Assessments - for the Subsystem Specialist

This Help page provides specialist users (such as System Administrators and Subsystem Specialists) with information required to set up and maintain the reference data used by the Assessments subsystem, and to perform the specialist functions available in this subsystem.

An overview of the day-to-day operation of the subsystem is provided in Understanding Assessments.

Information regarding the use of a specific form is obtained by selecting a link to that form in the text below or selecting from the Subsystem table of contents.

Topics covered here include:

 

Note:
If your institution uses a character set containing multi-byte characters, please note that the use of multi-byte characters is designed for and partially supported in the following areas of Callista only: Proposals (user-defined fields), Communication Templates and Items, and Thesis. Therefore, it is recommended that you use single-byte characters in the Assessments subsystem, as some multi-byte characters are equal to more than one byte at the storage level and therefore could be interpreted incorrectly by some processes.
For more information, see the Character Sets section in System Wide Features.


Setting Up Assessments Reference Data

In order for the Assessments subsystem to function effectively, the following reference data must be created and maintained:

Reference Data

Purpose

Optional ?

Maintenance Form

Pre-requisite Setup Dependencies

Assessment Types

Used in the definition of Assessment Items in ASSF2100.

Essential

ASSF0110

none

Examination Material Types

Used in the definition of examination materials in ASSF2123.

Essential

ASSF01A0

none

Assessor Types

Used to define an assessor assigned to an Assessment Item in ASSF2100.

Essential

ASSF01E0

none

Exam Locations

Venues and supervisors are attached to locations.

Essential for examination management

ORGF0131

none

Venues

Supervisors are assigned to venues, examinations are scheduled at venues etc.

Essential for examination management

ASSF4200

Exam Locations (ORGF0131)

Assessment Item variation Cutoff Date Alias

Prevents changes to Unit Assessment Items after a specified date. Particularly applies to jobs ASSJ3212 and ASSJ3213.

Essential. A nominal date could be used where the function is not required.

ASSF01N0

Date Alias recorded in this form must be created in CALF0420.

Special Consideration Category

Used to categorise special consideration applications in ASSF4911.

Essential for special consideration functions

ASSF01L0

none

Special Consideration Outcome

Used to record sought and final outcomes in ASSF4911.

Essential for special consideration functions

ASSF01M0

none

Supervisor Types

Used to categorise supervisors in ASSF4310.

Essential

ASSF0150

none

Result Entry Configuration

Controls the entry of Student Unit Attempt outcomes during both manual and electronic recording of results.

Essential for electronic upload of results.

ASSF01K0

none

Tracking Types

Used to define tracking items. A tracking type can be mapped to a System defined tracking type of ASSIGNMENT.

Essential for Assignment Tracking Items in ASSJ3610.

TRKF1100

none

The documentation for each of the reference data forms above details any functions or rules specific to those forms.

Setting Up Assessments Calendars

Examinations Calendars

In common with most subsystem Calendars in Callista, it is most efficient to establish the complete set of Exam Calendars for a particular Academic Year and then use the Calendar Rollover Process to create Calendars for subsequent years. Relevant parts of the recommended examination Calendar creation process which follows can then be used to maintain the 'rolled over' Calendars.

 

Assessment Calendars

Assessment Calendars are used for assessment processes other than examinations. Like Examination Calendars they are effectively groupings of Teaching Periods. They are not referenced in any forms but are used mainly as job/report parameters. An Assessment Calendar defines the set of Teaching Periods whose associated units are concurrently 'put through' the assessment process. For example, an Assessment Period ASS-SEM1 may have the Teaching Periods SEM-1, S1-E1 and S2-E1 associated with it. The units associated with these Teaching Periods will be assessed during the Assessment Period.

Results for units in these 3 Teaching Periods are processed concurrently. Thus, when running reports such as Result Sheets, Invalid Grades and Non-enrolled Outcomes, ASS-SEM1/2003 can be specified as a parameter rather than running the report for individual Teaching Periods.

Assessment Calendars for other purposes may be required in later releases of Callista.

 

Setting Up and Maintaining Assessment Items

There are three mechanisms for creating and Maintaining Assessment Items.

The usual approach is to locate a Unit Offering Pattern and then create or maintain Assessment Items which 'belong' to it (Unit Assessment Items). To do this:

Either:

Then either:

Or

The second approach is to create an Assessment Item in isolation and then associate it with one or more Unit Offering Patterns. To do this:

The third approach is to create a Unit Assessment Pattern and then to create or associate one or more Assessment Items within the Unit Offering option Assessment Pattern. To do this:

A variation to the above processes involves the use of the Find Assessment Item icon in ASSF2310 and ASSF2320. This icon invokes the Find Unit Assessment Item form (ASSF2311) where a query can be executed to locate a particular Assessment Item attached to another unit. By default, entering the form displays all Assessment Items already linked to the context unit. This Assessment Item is then attached to the current unit by exiting ASSF2311 and returning to ASSF2310 or to the Unit Assessment Pattern by returning to ASSF2320.

