Anonymised assessment and exam registration

Anonymous exams (via Ladok) and compulsory examination registration for all LTH students was introduced on the first exam period in the fall of 2015.

1. Once every academic year: Timetabling for exams are planned for the coming academic year
2. The period/dates for the exam registration are set for the coming academic year
3. Once every semester: The exams for the coming academic year are transferred from TimeEdit to Ladok. If changes are made with regard to the exam dates, the schedule group will make the changes in connection with rebooking in TimeEdit.
4. Every exam period: [First day of being open for registrations] Emails will be sent to students who are to register for exams.
5. Students will register for their exams through the Student Portal. They can sign up for exams in courses for which they are registered but have not yet passed. All employees will be able to monitor in real time the number of exam registrations in Ladok, and those who are authorised to access the identity of the students (= department administrators) can see who signed up.
6. [Once registration is closed] The administrator will compile lists showing which students have registered along with the anonymised assessment codes and personal identity numbers from the RS01 function in Ladok (see the Ladok manual in the menu to the right). The lists are sent to the invigilators in sealed envelopes.
7. [At the exam, updated 2016-11-17] The invigilators will check that the student’s ID matches the name in the list, as well as provide students with their anonymised assessment codes which they will write on the exam cover sheet and on all submitted sheets of the exam. Students who have not registered in advance have to sign up on a list outside the examination room/just inside (depending the layout of the room). The invigilator (or present teachers) then notifies the non-registrated students that they have to wait outside the room until they know whether there is sufficient places / exam scripts, up to 30 minutes (the time you have the right to come late if you have registered to the exam in advance). If it is obvious that the places will be sufficient they can be let in directly. If there is no places, they can be rejected directly. All non-registrated students must write their name and "personnummer" (social security number) on submitted papers, and is thus not anonymous. These students should be on the list of non-registered students. Students who entered the examination room without having registered to the exam in advance and did not sign up on the list outside shall be sent off/rejected when it is discovered. If the rejection can not be accomplished, the student will be notified that his/her exam will not be reviewed/marked. The students name/"personnummer" should be written on the list.
8. [When marking] The administrator will print out report forms from Ladok (on paper or file) containing the anonymised assessment codes. Teaching staff will enter the results and grades for each anonymised assessment code which the administrator will enter into Ladok.
9. Before final entry into Ladok, the anonymised assessment codes will be translated into the names and personal identity numbers of the students and presented to the examiner in the form of a list. The examiner must be able to identify the student concerned (in accordance with Swedish law).
10. Once the final entry has been completed, students will receive a confirmation email, and will be able see their results in the Student portal (as before).

Register for exams in the Student portal

Monitoring exam registrations in Ladok

Exams within one of LTH’s exam periods (first or retake exams)

Courses with exams that take place during one of LTH’s exam periods (first or retake exams) share the same registration period, regardless of when in the period the individual exam takes place.

The period/dates in which exam registration will be open for students will be determined by the LTH Faculty Office and adapted to each exam period (similar to the procedure for course applications), but will be based on the following criteria:

• Registration is to be open until and including the same day as the first day of the exam period, but one week before. That is, if the exam period starts on a Tuesday, registration will be open until 23:59 on Tuesday one week before
• Registration is to be open starting 2 weeks before it closes
• For retake exam periods in January, registration will open and close before the Christmas holidays. However, registration for the first exam opportunities in January will extend into January
• Movable feasts will be given special treatment

The LTH Faculty Office will send an email to all LTH students when the registration period will begin. They will not, however, send out reminders (as they do for course applications and semester registrations).

The dates for the registration period will be posted on LTH’s website (the internal pages for staff + the student pages) before each new academic year.

Exams outside any exam period

The deadline for exams that fall outside of any exam period will be the same day of the week as the exam, one week before. That is, if the exam is on a Thursday, this too will be open for registration until 23:59 on the Thursday the week before. Also in this instance will registration be open starting 2 weeks before the registration deadline. 

LTH’s central administration will not send out emails regarding the opening of the registration period for exams that fall outside of the exam period; it is the responsibility of course staff to inform students about exam registration.

Students are informed that they are required to register for all exams – both first take exams and retake exams. Since the new decision effective of December 1 2016 the same rules apply for all types of exams covered by the decision (written invigilated examinations):

• All students must register for all exams
• A non-registered student can write the exam if the department (the invigilator or present teacher) decides that there is enough places (physical location or printed exam scripts)
• All non-registered students must sign up on a list outside/adjacent to the entrance, and wait to be assigned a place. These students may have to wait up to 30 minutes (the same time span as late students are accepted). If there are plenty of places the waiting studentens can be let in immediately.
• Students who have not registered in advance, and have not sign up on the list of non-registered students and did not wait to be let in, but still went in and sat down to write the exam, are to be expelled from the premises when it is detected.

