Accommodated Testing Services (ATS)

CIS Instructor Module

User Documentation

[REVISION April, 2022]

Section A: Accommodated Testing Services (ATS) Project Overview
- Implementation of a Faculty Portal for Accommodated Tests and Exams
Section B: Scope of Documentation
- I. Accessing Accommodations dashboard with different roles
  - Role 1: If you are an instructor
  - Role 2: If you are an accommodation admin
- Step by step walkthrough of completing a test definition

Section A: Accommodated Testing Services (ATS) Project Overview

Implementation of a Faculty Portal for Accommodated Tests and Exams

The number of students registering with Accessibility Services and writing tests and exams with accommodations has increased significantly over the past five years. This is representative of a national trend. Communication between faculty members and the Accommodated Test and Exam Centre is key in ensuring the academic integrity of the assessment process, and that students write with their required accommodations.

Following consultation with a cross section of students, instructors, staff and senior leadership, Accommodated Testing Services (ATS) is partnering with the Student Information Services (SIS) team within Information Technology Services, to implement new processes and technology to support this growing need at the University. In order to more effectively manage their communication with faculty members, the first phase of the project focused on developing a faculty portal within the Course Information System. Other universities have found that the development of a faculty portal increased efficiency and ease for both faculty members and the Test and Exam Centre.

This system, initially rolled out to all UTSG instructors in Fall 2020, allows faculty members to view all the accommodated tests and exam requests in one central location, allows for a secure electronic uploading of tests and reduces the number of emails asking for repetitive information. Subsequent phases of the project will focus on improving student and staff experiences.

For more information about the project, please visit: https://easi.its.utoronto.ca/projects/accommodated-tests-and-exams/

Section B: Scope of Documentation

This document originally addressed the Fall 2020 release of the “Accommodations” dashboard and related areas within CIS for the St. George campus. It has been updated recently, in Winter 2021, for additional ATS Instructor Module enhancements. The document will outline a demonstration to illustrate how to use ATS Instructor module in the CIS (Course Information System) and include additional relevant screens and information on latest enhancements and new features.

I. Accessing Accommodations dashboard with different roles

You will see a different accommodations dashboard depending on the access you have been granted* in CIS (either as an instructor or an accommodation admin).

(*Note: giving appropriate access to both administrators and coordinators/instructors is done by the ATS team and they should be contacted if you want to obtain access to the Accommodations Dashboard in CIS. An additional module, which is the first of a series of releases for ATS Admin Module, entitled “Designates Screen” was completed in February, 2021 and any documentation for this release has been provided to ATS staff.)

Role 1: If you are an instructor

If you have been granted the instructor access, you will land on the ‘My Course’ page after logging in. You can navigate to the accommodations dashboard by clicking on the ‘Accommodations’ tab.

From the dashboard, you can view all your courses with active accommodation requests with test dates no earlier than 7 days prior to the current date (i.e., the default start date = current date – 7 days). Assessments which are more than 7 days ago are no longer available on the dashboard. The status of each test definition is highlighted in a hyperlink. You can start entering test details for a specific test definition by clicking on its highlighted status.

Role 2: If you are an accommodation admin

If you have been granted the accommodation admin access in CIS, you will see the CIS homepage below after logging in. You can then navigate to the accommodations dashboard by clicking ‘Go to Accommodations Dashboard’ button.

Once you access the dashboard, you will be able to see and do the following:

View a list of courses and assessments that you have access to and have active accommodation requests, and,

Filter the list and find a specific assessment

When you first access the dashboard, the assessments where the start date of the assessment is within the 'Select Assessment Start Date Range' are displayed. The 'Select Assessment Start Date Range' is initially set to display assessments where the start date of the assessment is no earlier than 7 days prior to the current date (i.e., the default start date = current date – 7 days), and forward.
You can adjust the dashboard list by changing the range of dates in the 'Select Assessment Date Range'. The oldest from date that can be entered is determined as follows: the start date of the current parent session - 1 year, e.g., on February 3, 2022, the oldest from date that can be entered is 2021-01-01
The filter criteria include the course code, course section number, course title, exam date, instructor, term (e.g., 2020 Fall, or 2021 Winter) and status.
The date range selector and the other filter criteria are used together to display the specific assessments that meet all criteria. If you View an assessment on your filtered list, when you return to the dashboard, you return back to your filtered list.

Note: If you have roles other than accommodation admin in CIS (e.g., Registrar’s Office, Printshop etc.), make sure that you have switched your role to ‘Accommodation Admin’ from the dropdown on the top right corner before going to the accommodation dashboard. You will not be able to see anything on the dashboard unless you are in the accommodation admin role.

