Test Center

Tests with accommodations should be scheduled through the MyDSO portal at least four business days in advance of each test and two weeks in advance for final exams. Faculty will receive automatic notification of the upcoming test once it is requested in MyDSO. Both hard copy tests and those requiring access to a computer can be administered.

On the day of the test, students should arrive at the test center a few minutes before the scheduled start time in order to check in.

There is a separate coat rack area where students will leave their jackets, backpacks and other belongings, including their cell phones and smart watches. Cell phones and smart watches are not permitted in the test rooms unless required for dual-authentication login to MyCourses or for those students who have an accommodation to use an app for medical reasons.

Students should bring their own pencils or pens as well as any allowable resources (calculators, equation sheets, etc.). The DSO has a limited supply of pens, pencils and erasers that are offered as emergency supplements to a student’s own writing implements.

The Test Center staff is not responsible for providing graph paper or green engineering paper, printing equation sheets for students, loaning calculators, or providing batteries. We can provide scrap paper, blue books, and Scantron sheets, if needed. Disposable earplugs are also available.

Computers equipped with software for application and internet monitoring are available within the Test Center for test-taking. Personal laptops are permitted if instructor approved. Students approved for this accommodation may also be approved to use specific software such as Text to Speech, Voice Recognition, or MathType.

Students should take their tests at the same time as the class unless the accommodation causes a conflict with another class or is to take place when the test center is closed. 

Being tardy for a test does not change the scheduled end-time. If the student is more than 30 minutes late, the test will be marked as “no-show” and a notification email will be sent to both the student and the instructor. At that point, it is up to the instructor’s policy to determine if a make-up test can be scheduled.

Extended time for timed quizzes, tests, and final exams is based on a factor (e.g. 1.5x or 2x) as requested on a test-by-test basis. Students must communicate their intent to use their approved extended time to their instructor in advance of each test.

The accommodation of extended time on tests, exams, and quizzes generally applies to assessments with time limits measured in hours, not days. Therefore, take-home exams that are not timed do not qualify for this accommodation. However, take-home tests that are open for a period of time and have a time limit once started  (e.g., exam is open for 3 days, but once started a student has only 1 hour to complete) do qualify.

Take-home exams that are not live-proctored should not be taken at the Test Center. Requests submitted in MyDSO will be denied after confirming the modality with the professor and student.

The Disability Services Office employs a staff of student employees who serve as proctors for the test center. The proctor is responsible for:

• handing the test and other provided materials to the student who has scheduled a test
• reviewing the test administration details (are books/notes/calculators allowed?) that the instructor has provided
• stating the end-time
• relaying questions about the test to the student’s instructor (via phone call, email or text message as preferred by instructor) and relaying these answers back to the student

The proctor is not responsible for:

• supplying a calculator or batteries
• printing out notes or equation sheets
• answering questions about the test, including providing a definition or spelling for words on the test
• collecting homework or a take-home component along with the completed test
• grading the test

If there is a fire alarm while students are taking tests in the Test Center, all students will leave their test papers on their desks. Students will not stop to pick up their cell phones as they leave the room. The proctor will record the time that the fire alarm interrupted the testing. One Disability Services staff member will ensure the room(s) are empty of students while another staff member will escort students to a safe location outside the Student Alumni Union (weather permitting this will be outside; otherwise in the lobby outside Artesano’s or in the lobby of Eastman Hall). The office door will be locked. All test-taking students will remain with the proctor throughout the evacuation.

Once it is safe to re-enter the building, all staff and students will return to the Test Center and students will return to their seats. The proctor will note the time that students resume their tests, add the minutes onto each student’s end-time and inform each student of their new end-time. A note about the fire alarm and changed end-time will be sent to each student’s instructor.

A student who has the accommodation “Breaks Permitted During Tests – Not Counted in Testing Time” is able to ask the proctor to stop the clock during the test for a few minutes while they take a break. During this break time, the student will not be allowed to access phone, computer, or notes. A general rule of thumb is to add about 5 minutes of break time for each hour of test time; however, for some students, more or less time may be appropriate. When the student returns to their test, the proctor will add the corresponding number of minutes to the test time.

Students should discuss their accommodations with faculty each semester; if the student does not initiate the conversation then faculty are encouraged to reach out. Some tests may require specialized equipment or software, so the faculty and student must make arrangements for the student to take the test, with accommodations, in the appropriate setting. Faculty are able to self-proctor accommodated exams if both the student and instructor agree this is appropriate. Some students may have access needs that explicitly require use of the Test Center, while others may be more readily handled directly by the faculty (e.g. extended time on tests, exams, and quizzes).

