How do I gain access to ATLAS Exam Attendance for my course?
If your unit is already using ATLAS Exam Attendance, you may contact your Exam Attendance unit administrator. Check out ATLAS Exam Attendance - Active units and unit administrator contact info to see if your unit is actively using Exam Attendance and contact your unit administrator listed on that page.
If your unit is not in the list of active units - we'll need to determine which member of your unit will take on the unit administrator role to begin. The unit administrator role is mandatory for use of ATLAS Exam Attendance. Take a look at ATLAS Exam Attendance - How to get ATLAS Exam Attendance for your courses.
What card scanners should we purchase?
ATLAS Application development can currently support the following card scanners for use with ATLAS Exam Attendance:
IDTech Omni Card Reader: WCR3237-512U
IDTech MiniMag Reader Series: IDMB-334133BM
Both models are guaranteed for 1,000,000 swipes - and while it's possible there may be some durability differences, it's entirely up to your unit which scanner to select. Check out ATLAS Exam Attendance - How to get ATLAS Exam Attendance for your courses for more info!
Why can't we use our scanners directly from the manufacturer?
The scanners that we support act as keyboards with your computer. There's some information in the card swiping process that we don't need for ATLAS Exam Attendance, so we program the scanners to ignore the data that we don't want.
We require three business to program your scanners - so, be sure and contact us early!
What is a unit administrator - and why do we need one?
ATLAS offers the web-based application ATLAS Exam Attendance to LAS units free of charge. In return, our applications are self-service from an administrative perspective.This means when a unit member wants to use ATLAS Exam Attendance, they will contact this unit administrator directly to have their course, course term, and themselves added to the application.
These tasks are very simple and explained in detail in our tutorials. (Specifically the tutorials under the heading "Unit Administrator Tutorials" on the ATLAS Exam Attendance - Homepage.)
What is the recommended procedure for a secure exam session?
While you can use ATLAS Exam Attendance in a variety of ways, there are some factors worth considering.
It's best to use Exam Attendance outside of your exam space as your students enter, ensuring that every student entering the exam space is verified. If you wait until a student hands in their test packet at the end of the exam to use ATLAS Exam Attendance - you have no way to validate that they are the student that took that exam. A student could simply walk in with a partner, both get handed booklets, and only one of those booklets gets handed in.
As many students will show up early to an exam - it's important to either be there before students begin to arrive or see that the room will be locked until your arrival.
It's important to note here that ATLAS Exam Attendance doesn't physically stop an unverified student from entry. Even if the card swipe is verified in ATLAS Exam Attendance, it's important to check the campus provided image against the face of the potential test taker.
What is an exam proctor?
An exam proctor is a person that supervises an exam session - in this case, by way of validating the student's identity using ATLAS Exam Attendance.
While it's likely that TA's and instructors will fill the exam proctor role - it's important to remember that your TA's and instructors aren't automatically made exam proctors. You will need to manually add each exam proctor to the exam session in the ATLAS Exam Attendance application. Some proctors are not TA's or instructors for a course, and we needed to allow a way for them to be added while also leaving a route to exclude unnecessary permissions if every TA and Instructor is not involved as an exam proctor.
