Managing Diploma Exam Sittings and Registrations

Introduction

PASI Diploma Exam data is retrieved from PASI and displayed in PowerSchool. Diploma exams cannot be modified in PowerSchool; however, you can create exam sittings for the diploma exam and then register students for the exam by adding them to the exam sitting.

Synchronization is accomplished using the IsDataAvailable service, which provides real-time data download. PASI supports full school year synchronization of Diploma Exam, Diploma Exam Sitting, and Diploma Exam Marks data for up to four school years.

Required Setup for Diploma Exam Sittings and Registrations

To be able to create exam sittings and register students for a diploma exam, the following information must be set up in PowerSchool:

• Under System > System Settings > Plugin Management Configuration PASI Direct Connect > Function > Additional PASI Settings > Synchronization Settings, ensure all settings for Diploma Exam Items are enabled and DER Initial Download has been run. For details, see Set Up Data Synchronization.

• For each diploma exam course, ensure that the Diploma Course field on the course page is set to Yes.

• For each section of a diploma exam course, ensure that
  

  • the date in the Exam Registration Date field matches the date of the exam

  • the number of the school where students will sit the exam is entered in the Exam Writing Center field

• If a student will take the diploma exam at a school other than the school listed for the section, ensure that the school number is entered in the Exam Writing Center (Override) field on the students Enrollment Record.

Viewing Available Diploma Exams

Diploma Exam information comes directly from PASI. This information is view-only and cannot be edited in PowerSchool.

1. On the Start Page, click Special Functions. The Special Functions page appears.

2. Under Alberta PASI DER Functions, click View Available Diploma Exams. The View Diploma Exam page appears.

   • To filter on a column, click the filter icon beside the column name, choose a filter option from the pop-up menu, and click Add. The filter icon turns green.

   • To remove a filter, click the filter icon and click Remove.

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Working with Diploma Exam Sittings

A Diploma Exam Sitting is a session, often hosted by a school, where students write diploma exams. An exam sitting must exist in PowerSchool before you can register students for the diploma exam. Special exam sittings can only be created in PASI.

PowerSchool returns notifications for every Diploma Exam Sitting created by any school and school authority; however, Diploma Exam Sitting records can only be updated by the school or school authority that created the exam sitting.

Viewing Existing Diploma Exam Sittings

View the existing exam sittings to see the details of the sittings, and to ensure you do not create duplicate sittings.

1. Under Special Functions > Alberta PASI DER Functions, click Manage Diploma Exam Sittings. The Manage Diploma Exam Sittings page appears.

2. If you are signed into District Office, choose a school from the School pop-up menu. If you are signed into a school, the School field is populated with the current school.

3. In the Type field ([AB_Diploma_Exam]Exam_Type) choose In PASI to view exam sittings synchronized with PASI or, to view exam sittings not yet synchronized with PASI, choose Not in PASI.

   • To view both active and deleted exam sittings, click Include Deleted Items.

4. Click Get Results. A list of exam sittings is displayed.

   • To export an exam sitting to a text editor or an Excel spreadsheet, click Export.

   • To delete an exam sitting, select the sitting and click Delete. Sittings with students registered cannot be deleted.

Creating an Exam Sitting

If you are unable to find an exam sitting in which you want to register students, you can create one. If the related diploma exam can be taken in multiple languages or in multiple months, or if the exam's component can be either machine scored or written response, create a separate exam sitting for each language and/or month and/or component.

The values on the New Diploma Exam Sittings page are pulled from local copy.

