Getting Started

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Roughly, these are the steps to get started using the ORCA:

  1. Attend a virtual office hour or ORCA lab tour, or send an email to orca.support@ubc.ca to discuss suitability of your course assessments in the ORCA.
  2. Submit the ORCA intake form with the details of your course, and assessments: https://orca.ubc.ca/#request-to-use-the-orca at least one week before the start of the term
    • It may be possible to still use the ORCA (depending on your circumstances and requirements) if you do not sign-up before the start of the term, please contact us (orca.support@ubc.ca) for advice and recommendations.
  3. Roughly one week before the start of the term, you will receive an invitation to join Slack, which is the primary mode of communication between ORCA staff, instructional support units, and course instructors.
  4. A few days later, you will receive an invitation to PrairieTest so you can ensure the script and intake form correctly parsed your requirements and intentions. If there are any discrepancies, please reach out on the #instructor_support channel so we can adjust things (if possible).
  5. Add a syllabus statement about ORCA
  6. Get your students added to PrairieTest
  7. Add CfA accommodation information to PrairieTest
  8. Link your assessments to PrairieTest
  9. Announce to your students that they may book their first assessment, here is a student facing video you can share with them.
    • It is highly recommended that if it is your first time using ORCA in a 1st or 2nd year class, you schedule an optional, no-credit assessment in the ORCA so everyone can get used to the process. In the past, instructors have done very simple assessments like a syllabus quiz, or silly questions with no wrong answers like “what’s your favourite ice cream flavour” to reduce student stress and anxiety,
  10. Soon after the Add/Drop deadline for the term, synchronize your roster to remove students who have dropped the course and should no longer be able to make reservations.

Sample Syllabus Statements

Below are some suggested statements you may add to your syllabus. In general, our recommendation is that you link out to the ORCA website for much of the policies and procedures, and defer all scheduling details to PrairieTest.

General

In this course, all assessments will be held in UBC’s ORCA (Open Resource Centre for Assessments), a facility designed for digital assessments to be complete safely, securely, and equitably. There are several ORCA rooms spread out over campus, the current list of rooms is available here. To ensure fairness, ORCA has very specific policies and procedures – you can find those linked here – please read these policies carefully as breaches of these policies will constitute academic (or in some cases, non-academic) misconduct.

Self-Scheduled Assessments

Your assessments in this course will be “self-scheduled” in the ORCA, this means that for each assessment, students will be able to schedule a time to write in the ORCA in an available session within an assessment window (typically a few days). Sessions are typically available between the hours of 11 AM to 6 PM Monday to Sunday (Saturdays and Sundays have reduced availability).

Reservations for assessments typically open 2 weeks before your assessment, on a Tuesday at 10 AM. Reservations for exam viewings open 3-4 days before the viewing window. You can find the scheduled assessment dates and times in the course schedule. If you miss your reservation, see this section of the ORCA website for next steps.

Strict Scheduled Assessments

Your assessments in this course will be “strict-scheduled” in the ORCA, this means that all students will be scheduled to write the assessments at the same day and time. You can find the scheduled assessment dates and times in the course schedule. If you miss your reservation for a strict-scheduled ORCA assessment, you will need to apply for an academic concession by contacting the course instructor or coordinator.

Logistics
To enrol into the PrairieTest course, follow the steps outlined in the “Getting Started” page for students here, including a video to walk you through the setup process.

Instructions for students to book

When you are ready for your students to book into the ORCA, here is a text-based set of instructions you could share with students (for e.g., in a Discussion forum announcement):

In order to register yourself for a session for the course’s first assessment, you will need to follow these steps:

1. Go to our course in Canvas and on the left sidebar, click on “ORCA Reservations”

2. Open the link in a new tab

3. Click “Enrol” to join the PrairieTest course.

4. Click on “Home” and your course now shows up on the PrairieTest home.

5. At the moment, you will likely see the following message: “You don’t currently have any exams available for reservations”.

6. Once we make your first quiz visible for reservations, you will be able to book a session for the assessment.

7. You are able to cancel or change your reservation at any time (up to 30 mins before your reservation) during the assessment window.