LYNX Exam Creation

The LYNX Exam Creation Utility allows you to create exams in 25Live even if your SIS does not have means for defining exams itself. Exams are created in 25Live based on rules you define, such as "if a section meets on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 am, its exam is on Friday at 8:30 am".

Here are the steps to follow to create exams with LYNX:

  1. Configure your exam creation options. This only needs to be done once (the first time you create exams) unless you change your mind later on.
  2. Create an exam extract set. Similar to section import extract sets, this determines which sections will have exams created in 25Live.
  3. Define exam creation rules. It's best if you are working from an existing exam schedule with as few exceptions as possible.
  4. (Optional) Set up common exam groups. These are groups of sections that will all meet together for a single exam.
  5. Review the extract set and import it into 25Live. Because the exams are created from scratch, this import is one-way only.
  6. If necessary, use the Schedule25 Optimizer to assign locations to the exams in 25Live.
  7. Leave the extract set active if you want exams to be updated when the original sections change.
  8. When you are finished with exams for the term, archive the extract set.
Midterm Exams

The exam creation utility is most commonly used to create exams during the final week of the term, but this is not required. You can use it to make exams on any date. (For example, midterms.)

However, LYNX is only able to create one exam per section. (Unless the section has multiple meeting patterns.) If you use this tool to create midterms and then use it again to create finals for the same sections, the midterms will be removed. Please take this into account when planning your exams.

Exam Creation vs Exam Export

Depending on the SIS, LYNX has different options for exams. All SIS types have access to LYNX-created exams, but only Campus Solutions, Workday, and systems using LYNX Universal are able to import exams from the SIS.

  • Exam import is similar to section import: exams in the SIS are transferred to 25Live and can be exported back with location assignments.
  • Exam creation is a rule-based process that generates exams in 25Live based on section data in your SIS. Because there is no exam data in the SIS itself, location assignments cannot be exported back.

Both types of exam management have the ability to create exams in 25Live as separate, related events or as additional meeting patterns (also known as profiles or segments) on the original event.