To create an exam sitting:

1. On the Manage Diploma Exam Sittings page, click Add Exam Sitting. The New Diploma Exam Sittings page appears.

2. Complete the fields (described below) and click Submit. The exam sitting is sent to PASI.

Field	Description
Writing Centre	The school where the students will write the exam. If you are signed into District Office, choose a school from the pop-up menu. If you are signed into a school, the Writing Centre field is populated with the current school.
School Year	This is the year in which the exam sitting will take place and is determined by the Term selected at the top of the PowerSchool page.
Exam Language	Choose the language in which the exam will be written. If the exam can be taken in multiple languages, create a separate exam sitting for each language.
Exam Period	Choose the month in which the exam will be written. If the exam can be taken in multiple months, create a separate exam sitting for each month.
Exam Course	Choose the course associated with the exam.
Component	Choose whether the exam is machine scored or is written response.
Component Scheduled Date and Time	Populated based on the scheduled date and time of the Component.
Location	Enter the name of the location within the writing centre where the exam will be written.
Student Capacity	Enter the maximum number of students who can take the exam at one time at the writing centre location.

Editing an Exam Sitting

Exam sittings can be edited on the Edit Diploma Exam Sittings page, where you can also view the data that is in the PASI database, as well as review core alerts and synchronize your changes.

To edit an exam sitting:

1. On the Manage Diploma Exam Sittings page, click the Local ID link for the exam sitting. The Edit Diploma Exam Sittings page appears.

2. Make the edits to the applicable fields.

   • To view the data in the local copy, click PASI Sitting.

   • To see any alerts related to the sitting, click Core Alerts.

   • If the data is correct in PowerSchool but incorrect in PASI, click Forc Sync.

3. Click Submit. Changes made are sychronized with PASI.

Managing Diploma Exam Sitting Registrations

Register multiple students for a diploma exam sitting using the mass registration feature, or register a single student.

Registering Multiple Students for an Exam Sitting

You can mass register students - from a single school - for an exam sitting. School authority users choose the school that contains the students they want to register, while school users can only register students from their own school.

To register multiple students for an exam sitting:

1. Under Special Functions > Alberta PASI DER Functions, click Mass Diploma Exam Registration. The Mass Diploma Exam Registration page appears.

2. Complete the following fields:

   Field	Description
   Students to include	Options are: The selected [number] students only: Select this option to register selected students for the exam sitting. Select students on the Start Page before choose this option. All students: Select this option to register all students in the school for the exam sitting.
   School This field only appears for school authority users.	This field only appears if you are working at the school authority level. If you are working at the school level, you are only able to select students at your own school. Choose the school that contains the students to be registered for the diploma exam sitting.
   Term	Choose the diploma exam course's term. To choose multiple terms, use Ctrl+click (for MacIntosh, use Command+click) and choose the terms.
   Diploma Exam Course	This field appears when you choose a term that contains a diploma exam course. Defaults to All. When this default is selected, all students are registered for all sections of all diploma exam courses for the selected term. To register multiple - but not all - students, use Ctrl +Click to choose the Diploma Exam courses.
   Section	When you choose a diploma exam course, the sections for the course appear here. Choose a section or use Ctrl/Command+click and choose the desired sections. To run for all courses and sections, leave this field blank.

   
   

3. Click Submit. The Mass Diploma Exam Registration Results page appears and, for each student, displays the ASN, student name, course code, component code and the status of student's registration record.

   • To sort the results by a particular column heading, click the heading.

   • To export the results to a .csv file, click Export.

4. Review the results and make the necessary changes, if any.
   

   • "Not Processed" messages are generated by PowerSchool and mean that there was no attempt to send to PASI.

   • "Rejected" messages are generated by PASI and mean the registration was sent to PASI, but was rejected.

Registering a Single Student for an Exam Sitting

For those instances when only one student needs to be registered for an exam sitting, you can add a single registration to the sitting. In addition, if a student is unable to sit an exam in her/his school authority, such as if the student is out of his/her school authority area when the exam is scheduled, there is the ability to register the student to sit the exam in a different school authority.

To register a single student for an exam sitting:

1. Under Special Functions > Alberta PASI DER Functions, click Manage Diploma Exam Registration. The Manage Diploma Exam Registration page appears.

2. Click Add Exam Registration. The New Diploma Exam Registration page appears.

3. Complete the fields (described below) and click Submit.

Viewing Exam Sitting Registrations

View all registrations for all exams or view registrations for a specific exam sitting.