When faculty receive Accommodation Notification Letters, a link to the Testing Agreement will be included if the student has test-related accommodations. 

There is no need to fill out the Alternative Testing Agreement if:

• the class has no exams/quizzes; or
• the exams/quizzes are administered online and do not require proctoring; or
• the instructor is able to proctor the exams/quizzes with all applicable accommodations without using the DSO Test Center.

This Testing Agreement must be submitted through the MyDSO Faculty Portal for each course – if the same information is applicable to multiple courses, it can be copied. Agreements should be amended throughout the term if necessary, but are intended to provide proctoring information in one place for all tests. More information about the Alternative Testing Agreement

Students
Students will be asked to schedule exams with the Test Center at least 4 business days in advance. Faculty will receive automatic notification of the upcoming test once it has been scheduled by the student. Once the notification is received, faculty should log onto the MyDSO Faculty Portal to view and approve the exam request. How to Approve a Student's Test Center Request

Faculty
Faculty will be asked to upload exams by 12 p.m. the business day prior to a scheduled test. If we do not receive a test from a faculty member by the 12 p.m. deadline, the exam request will be canceled and will need to be proctored with the student’s accommodations outside of the Test Center.

Final exams must be uploaded by the Friday before finals week begins in order for them to be taken at the Test Center.

Faculty are responsible for ensuring students with approved accommodations are given the appropriate length of time for any online timed tests, exams, and quizzes. To manually extend an individual student’s allotted exam time, please follow the instructions found in this brief video. Instructors can also reach out to the Innovative Learning Institute for MyCourses support, if needed.

The accommodation for extended time on exams is not the same for every student.  Each student’s specific accommodation (usually 1.5x or 2x extended time) is stated in the Faculty Notification Letter that is sent via email and maintained within the MyDSO Faculty portal.

Note that this accommodation is distinct from “extended time on assignments” which implies due date flexibility and requires clear communication and negotiation of details between students and their faculty.

When a student takes a test in the Disability Services Office Test Center, we have the ability to effectively stop the clock during breaks so there is not a need to proactively plan for break time. However, it’s not so easy to “stop the clock” reactively when a student needs to take a break for online tests. For online tests where faculty adjust students’ test time in MyCourses, breaks should be included proactively in the students’ testing time, in addition to whatever extended test time they may have. (Note that some students only have an accommodation for breaks during tests, and do not have additional extended testing time.)

For online tests, we recommend accommodating for breaks by adding 5 minutes of break time for every hour of testing. This amount of time will suffice for the majority of students with break accommodations, however, for some students, more or less time may be appropriate. In those cases, the Disability Services Office has advised students to work directly with their faculty to decide upon an appropriate amount of break time. 

An example: For a student with Disability Services Office accommodations for both breaks during tests and 1.5x extended time on tests, their allotted time in MyCourses should be 1 hour and 35 minutes for a typically one-hour test.  

The Disability Services Office will not accept or return tests in paper format. Faculty must upload all exams to MyDSO by 12 p.m. the day prior to a scheduled test.

• Completed tests will be uploaded to the MyDSO portal. In most cases, this will occur within one business day of the test being taken.
• After a test is returned, the original paper test will be kept in a secure location for the remainder of the semester, at which time the test will be shredded. Faculty must notify Disability Services Office staff within those two weeks if the scanned copy is illegible or if there are other problems with the file.
• After a test is uploaded, if an instructor realizes (prior to the test day) there was a typo or other error in the test document, they should upload another file to replace the previous version directly via the MyDSO Faculty Portal and contact the Test Center to inform them about the new file.

If general information is announced to the class or written on the board during the test, it also must be provided for any students who are taking their test in the Test Center. If additional time is given to students in the class, then additional time must also be given to your students in the Test Center. Please contact the Test Center with any updates.

If faculty have questions, concerns, or updates during an exam, they should contact the Test Center using email or phone call. The Test Center also utilizes the Pinger website to text faculty in addition to email and phone call. Please do not initiate conversations via texting; our staff will reach out via the Pinger texting number as needed.

• Email: dsotest@rit.edu

When students have a question during their test, the question will be sent to the faculty according to the contact information provided in the Testing Agreement. If a reply is not received before the student’s test time is up, Disability Services Office staff may extend the test time while we wait for an answer or may include information about the question with the completed test and instruct the student to reach out to their faculty directly.