E.g., the dashboard view in Registrar’s Office role

Step by step walkthrough of completing a test definition

Once a specific test definition has been selected, you can enter and/or edit test details either with the instructor or the accommodation admin access. With the instructor access, you can make edits directly and follow the steps to complete & submit to ATS. With the accommodation admin access, you are not able to edit immediately and need to switch to the instructor access first. You can switch roles by clicking the ‘View as This User’ button on the top right corner.

Step 1: Assessment Confirmation & Scheduling

This step captures the assessment scheduling details by asking a series of questions.

Is there an assessment being held on this date for this section?

If you select “No” to indicate that the date provided by the student is incorrect, you will see a follow-up question “Is there an upcoming assessment that may relate to this request?”

- If you think there is an upcoming assessment related to the currently requested assessment, please select “Yes” and resume the process. You will be able to propose the correct date later.
- If you have verified that the assessment indicated by the student does not exist, you can select “No” to provide an explanation to ATS and, reject the assessment and end the process. The status of the assessment on the dashboard and in the Activity Log will be 'Assessment Rejected'

If you select “Yes” to indicate that the date provided by the student is correct, you will have an option to import details from a previously submitted assessment. If you have other assessments for which you have already submitted details, you will be able to see and select from a dropdown list.

Once a previously submitted test definition has been selected, you also need to specify whether you are importing all details (including assessment name, date/time and files) or importing partial details only.

Is this assessment being submitted online?

(The response “Yes” is covered first; the section following covers the response “No”)

If you select “Yes” to confirm that the assessment is to be submitted online, you will see several follow-up questions including selecting the online type and choosing whether you want to grant permission for ATS to add the students’ accommodation on your behalf.

Then you will be asked about how this assessment will be completed by the rest of the class.

If your selection is “Students will complete this online assessment in person”, the assessment has strict timing and you will need to fill out the following questions:

Class Writing Schedule: Assessment Start Time, Assessment End Time
Is there a mandatory lecture before or after this assessment?
Is there a group component for this assessment?
Special Instructions to Accommodated Testing Services (Optional)

If your selection is “Student will complete this exclusively online” or “Students will complete this assessment by downloading/printing and uploading their submission”, you will need to provide further details on the assessment start /end date and time in the "Timing and Submission" section.

There are three different assessment timing types, which are listed below:

Strict timing, where students must start and submit within a fixed start time and end time on a provided date.

Fixed timing, where students can start at any time within a date range but have a fixed duration once they begin. This is referred to as 'fixed' timing.

Flexible timing, where Students have a date range where they may work on the assessment without time restrictions. The assessment must be submitted by a provided day and time.

If you select “No” to confirm that the assessment is not to be submitted online, you will then need to answer the question “How is this assessment being completed?”

- If you select “Students will complete this in person”, the assessment has strict timing and you will see several follow-up questions and you will be asked about how this assessment will be completed by the rest of the class:
  - - Class Writing Schedule: Assessment Start Time, Assessment End Time
    - Is there a mandatory lecture before or after this assessment?
    - Is there a group component for this assessment?
    - Special Instructions to Accommodated Testing Services (Optional)

- If you select “Students will complete this as a take home assessment to be submitted in person”, the assessment has flexible timing, where students have a date range where they may work on the assessment without time restrictions. The assessment must be submitted by a provided day and time.

Once you have completed all required fields in Step 1, you must click Save & Continue to progress to the next step. Upon saving, you will see a green check mark besides Step 1 indicator. If you want to save what you have entered and return at another time to complete the rest of the step, you can click ‘Save’.

Step 2: Assessment Details

Fill out the details and timing information surrounding aids, scantrons and audiovisual components that will be used for the assessment. Depending on your selections, you may need to fill out additional follow-up information for each question.

Once you have completed all required fields in Step 2, you must click Save & Continue to progress to the next step. Upon saving, you will see a green check mark besides Step 2 indicator. If you want to save what you have entered and return at another time to complete the rest of the step, you can click ‘Save’.

Step 3: Contact Information & Details Submission

Add at least one set of contact information (name, email and phone number) so that someone can be reached during the assessment if needed.

Then, fill out the delivery instructions for ATS staff, these are the instructions for the ATS Staff on how to deliver the completed tests back to the instructor. This is a mandatory field and if you have no instructions then select “NA – no physical test or materials to be submitted/delivered”

Click “Submit Details to ATS”, then click Save or Save & Continue to progress to the next step.

Step 4: File(s)

If a file is needed for this assessment, upload the file and complete the printing Instructions. Then click Save or Save & Continue to progress to the next step

Step 5: Summary & Submission

If a file was uploaded, ensure the file you uploaded has the correct name and click “Submit to ATS”. Depending on the previous test details entered, you may see one of the following completion screens: