At Cirrus, our mission is to deliver unparalleled user experiences to both administrators and candidates. Last month’s software updates truly enhanced the candidate journey: Navigation in Sections allows test-takers to choose the order in which they answer questions, boosting their confidence and providing more flexibility. This new approach reduces stress levels during exams, fostering a relaxed and positive testing environment while maintaining overall control of the exam process. Additionally, the ‘Autosaving’ feature for Office365 ensures candidates’ changes are automatically saved, offering a smoother experience and eliminating the worry of losing work, allowing them to focus fully on their performance.
And the good news doesn’t stop there! This month, we are excited to unveil a series of software updates specially crafted to streamline tasks for marking coordinators and administrators. Let’s delve into the key improvements and benefits they bring:
Upgraded Coordinator Overview: Empowering Marking Coordinators
The Coordinator Overview has received a significant upgrade, and now presents the marking progress of all your assessments in one consolidated view. This enhancement saves valuable time, allowing coordinators to quickly assess the overall status without navigating through multiple screens. The new table component can be personalised to your requirements, and a dedicated column tracks progress, making it easy to identify potential bottlenecks and balance marking workloads efficiently.
Coordinator Overview fey features
- The new table component allows you to personalise your view: adding and removing columns as per your requirements.
- The all-new ‘Progress’ column tells you what percentage of questions has been marked and submitted and how many questions remain to be marked.
- Convenient archiving options let you remove obsolete schedules from the Coordinator Overview tab and the Assess tab for Markers.
- It is now possible to view scheduled assessments with a Simple Workflow in the Coordinator Overview, and change assessors if necessary. This prevents any issues if the assigned assessor becomes unavailable.
For a deep dive into these features, please refer to our Knowledge Base.
Remember Filter/Search Settings for a Seamless Experience
To ensure a consistent and user-friendly experience, we have further improved the table component to retain filter and search settings. That means that when you dive into assessment results and then return to the overview, your filter and search settings will remain intact. This enhancement eliminates the need to reconfigure settings repeatedly, enhancing productivity and usability for administrators.
Redesigned Schedule Overview: Assessment Security At A Glance
The upgraded Schedule Overview now features advanced search, filter, and sorting improvements. Additionally, a very handy new column has been added, to provide a snapshot view of assessment security. Administrators can now easily identify if an assessment is secured with Safe Exam Browser, Proctorio, or not secured at all, streamlining the management of exam sessions.
Schedule Overview key features
- The new table components lets you personalise your overview, adding or removing columns and rearranging them to your needs.
- The new Assessment Security column (see last column in the screenshot above) shows you at a glance how or whether each assessment is secured.
For further details, please refer to our Knowledge Base.
As always, you can find the full release notes for this month here.
Get Ready for the Future: Coordinator Dashboard and Beyond
We are always looking ahead to bring you the best and most efficient assessment management experience and we have even more exciting features in the pipeline. The upcoming all-new Coordinator Dashboard will revolutionise how coordinators oversee the marking process.
Coordinators will have a comprehensive view of each allocated assessor/moderator’s progress and activity level. This detailed report empowers coordinators to keep assessments on track and within designated timelines. By identifying assessors who might need additional support or resources, coordinators can proactively intervene, ensuring every assessment is marked as planned.
But that’s not all! Our commitment to continuous improvement means that we are already hard at work on other exciting developments. Stay tuned for further enhancements to the LOFT functionality and an Invigilator Dashboard. These upcoming features will take your assessment management to new heights, providing unmatched convenience and reliability.
At Cirrus, we are dedicated to making your experience with our e-assessment platform exceptional. The future is bright, and we can’t wait to introduce you to these game-changing updates. So, fasten your seatbelts and get ready to embark on an even more efficient, user-friendly, and exhilarating journey with Cirrus!