To view all registrations for all exams:

1. Under Special Functions > Alberta PASI DER Functions, click Manage Diploma Exam Registration. The Manage Diploma Exam Registration page appears.

2. If you are signed into District Office, choose a school from the School pop-up menu. If you are signed into a school, the School field is populated with the current school.

3. In the Type field ([AB_Diploma_Exam]Exam_Type) choose In PASI to view exam registrations synchronized with PASI or, to view exam sittings not yet synchronized with PASI, select Not in PASI.

   • To view both active and deleted exam sittings, click Include Deleted Items.

4. Click Get Results.

   • To export exam registrations to a text editor or an Excel spreadsheet, click Export.

   • To delete an exam registration, select it and click Delete.

   • To delete an exam registration from a student record, open the exam registration under the Diploma Exam Registrations tab and click Delete.

To view registrations for a specific exam sitting:

1. Under Special Functions > Alberta PASI DER Functions, click Diploma Exam Registration Status. The Diploma Exam Registration Status page appears.

2. If you are signed into District Office, choose a school from the School pop-up menu. If you are signed into a school, the School field is populated with the current school.

3. In the Diploma Exam Course field, choose the desired exam sitting.

   • You can also leave the Diploma Exam Course field blank, and then filter by a particular student (click the Student Name column heading) to see all the Diploma Exam Courses in which the student is enrolled.

4. Click Get Results. A list of students enrolled in the Diploma Exam Course appears and displays the ASN, student name, course code, section, and the status of students' registration in the exam sitting.

Viewing Diploma Exam Sittings/Marks Core Alerts

Use this functionality to search for Core Alerts received from PASI that are specific to Diploma Exam Sittings and/or Diploma Exam Marks.

1. Under Special Functions > Alberta PASI DER Functions, click Diploma Exam Marks/Sittings Core Alerts. The PASI Core Alerts page appears.

2. Complete the following fields.

   Field	Description
   Category	Choose the category from the pop-up menu: Diploma Exam Mark Diploma Exam Sitting Blank (when blank is selected, both exam mark and exam sitting core alerts are included)
   Alert	Choose the alert type from the pop-up menu: Advice Warning Rejection Conflict Failure Blank (when blank is selected, all alert types are included)
   Alert Code	Enter the Alert Code if you want to further narrow the search to one core alert.
   Registration	Choose the registration type that corresponds to the enrollment status of the student: Pre-Registered Active Inactive Transferred Out Graduated Blank (when blank is selected, all registrations are included)
   Status	Choose the acknowledgement status from the pop-up menu: Unacknowledged = data is not updated to match PASI. In Progress = research is in progress to determine the accuracy of the data; no action taken yet. Acknowledged = data is updated to match PASI. Blank (when blank is selected, all statuses are included)
   School	If you are using this functionality at a school, the school name is populated for you; otherwise, choose a school from the pop-up menu.

3. Click Get Core Alerts. A list of core alerts for Diploma Exam Marks and/or Sittings is displayed.

• To view the associated exam sitting or exam mark, click the link in the ID column.

• To export the sittings and/or marks to a text editor or Excel spreadsheet, click Export all [#] records.

  Field	Description
  Date	The date of the Diploma Exam sitting.
  Student (ASN)	The student's name and Alberta student number.
  Category	Indicates whether the alert is for a Diploma Exam Sitting or a Diploma Exam Mark
  IDs	Click the link in this column to open the associated sitting or mark and view the exam sitting or mark record.
  School (Year)	The school name and school year in which the issue occurred.
  Alert	The type of alert and the alert number.
  Description	A description of the issue that caused the alert.
  Status	Indicates whether or not the data is updated to match PASI, or is in progress.

  Note: If the user clicks Make Current Student Selection, the Current Student Selection on the Start page will be updated with the students that have the alert type as conflict from the displayed records.