ASSF2100 contains buttons which provide access to enable the recording of:

and the listing of examination materials.

Attaching Assessment Items to Student Unit Attempts

(and Detaching Assessment Items from Students)

When a student enrols, the process ASSJ3212 - 'Automatically Maintain Student Unit Attempt Assessment Item ' is run to attach the default Assessment Items associated with the Unit Offering option to the student's Unit Attempt. Where Assessment Items are associated with (or deleted from) Unit Offerings after students have enrolled in them, ASSJ3213 - 'Apply Unit Assessment Item Modification to Students' is run to attach the Assessment Items to (or detach deleted items from) students.

Note that where:

ASSJ3213 is also used to update students' Assessment Items where the Assessment Items attached to a unit have been altered and remove non-default Unit Assessment Items from students where the Assessment Items have been deleted from the unit.

ASSJ3212 and ASSJ3213 are generally run together in a single job request to ensure that all student records have been updated.

Non-default Unit Assessment Items can be manually attached to, and maintained against, individual students in form
ASSF3222.

 

Setting Up and Maintaining Unit Assessment Patterns

To create and maintain Unit Assessment Patterns:

Attaching Assessment Items to Assessment Patterns

 

Attaching Assessment Patterns to Students

The processes ASSJ3212 and ASSJ3213 allocate both default Assessment Patterns and default Assessment Items to Student Unit Attempts.

Student Unit Assessment Patterns are viewed in the Maintain Student Unit Assessment Patterns form (ASSF3221). The form is also used to manually allocate non-default Assessment Patterns to individual Student Unit Attempts.

 

Managing Non-Examinable Assessment Items

'Non-examinable Assessment Item' is the term used in Callista to describe any Assessment Items other than examinations. This includes student assignments, projects and performances. This function provides mechanisms to manage any non-examinable Assessment Items which are processed and tracked through a centralised group, such as a group within student administration.

Use of this facility is optional.

The typical assignment management process is:

Managing Examination Details

The management of examination details covers all facets of the examination process. Data is recorded progressively to create an information bank upon which timetabling of exams is based. Data is passed to Syllabus Plus via the exam timetabling interface (ETI). Timetabling is performed in Syllabus Plus and exam timetabling details are passed via ETI back to Callista. Supervisors are then allocated to venues and/or individual examinations. A typical approach to examination management follows. It is dependent on the existence of Examinable Unit Assessment Items for all units being examined during the examination period in question.

 

Examination Sessions

 

Examination Locations and Venues

Note: An Exam Location of NONCENTRAL must be created when using the concept of centrally scheduled but non-centrally managed examinations. For further details, refer to the technical information in the Callista Product Centre: wiki.callista.com.au/display/CPC.

The venues associated with a particular Examination Location are recorded and maintained in ASSF4200 (Maintain Venues). Each Exam Location must have at least one venue to enable its use for Exam Timetabling. Venue addresses are recorded in ASSF4201, accessed via a button in ASSF4200.

 

Venue Session Availability

The form ASSF4212, Maintain Exam Venue Session Availability and the process Default Exam Session Venue Availability, ASSJ4212, are used to record the availability of venues for sessions within an Exam Period. ASSJ4212 enables all open venues to be defaulted as available for all sessions. ASSF4212 may also be used to manually record session availability for individual venues.

 

Timetabling

The Examination Timetable Interface (ETI) enables examination and student details to be passed to Syllabus Plus so that Syllabus Plus can generate an exam timetable. Once generated, the timetable details are passed from Syllabus Plus to Callista, again via ETI.

Details passed by Callista to ETI include:

Once a timetable is generated in Syllabus Plus, details of session, Examination Instances and Student Examination Instances are passed to Callista. When passing data back to Callista after the initial transfer, the ETI operator is given a list of changes and is able to select which changes to apply to Callista.

For detailed instructions on this process, see the ETI online user guide.

Various examination based reports may be run. These include:

Once final Exam Instance and Student Exam Instance details exist in Callista, supervisors can be assigned to either Exam Session Venues or specific Exam Instances.

