Ans
For administering exams, Leiden University uses the Ans program. Teachers can use Ans to: - Create exams - Grade exams - Create practice tests - Add a grading scheme to exams
Lecturers are added to a Brightspace course and to the course in Ans at the beginning of the academic year or the start of the semester. If you do not have access to your course in Ans, please report this to the OSC, indicating which course is missing.
Ans
Teachers and students can log in to Ans with the ULCN; these details are the same as for Brightspace and etc.
Log inMaking exams
There are several ways in which an exam can be presented to students in Ans:
Paper
Ans offers the option to use Paper2Scan exams. The lecturer creates the test digitally in Ans, after which the OSC arranges for the exams to be printed. The student takes the exam on paper. Afterwards, the OSC ensures that the completed exams are scanned and made available in Ans so that they can be graded digitally. Please allow at least two working days for scanning.
Additional information:
- Ans offers various question types for a Paper2Scan exam; see this website for more information.
- In addition, the Future Learning Office has various manuals available via the Teams environment to support the creation of a Paper2Scan exam.
Digital
Ans offers various options for question types; see this website for more information. Additionally, it is always possible for lecturers to create a test in the assessment environment to experiment. Students do not see this test.
The exams on the University's Chromebooks are linked to Schoolyear so that students cannot open anything else during the test.
Chromebooks
The university has Chromebooks available on-site with only the Ans exam program installed. At the exam location Spui building, 500 Chromebooks are currently available for exams; these are shared with other faculties.
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
With Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), students bring their own laptops to take the exam. The OSC and the FLO recommend presenting exams using the Schoolyear program. This software blocks access to other documents and web pages, unless otherwise configured. Through Schoolyear, students gain access to Ans, where the exam is taken.
Currently, there is no established policy regarding BYOD exams within FGGA and Leiden University. Experience from the OSC and the FLO shows that a small proportion of students encounter problems downloading and installing Schoolyear, for example due to outdated systems. In such cases, university Chromebooks can be used, but these are only available in limited numbers. Coordination regarding this is therefore necessary.
Attachments to digital exams
If certain information needs to be accessible to students during the exam, there are three options:
- Attachments: It is possible to add attachments per exam or per question – depending on the need. However, this is limited to PDF, JPEG, or PNG files, and each file can be a maximum of 25 MB in size. The FLO advises adding an attachment per question. This makes it clearer for students during the exam when which information applies.
- External websites: Additionally, it is possible to allow access to certain websites during the exam. Settings in Schoolyear ensure that these website(s) can be visited, but that no other options are available. The OSC can assist with these settings.
- Printing: The OSC can print the attachments (depending on the number of attachments and the number of students)
Grading exams
Grading an exam in Ans can be performed by multiple lecturers simultaneously. The exam can be graded per exam or per question. Once the exam has been graded, assistance can be provided by FLO to transfer the points or grades to Brightspace. You can submit this request by sending an email to FLO@fgga.leidenuniv.nl.
Please note! Grades calculated in Ans should not be released to students via Ans. The grades are communicated to students via Brightspace and Usis only.
Creating practice exams
A practice exam can be made available for students so that they are able to prepare for the actual exam.
Adding a grade scheme to an exam
For all exams, a grading scheme must be created for assessment. For multiple-choice questions, Ans assesses the answers directly. Ans can also automatically award partial points if a specific sentence is provided as an answer on the exam.
Questions?
Need help with Ans or advice? Please contact osc.fgga@fgga.leidenuniv.nl and for IT support via FLO@fgga.leidenuniv.nl or the FLO Teams channel.
For more information about the options for reducing exam sizes, click here.