Setting Up Exams

Examity usage is billed per hour for each student's session and the rate varies by the security level (i.e. Live Proctoring costs more per hour than Live Authentication+ Audit). Additionally, we pay for the entire estimated time of the exam, not just the amount of time the student uses. Distance Education has a limited budget for Examity usage. For these reasons, we ask faculty to please be judicious with their usage and exam set up so the funds are distributed throughout the fiscal year.

Guides

Examity Instructor PDF Guide

Best Practices

Set up all exams at the beginning of the semester and notify students to schedule as soon as possible. This will help ensure they have their choice of proctoring sessions.
Consider providing an exam window of two or more days. This gives students more options of proctoring sessions and allows them some time to reschedule if they did encounter an issue connecting with a proctor. Additionally, it spreads out technical issues so that anything that would impact the entire class can be identified and resolved before the majority of students test.
It is best to provide the "student" link when completing the exam link field in Examity. Select the profile image and then "View as Student." Navigate to the exam in student view. Select the exam title from the Quiz List. Once on the summary page that lists the Quiz Details, copy this URL and paste it into the "Link to access exam" field in Examity. Please note, the auto exam creation feature, if utilizing, will complete this step for the instructor.
You must protect your exam with a password in D2L. Without a password, students can bypass proctoring. Students will never see the exam password. The proctor will enter the password for them.
Provide detailed and specific special instructions as need. Here is are Examples of Special Instructions for Proctor and/or Students.
Review student proctoring analytics. Examity will flag issues/incidents, but, ultimately, the instructor must make determinations on academic integrity. Exam proctoring information stays in the Examity portal for 30 days and then it is deleted. Additionally, red flags are maintained for one year and can be requested from Examity if needed after the 30 days.

D2L Setup

Any Examity Legacy links must be deleted from the course in D2L and the new Examity v5 link added. Refer to this guide on Installing Examity v5 in D2L.
Any resources posted in the course linking to Examity Legacy information should also be updated. For example, replace a link to the Examity Legacy website with the new Examity v5 student website.
The instructor must access the Examity v5 link to connect their course to Examity. Some basic course information (course, instructor, and student names) will import into Examity immediately. Refer to this guide on Installing Examity v5 in D2L.
- The instructor can choose to manually add exams in Examity or use an automatic import function. Examity only needs the exam information like name, dates, etc.. The D2L Quiz questions are not added into Examity.
- The auto exam creation feature requires overnight to process. Learn more about auto exam creation before getting started.
Accessing the Examity link and setting up exams for proctoring must be done for each course using Examity.
Within Examity, do not use the New Course or New Test-Taker buttons. These features are for other uses of Examity and are not applicable to our integration within D2L using single sign-on. To add a course to Examity, add the Examity v5 link to that course in D2L and then access the link to connect the course.

Auto Exam Creation

Examity v5 can auto-import exam information (exam name, date range, duration, link, and password) from the D2L Quiz tool using a keyword filter. To use this feature, add the word(s) ‘Examity’, ‘proctor’ and/or ‘proctored’ to the D2L quiz title. Exams that include at least one keyword will automatically import into Examity every night after the first time the instructor accesses the Examity v5 link within the course. Since the auto-import process takes overnight, instructors will need to return the next day to finish setting up their exams in Examity (see the firs bullet below).

The automatic import process does not work for third-party exams (like McGraw-Hill) since those exams are not built in the D2L Quizzes tool. Use the manual exam creation process for third-party exams.

Important notes before using auto exam creation:

To initiate auto exam creation in Examity, the instructor needs to click on the Examity link within their course. This establishes a connection between the course and Examity. Afterward, nightly imports will automatically take place. Even if the quizzes and Examity links are copied from another course or sandbox, the instructor still needs to click on the link in the new course to establish the connection.
Exam security and rules must still be set for each exam even if it was auto-imported from D2L. Exams will default to Live Proctoring with the standard rules and are immediately available to students for scheduling. Instructors should review these defaults to ensure it meets their needs or make adjustments.
All changes to the exam information (exam name, date range, duration, link, and password) need to be made in D2L and allowed to process overnight. Making changes directly in Examity to an auto-imported exam will break the connection and the information in Examity will no longer update/match D2L. Deleting the exam from Examity will not repair the connection as it will not auto-import again.
An end date must be entered for the quiz in D2L. Otherwise, the exam will import into Examity as inactive. This can be fixed by adding an end date in D2L and waiting overnight for the exam information to update.
Exams hidden in D2L will auto-import into Examity if one of the keywords is used in the quiz title. Students will be able to see and schedule for the exam. To prevent this, do not add a keyword to the title in D2L.
If a quiz is deleted in D2L that was auto-imported into Examity, it will change to inactive in Examity overnight. Students will no longer be able to see it. It can be manually deleted from Examity or left as inactive.
Review student proctoring analytics. Examity will flag issues/incidents, but, ultimately, the instructor must make determinations on academic integrity. Exam proctoring information stays in the Examity portal for 30 days and then it is deleted. Additionally, red flags are maintained for one year and can be requested from Examity if needed after the 30 days.

Manual Exam Creation

Auto exam creation is not required. Exams can still be added manually to Examity. The manual exam creation process must be used for third-party exams.
Do not use any of the auto-import keywords (‘Examity’, ‘proctor’ or ‘proctored’) in the D2L quiz titles for exams added manually. The exam will auto-import from D2L and cause duplicate exams in Examity.
Exam information is added manually in Examity under the Exams menu. Exams cannot be added from the exams list under the Courses menu. That is simply a list of exams already associated with that course.
It is best to provide the "student" link when completing the exam link field in Examity. Select the profile image and then "View as Student." Navigate to the exam in student view. Select the exam title from the Quiz List. Once on the summary page that lists the Quiz Details, copy this URL and paste it into the "Link to access exam" field in Examity. Please note, the auto exam creation feature, if utilizing, will complete this step for the instructor.
Review student proctoring analytics. Examity will flag issues/incidents, but, ultimately, the instructor must make determinations on academic integrity. Exam proctoring information stays in the Examity portal for 30 days and then it is deleted. Additionally, red flags are maintained for one year and can be requested from Examity if needed after the 30 days.

How to Manually Add an Exam Video

Student Exceptions

Course Accommodations

Course accommodations is a feature that allows the instructor to make specific allowances on a student by student basis by providing notes the Examity proctors and auditors can review. For example, a specific student is permitted to use scrap paper, take a bathroom break, etc. Course accommodations apply to the entire course in Examity (i.e. all exams for that course). When entering the Course Accommodation, enter one, save, and then save again. Don’t leave the page before saving the second time.

Examity Accommodations Guide

Scheduling Exceptions

Scheduling exceptions is a feature that allows the instructor to make exam window (date and time) exceptions for students on a per exam per student basis.

In most cases, a scheduling exception in Examity means the information also needs to be added to the D2L Quiz as a Special Access permission. For example, an instructor wants to allow a student to test one day longer than the rest of the class, this information needs to be added as a scheduling exception in Examity and a special access permission in D2L so that both tools allow the student to test outside the previously set exam window.
Similarly, students given “Special Access” in D2L need to have this information entered into Examity as a Scheduling Exception. The information will not automatically import from D2L.

Students must schedule exams at least 24 hours in advance. Any exceptions must be approved by the instructor as a "Scheduling Exception" in Examity for the specific exam and student. If the 24 hours does not exceed the current exam window, set the start date/time as the earliest time the student can test and set the end date/time to match the regular exam window. This will ensure the student can test within 24 hours or through the remainder of the normal exam window if there was a need to reschedule.

Examity Scheduling Exceptions Guide