Supported Tools

ORCA supports several online learning tools and platforms in our rooms, but some tools will work better than others. Below is a summary of the currently supported tools.

PrairieLearn

PrairieLearn is the learning tool that is best supported in the ORCA. PrairieLearn is designed with instructors and large classes in mind and has powerful autograding, question bank management functionality, a rich library of question types, and an extensible backend so in. More information about PrairieLearn at UBC can be found at the LTHub Instructor guide.

PrairieLearn is fully compliant with ORCA operations.

Agora

Agora is a homegrown UBC tool built out of the Computer Science department and though it has a lot of uses outside ORCA (including as a classroom response tool), within ORCA instructors use it for students writing long-form essays.

Agora is fully compliant with ORCA operations.

Note: To access Agora outside of the ORCA, students and faculty need to be on VPN or a UBC network (including UBC-secure).

Canvas

Canvas is partially compliant with ORCA operations. Below are some key limitations:

• Exam viewings (students view their exams under invigilated conditions in ORCA) are not currently possible in Canvas.
• Invigilators do not have the ability to extend time for Canvas exams without instructor intervention (for e.g., if a student encounters a technical difficulty)
• Lockdown browser is required to prevent students from accessing Canvas content (including the Canvas Inbox)

Other Tools

There are many other tools in the UBC learning technology ecosystem, but they would require additional setup and discussion to use at ORCA. To discuss these use cases, please reach out to orca.support@ubc.ca to describe your use-case.

Unsupported Tools

These are the known unsupported tools for instructors wanting to use the ORCA:

• JupyterHub (there are no user controls in place, so once this service is allowed through the ORCA firewall, all students will be able to access it).

Cheat Sheet Options

Physical cheat sheets are not permitted in the ORCA. All reference material should be uploaded as part of the exam. If instructors would like students to create personalized cheat sheets, they can create a separate PL or Canvas assignment where students can upload their cheat sheets in advance of their exam to be vetted by the course staff if required. Then, during their exam in the ORCA, students can open their personalized cheat sheets and use them during their exams. For more details, contact orca.support@ubc.ca.

Adding Time During an Exam

PrairieTest allows for additional time to be added to the reservations of students in standard scenarios (e.g., lost power to computer, broken keyboard or monitor) as well as exceptional cases at the discretion of the ORCA Admin staff. Invigilators have been given discretion to add time to student exams under certain conditions without notifying instructors. However, not all LMS’ interact with PrairieTest and permit the remaining exam time to be adjusted. Below are more details on how each of the learning platforms we use interact with PrairieTest.

Canvas

For Canvas quizzes, NEW Canvas quizzes do NOT allow for extensions for exams that have already begun. However, Classic Canvas quizzes do allow for extensions for in-progress exams.

PrairieLearn

PrairieLearn is fully integrated with PrairieTest, adding time on a PrairieTest reservation during an assessment will extend the PrairieLearn exam for that length of time.