This step is needed to ensure that only students registered in your course get access to book assessments in the ORCA. You will need to do this regardless of the assessment system (PrairieLearn, Canvas, DrRacket, etc…) used in your class. There are 3 options, depending on which platform you’re using (Canvas, PrairieLearn, or something else, as well as which department or faculty your course belongs to.
Get student CWLs
To enrol students into PrairieTest (so they can book assessments in the ORCA), PrairieTest requires a list of UIDs, which at UBC is indicated by their CWL@ubc.ca (note: this is not a real email address). To get the CWLs of students enrolled in your course, there are currently three options:
Option 1: Generate the PrairieTest self-enrol link and add it to Canvas (Recommended)
Instructors can create a unique link for their PrairieTest course and add it to the Canvas left sidebar so students click on it and are automatically enrol into your PrairieTest course. You can find this link in your Course Settings on PrairieTest.
Here’s a quick video to show you the self-enrolment link and add it to your Canvas course:
This works very well and is the recommended way of getting your students onto PrairieTest!
Option 2: Obtain a list of CWLs for registered students [Canvas]
Unfortunately, there is no easy way for instructors using Canvas to get student CWLs. Fortunately, there exist tools in the UBC ecosystem to convert between names/student IDs to CWLs. Instructors are encouraged to reach out to their faculty or departmental instructional support staff to see if there is an option available to extract CWLs for registered students in your course. For instance, instructors of courses in the computer science department have access to the classist tool (docs here).
Option 3: Use the PrairieLearn Gradebook [PrairieLearn only]
Instructors using PrairieLearn for their assessments can access the CWLs of enrolled students in the Canvas Gradebook. The Gradebook can be exported, the UID column corresponds to the CWL@ubc.ca, which can be directly to add students to the course.
Adding Your Student Roster To PrairieTest
Once you have a list of CWLs, you will need to add them to PrairieTest (unless you chose Option 1). To do this, login to PrairieTest, click on your Course, then click on Students. You will see a box where you can paste in UIDs in the format: CWL@ubc.ca. The box is pretty forgiving, you can paste the list separated by commas, whitespaces, line breaks, or semicolons and any students already in the course will be ignored.
Instructors should do this at the start of term, and then close to the Add/Drop deadline to minimize the work needed to check/verify/remove students that are no longer enrolled in your course. Fortunately, if you do have to upload twice, there is a “Synchronize student list” feature in PrairieLearn that allows you to compare and synchronize your roster (see screenshot).
Synchronizing Student Lists
Once the Add/Drop date has passed, you must add all students to PrairieTest to ensure they can book sessions. Additionally, synchronize your class roster, to ensure students who have dropped the course are removed.
This will ensure our numbers are updated and we can better predict usage.
Adding Accommodations
*NEW*: As of September 4th, 2026 – at the start of each term, the ORCA staff will add all existing (i.e already granted) extended time accommodations (1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, 2x) to PrairieTest. Instructors and course staff are still required to add other accommodations that students have (e.g. Private Space, Distraction Reduced) as well as any other accommodations are granted to students after the start of term (students can apply for CfA accommodations at any time).
Student accommodations should be added to the Testing Centre (ORCA) for all assessments held in ORCA. Below is an annotated guide to adding accommodations from the course “Students” tab.
Students writing at the CfA
If student accommodations can be met in the ORCA, they will need to write their assessment in the ORCA – see details of this here.
However, if their accommodations cannot be met in the ORCA, then they will need to write their assessments in the CfA. The setup instructions for this differ based on the assessment platform.
Canvas
- Just setup your canvas exams as usual with the IP filter in-place to prevent students from doing the assessment outside of the ORCA.
- Make sure students’ extra time is configured in Canvas, as well as the assessment availability (in case students have a different exam window)
- We recommend duplicating your exam and adding a password for students who must write at the CfA for extra security
MTA
- Follow the same procedure as PrairieLearn
PrairieLearn
Note: This process was updated on Monday Sept 21st, 2026. The old way to handle students who must write at the CfA will no longer work.
To facilitate this in PrairieLearn (PL), there are some additional steps needed in PrairieTest (PT):
- After the term’s Add/Drop deadline, ORCA staff will ask on Slack (#instructor_support channel) which courses have students registered with the CfA who must write their exams in the CfA.
- For courses that have such students, ORCA staff will then:
- Invite the teaching team to a new PrairieTest centre called “ORCA exams at the CfA” so these students are able to write in the ORCA machines at the CfA.
- Invite you to join a copy of your course on PrairieTest called “CfA_YOURCOURSE_CODE”
- You will then add students who must write at the CfA (usually only a very small number of students) to this course, and add any accommodations to PrairieTest.
- We recommend removing them from the original (non CfA) course, but this is optional and it may be useful if a student misses the CfA deadline to book and wants to write in the ORCA
- Next, you will create a custom reservation for the student into the special session ORCA staff have created for your course.
- This special session starts on the first day of the term at 12:00 and lasts 165,000 minutes (until the end of the term).
- Your course session will have a password – this is where you would set the password that is shared with the CfA via Clockwork.
- Members of the teaching team are welcome to adjust passwords at their convenience (e.g., different password for each student, rotate passwords on a time interval, or even change passwords for each exam).
- Finally, you will need to add the Exam UUID (from the new Centre) into your new PL course.
And that’s it !
Caveats and other details:
- The password should not be shared with students; the CfA invigilator will enter the password on the student’s behalf (you’re encouraged to place this instruction in Clockwork to remind the CfA staff they shouldn’t just give the password to the student directly).
- Once you set this up for one exam it’s easy to copy to subsequent exams.
Adding Time During an Exam
PrairieTest allows for additional time to be added to exams that have already begun. Proctors may do this in some standard scenarios without notifying instructors, for example if a student’s computer was slow to turn on or if they lost time due to an unexpected technical issue.
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.