Supervisors

 

Seat Allocations and Attendance

The form ASSF4642, Maintain Student Examination Details is used to:

 

Maintaining Grading Schemas

The Grading Schemas used by the institution must be recorded and maintained in Callista in order for the Assessments subsystem to function effectively. Grading Schemas are recorded and maintained using ASSF5110. Further details of the data comprising a Grading Schema are contained in the documentation of ASSF5110.

Grading Schemas are attached to Unit Offering options in the Maintain Unit Offerings form (CRSF2500) or to Course Offering Patterns in the Maintain Course Offerings form (CRSF1500). When the outcome of a student's Unit Attempt is recorded in Callista:

Refer to ASSF01K0 for details of how the use of Grading Schema can be configured.

Where an overriding Course Offering Pattern Grading Schema has been recorded, recommended grades are translated form the unit Grading Schema to the course Grading Schema.

Future functionality provides for Grading Schema to be attached to individual Student Unit Attempts.

 

Translating Grading Schemas

Students enrolled in a Unit Offering Option may also have a Grading Schema mapped to their Course Offering Pattern. Where this occurs, if the course Grading Schema has precedence, the student's grade from the unit Grading Schema must be translated to the grade for the course Grading Schema.

To translate Grading Schemas:

Then:

The process does not translate Student Unit Attempt outcomes where:

 

Recording Results

Callista provides two mechanisms for recording Student Unit Attempt outcomes (results):

Both mechanisms are configurable using the Maintain Entry Configuration form (ASSF01K0), enabling the result recording practises of the institution to be accommodated.

For example, the manual recording process can be configured to allow the recording of invalid mark/grade combinations which may be corrected later, or to make the entry of marks mandatory. The electronic upload process can be configured to perform different actions depending on the errors or warnings encountered. The section of the manual covering the form ASSF01K0 has full information.

 

Manual Recording of Results

This method involves the keying of results which have been manually recorded on result sheets. A result sheet is a listing of students enrolled in a particular Unit Offering location/mode combination and has provision for the recording of marks and/or grades. Typically the process is:

 

Electronic Upload of Results

This method involves the recording of marks and/or grades in electronic format and subsequent uploading into Callista. More detailed instructions for end users are provided in Understanding Assessments. The typical process is:

Note: Results for both single and multiple units can be uploaded into Callista Staff Connect via the 'Upload Results - Single Units' or 'Upload Results - Multiple Units' function in Staff Connect. For more information, see Understanding Assessments.

 

Transferring Results from a Learning Management System

Many institutions use a Learning Management System (LMS) for assembling and delivering course content, administering student results and consolidation of training initiatives. Student results can be transferrred between Callista SMS and an institution's LMS to reduce manual maintenance and reconcilation of data in both systems.

Uploading Results from a LMS to Callista SMS

Student results are uploaded to Callista SMS from an institution's Learning Management System (LMS) via a web service ('resultLoad). The records are transferred in XML format to Callista and uploaded into the same holding area as that used for Staff Connect and SMS forms Results uploads. A Callista SMS administrator then runs the ASSJ5341 job to process the uploaded records and create Student Unit Attempt Outcomes.

For more information, also see the SMS-LMS Interface Help page.

 

Publishing Outcomes

Outcomes are initially set as recommended. After the appropriate authorising body (such as a Board of Examiners) has ratified outcomes and any required amendments have been recorded, outcomes must be finalised before they can be published. This is achieved using the process Finalise Student Unit Attempt Outcomes (ASSJ53A0).

Once finalised, outcomes may be published in a variety of ways. The more traditional methods for publishing outcomes are:

Results would also be made available via information booth facilities such as the World Wide Web. (Addressed in future releases of Callista.)

 

Assessments Jobs and Reports

The reports in the Assessments subsystem are an integral part of its operation. They are an essential link between the business processes of the institution and Callista. Some reports trigger database processes critical to the operation of the subsystem.

It is expected that a person 'running' any of these reports is experienced in the mechanisms for generating reports in Callista. Full details regarding running reports both on-line and in batch mode are provided under 'All About Standard Reports' and in the Job Control and Scheduling subsystem.

Assessments subsystem reports and jobs are listed below:

 


Page last modified on 17 August, 2015 2:41 PM

History Information:

Release Version Project Change to Document
18.0.0.2 2011 Updated tech doc wiki reference to CPC.
18.0 2094 - Character Sets As part of the decommission of some Correspondence forms, removed references to ASSF5600 and ASSJ06V0 & replaced with ASSK06VE. Added a note about the use of mutli-byte characters.
14.0.0.2 1738 - SMS-LMS Interface (Grades) Added a new section about transfer of student results to Callista and Learning Management Systems
12.1 Calipso 28849 Added link to Understanding Assessments in the Electronic Upload of Results section.