At the first take exams that is intended for first year students after the 1st and 2nd study period, the institution should always book rooms enough to offer places to all students registered on the course.

Certain student will, for various reasons, not be able to self-register. In several of these cases, this can be solved by administrators who are authorised to access the identity of the students. If this is not possible, the administrator has to sign them up manualy on a list.

Students who want to improve their grades

If a student wants to retake an exam for the purpose of improving their grade (normally permitted at LTH) they cannot self-register through the Student Portal. However, this can be done by administrators authorised to access the identity of the student. These students will be instructed to contact the administrator at the department at which the course is given.

Students who have not yet registered for the course

In order for students to register for an exam, they must be registered for the course (a first registration will suffice). This will normally already be done by the time the registration period begins, but by introducing compulsory exam registration, course registration shortly after the start of the course becomes even more important. If students are unable to register for exams for this reason it can be solved by the administrator completing the course registration; after which students can register for the exam themselves.

Doctoral students who take courses at advanced level within hers/his doctoral studies

Doctoral students who take courses at the advanced level is a special case in that they are not on registered on the course (they will never be). They must be handled manually, and can not be handled anonymously.

Wrong course version

If the student was registered on the course when there was different exam codes (provuppsättning), he or she might not be able to register him/herself.

Before each exam period (first and retake exams), all LTH students will be notified through email that the registration for the exam has begun and that they must register (however, not all students will necessarily have exams during every exam period).

The departments will normally only need to provide students with the general information, the exception being when exams fall outside the exam periods.

Email to all registered students

There is a feature in the "Ladokportalen" there employees can email to registered students directly from the portal in a mail form. This means that even teachers who can not see who signed up (as it is anonymous), still can email to all participants. This is a good for example if there are changed circumstances. It is recommended not to use this function until after the deadline of registration.

Because the anonymised assessment codes are short and in serial number order, there is a risk that something might go wrong. Not knowing who took the exam is unacceptable.

To minimise that risk, students will be requested to write a so-called personal identifier at the bottom of each submitted sheet of the exam. The personal identifier could be a long word/code or a short sentence. Students must remember it themselves, but not share it with anyone.

The only instance in which the personal identifier is used is if the department finds that something has gone wrong with the anonymised assessment codes (two students received the same code, the code is illegible, or similar), in which case the department will contact the students involved and ask them to state their personal identifier. Please don't contact more students than necessary.

Every department is responsible for the management of and information to their invigilators. Anonymised assessment will not make the invigilators’ procedures substantially different, with the following exceptions:

• They will receive a sealed envelope along with the exams. The envelope will contain the Ladok list of registered students that matches the names/personal identity numbers with the anonymised assessment codes.
• When checking the students’ ID, the invigilators shall also provide students with the anonymised assessment codes and ensure that the students write it legibly on their exam cover sheet (or equivalent).
• If a student is not on the list (which is because he/she did not register), the invigilator shall communicate to the student that they must instead write their personal identity number and name on the exam, just as before.
• The invigilators should know that the students are asked to write the "personal identifier" on the cover and all exam papers. He / she may also remind the students to write it.
• The invigilators also need to know that if for some reason they have not received the envelope with the codes, students are to write down their personal identity numbers. It is more important that we are able to determine who took the exam than granting students anonymised assessment.
• [New item 2016-11-15] The invigilator should make a list to sign up if you are a student who has not registered in advance. The list is set up outside the door or close to the entrance (tape, paper).
• [New item 2016-11-15] Agree with the invigilators in advance if it is they who will determine if there is places left in the room, or if there is a teacher who does. All in advance non-registered students that are let in have to be written up on the special non-registered list.
• [New item 2016-11-15] The invigilator should check examinees against the list of in-advanced registrated (and hand out the anonymous code) and the list of non-registered (these students will write name + pnr on submitted papers). Students who are not on either list are to be rejected. Students who then refuses to leave the hall should be told that his / her exam will not be corrected, and the name + PNR must be recorded and presented to the examiner. Is the latter is not possible, it should at least be noted that there is someone who is covered by this, and then get the examiner go through the lists.
• [New item 2015-09-30] Depending on whether the department want the registration/entry list to be returned (for example, if you let the students sign to confirm the presence) or not, you should inform about one of the following:
  • Invigilators should return the registration/entry list in an envelope that you have attached along with the previously sealed envelope and exams. This envelope shall be sealed by the invigilator before returning.
  • Invigilators may not submit the registration/entry list of the exams (without protective envelope) but shall, if the department does not want the list to be returned, tearing (enough to become unreadable) it and throw it away.
• [New item 2016-11-15] The list of non-registered students, will be handed along with written exams back to the examiner.

