — **Assessment Papers.** The five tiles across the top are the paper lifecycle. All eight papers here are Draft — none can be sat.

Group	Screens	Who works here
Build	Papers, Question Bank, Question Moderation	Lecturer authors; a moderator approves
Run	Examination Dashboard, Assessment Operations, Invigilation, Attempt Reviews	Exams Officer and invigilators
Mark	Marking Queue, Marking Moderation, Regrades, Transfer to Record	Lecturer marks; a moderator checks
Review	Assessment Results, Assessment Reports	Exams Officer and management

What this module does not do

The Papers screen says it itself: “Nothing here marks or grades — weighting stays with assessment structures and grades stay with Results.” A paper decides what is asked and what each question is worth on that paper. How that paper counts towards the course is set in the assessment structure, and the grade comes from the grading scale.

Build — questions before papers

The Question Bank screen listing questions with their type, topic, difficulty and moderation status. — **Question Bank.** Questions live here independently of any paper, tagged by topic and outcome, so one question can serve several papers over several years.

Author questions→ Moderation→ Assemble a paper→ Approve→ Publish

Authoring, moderating and importing questions are three separate permissions (exams.question_bank.author, .moderate, and the taxonomy manager), so the person who writes a question is normally not the person who signs it off.

The paper lifecycle

Status	Means	Can a student sit it?
Draft	Being assembled. Sections and questions still being added	No
Awaiting approval	Submitted for academic sign-off	No
Approved	Signed off, but not yet released	No
Published	Live for its window	Yes, if they are eligible

A paper with no questions

The papers table has an Out of column and a Structure column. A row reading 0 question(s), No sections, 0 is an empty shell — created but never built. Filter on Draft before an examination period and clear these out; they are the commonest cause of “the test would not open”.

Run — the day of the assessment

The Invigilation Board showing live attempts, their progress and any flags raised. — **Invigilation Board.** Live attempts as they happen, with flags. This is the screen an invigilator watches during a sitting.

Assessment Operations — open and close sittings, extend time, handle the student whose machine failed.
Invigilation — the live board.
Attempt Reviews — look at an individual attempt afterwards, including the events recorded during it.

Eligibility is checked at the door

A student who is finance-blocked, attendance-blocked or unregistered will be refused at the start of a sitting, not before it. Run the eligibility report on the Examination Dashboard the day before, not on the hour.

Mark — and then transfer

The Marking Queue listing attempts awaiting marking, by paper and question. — **Marking Queue.** Objective questions are scored automatically; written answers queue here for a human.

Marking queue→ Marking moderation→ Regrades, if requested→ Transfer to Record

Transfer to Record is the step people forget

Marking a paper does not put the mark on the student's record. Transfer to Record — permission exams.online_assessment.push_marks — is what moves it into the marks that the result workflow processes. Until then the mark exists only inside this module, and the course will still show as having missing marks.

Worked example

Running the CAT for BIT-123 on screen

Before anything	Confirm BIT-123 has an assessment structure with a `CAT` component worth 30%. A paper attaches to a component; without one there is nothing to attach to
1. Questions	Question Bank — author or select questions, tagged to the topics being examined. Send them for moderation
2. Paper	Papers → Create a paper, against the `CAT` component. Add sections, then questions, then the marks each carries on this paper
3. Check	The row should now read a real question count, real sections and a real Out of — not `0`
4. Approve & publish	Submit for approval, then publish. Published on the tile row should go from `0` to `1`
5. Sitting day	Assessment Operations to open the sitting; Invigilation to watch it
6. Mark	Marking Queue for written answers; then Marking Moderation
7. Transfer	Transfer to Record. Only now does BIT-123 stop appearing in Missing Marks
8. Verify	The lecturer's marks screen shows the CAT column filled

If the test will not run

Symptom	Cause	Fix
Students cannot see the test	The paper is Draft, Awaiting approval or Approved — not Published	The status column on the Papers table
The paper opens empty	`0 question(s)`, `No sections`	Build it. An empty paper is a real, saveable state
One student is refused at the start	Eligibility — finance, attendance or registration	Examination Dashboard block tiles
You cannot create a paper	No assessment component to attach it to	Assessment structures, first
Marks are complete but the course still shows missing marks	Not transferred to record	Transfer to Record
You can author but not approve your own questions	Authoring and moderation are separate permissions, on purpose	Ask the moderator