An exam day

The routine is short. It is worth following the same way every time, because the checks take two minutes and the alternative is finding a problem with a hall full of students.

Before the students arriveCopy Anchor Link

1. Switch the server on. It starts openCBT by itself; nothing to run.

2. Wait a minute, then open the address on one hall machine.

3. Check the server is well. Add /api/health to the address:

   Copy Text

   192.168.0.10/api/health

   You want "ok": true. The page also shows how much disk space is left. If it says false, see When something looks wrong before letting anybody sit a paper.

4. Sign in and open the Hall page. Machines appear there as students sign in, so it is also your check that the network is right.

While papers are being satCopy Anchor Link

The Hall page is where invigilation happens: who has started, who is online, who has been blocked, time remaining. Everything an invigilator does — extra time, pardoning a block, ending a paper early — is on that page, and every action is recorded.

Leave the server alone while papers are running. Do not sign in to it over the network to "check something", and do not run updates.

After the last paperCopy Anchor Link

1. Close each paper on its own page. Marking cannot start until a paper is closed, and results are not final until it is.
2. Wait for the scripts to finish processing. A minute is plenty. The Results page stops saying anything is still being finalised.
3. Take a backup. Settings → Backups → Back up now. Wait for it to appear in the list.
4. Download it with the button beside it, and copy the file onto a flash drive that does not live in the same room. See Backups.
5. Switch the server off if that is your habit. Nothing is lost by doing so, as long as no paper is still being sat.

If the power goes outCopy Anchor Link

The server comes back by itself when power returns, and students resume where they left off — their answers were saved to the server as they wrote, not left in the browser.

What you lose is the time spent staring at a dead screen. An invigilator can grant extra time on the Hall page to make that up.

A small UPS on the server is the single best piece of equipment you can add to an exam hall. It does not need to run the hall machines; it needs to keep the server alive long enough for the lights to come back.