All rescheduling of LTH exams shall be done by/via LTH’s schedule officers! They will make sure that the schedule and room booking are changed, and subsequently modified in the exam registration module in Ladok.

Administrators and teaching staff at the departments can add or change other types of assessment (i.e. other than written invigilated exams) for which they want students to register. They can also add/change information of the transfered exams.

If studies combine an LTH course and a course at another faculty (with a different course code), the respective rules for each faculty applies for each course.

Can we use the system of anonymised assessment codes for e.g. written assignments?

The decision pertains to written exams, for which faculty-wide information from LTH will be sent out, and that will be automatically transferred from TimeEdit/the schedule. The departments can add other examinations, which they must then administer themselves. However, there is a limitation in the system in that it can only be used for components that have been entered as exams in Ladok (transferred from the syllabus/LubasPP). Remember that such exam sessions may only be changed by the timetabling group.

How do we handle various forms of bonuses?Bonuses (e.g. results of quizzes that give bonus points on a subsequent exam) will need some hands-on administration, just like today.

One way of solving this is for the administrator to make a note of the bonuses in advance in the report form, before giving it to the teaching staff. This way, the teaching staff will be able to see the bonuses immediately when he/she is about to write down the results.

Does the system of retaking exams to improve an already passing grade work?

Students are not able to register themselves for exams for which they have already received a grade of pass. But an administrator authorised to manage anonymised assessments can register students (via ladokportal.lu.se ) and generate an anonymised assessment code for the student.

What do we do with students who (for various reasons) are taking the exam from home?

It is not certain that it is possible to anonymise such assessments. But it can be solved if you figure out a way to distribute the anonymised assessment codes to the students and make sure that someone other than the marker receives the file. (If this means that only one student has typed their answers on a computer, it will not exactly be anonymous of course).

Can students get an anonymised assessment code if I add him/her directly to the list in RS01 (the Ladok client Nouveau)?

No, adding students to the list in RS01 will not make them receive their anonymised assessment codes; rather, their name and personal identity number will be included in the list. To generate codes for students you must instead register them through the Ladok portal for staff.

Ladok portal for staff

Is it possible to get printed labels from Ladok that contain the anonymised assessment code, name and personal identity number so that we can easily paste it on the cover before the exam feedback?

Unfortunately not.

Furthermore, students cannot retrieve their anonymised assessment code subsequent to the exam in the Student Portal (www.student.lu.se), but to solve this limitation, LTH have developed a feature to allow viewing the codes on the already completed exams (mainly for the purpose of the exam feedback). This feature is found at "My courses".

My courses (Lund University's website)

What do we do about exams at Campus Helsingborg?

All written exams at LTH are included in the decision. Exceptions are made for LTH courses that are combined with other faculties’ courses if it proves very cumbersome to manage the codes in these courses. The Bachelor’s programmes in engineering are not combined with courses at other faculties (other than a few possible cases), so such an exception is therefore not applicable. However, the procedures regarding exams at Campus Helsingborg may need to be reviewed. It became clear at the MIA Meeting on 14 November 2014 that the departments differ with regard to how they handle Helsingborg exams, in terms of booking invigilators, who provides the invigilators with the exams, etc. Those of you who have exams in Helsingborg are urged to reflect more on what the process there should look like.

How will it work for courses that are offered by non-LTH departments?

The main idea is that the anonymised assessment codes will be used not only for LTH courses. If the course combines students from other programmes there may be problems. One way is to use anonymised assessment codes also for these students, but the courses are not included in the automatic transfer and the department must enter the examination session in Ladok themselves. If you are unable to solve the practical details, there is a possibility to be granted an exception from using anonymised assessment codes.

What do the anonymised assessment codes look like?

The code is only valid for that specific occasion. It is not a code that the student will use on all of their exams. The code format looks like XXX-NNNN. XXX stands for the last three characters of the course code (useful when distinguishing between students on two or more courses who took their exams together), and NNNN stands for a serial number that distinguishes the individual student. For example, the code might look like: A05-0034 (for the course FMAA05).

The code is created in the same moment that the student (or the administrator on behalf of the student) registers for the exam. This explains why students who do not register will not receive an anonymised assessment code.

How does it work for students in need of special support?

Students who need special support, for instance more time and/or to take the exam in private, follow the same procedure. The administrator, however, must ensure that a registration list is copied (linking the personal identity number with the anonymised assessment code), put in a sealed envelope together with the completed exam and submitted to the coordinator/s of these exams.

Was there a different system for examination registration before?

Some departments have previously used various systems for exam registrations (such as proprietary systems, Live@Lund or the Student Portal/Ladok portal for staff where they themselves have entered the exam sessions). Without going into any details/exceptions, the LTH decision to require registration for all exams and students means that such systems shall no longer and will no longer need to be used. All students will register for their exams in the Student Portal.