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Creating/editing a battery

A battery is an entity comprised of a combination of deliveries. This topic describes how to create a battery in the TAO Portal.

Batteries are currently a beta feature and need to be enabled. For more information, see Batteries.

Creating a battery

1. Once the feature is enabled, select Batteries from the top bar menu of the Portal.

This feature is available to any user with the Global admin or Battery manager role (or both).

2. In the top-right corner, select CREATE BATTERY.

3. Populate the fields in the Create Battery form.

The form on this page contains information about the session you are creating. The mandatory information is marked by an asterisk *:

  • Name*: The battery name must be unique/different from other batteries across your TAO account.

  • Description: A description of the battery. It is recommended to add brief notes about the deliveries included in the battery.

  • Delivery presentation mode: These options confirm how the deliveries are to be presented when the battery is launched.

    • Present all deliveries in a sequence: The deliveries included in the battery will be presented in sequence. Test-takers will start each delivery in the order defined in the battery; they will automatically be moved to the next delivery in the sequence once they finished the previous one.

    • Randomly select 1 single delivery: One delivery defined in the battery will be presented to each test taker. The delivery selection is randomized, meaning that different test takers will be exposed to different deliveries.

Though changing the delivery presentation mode is not required, the default will be taken if there is no selection. The default behavior is to present all deliveries in a sequence.

4. Select the Select Deliveries tab to assign deliveries to the battery.

Deliveries can be added to a battery after it’s creation. For more information on editing an existing battery, see Editing a battery (below).

5. Select Select deliveries to view a list of available deliveries.

To find a specific delivery, use the top-left search box to search for a delivery name (not ID). Select two or more deliveries using the check boxes available on each row.

You can reorder deliveries in the battery’s list by selecting the icon in the first column:

Re-order deliveries

Reorder deliveries

Select Add Deliveries to add the selected deliveries to the battery. To add more deliveries, select Add More Deliveries at the top-right of the list. Select Clear all to remove each selected battery.

Adding deliveries to a battery

Adding deliveries to a battery

6. Configure the delivery settings for the battery.

The ability to configure optional passwords and open/close dates for deliveries in a battery is available.

Configuring deliveries in a battery

Configuring deliveries in a battery

  • Password (optional) provides an option to add a password for one or all delivery(s). If a password is added to a delivery, the test taker must enter the defined password before accessing that delivery:

    Entering a password for a battery delivery

    Entering a password for a battery delivery

    There are no guidelines for what these passwords must contain, and not every (or any) delivery in a battery must be assigned one.

  • Open date (optional): Defines when a specific delivery within the battery will become available for a given testing day.

  • Close date (optional): Defines when a specific delivery within the battery will become unavailable for test takers to begin. However, once a test taker launches the delivery, it is possible to complete the delivery execution even if it extends beyond the defined close date.

Open/close dates defined for a delivery within a battery apply only to that delivery. Other deliveries included in the same battery can have varying open/close dates.

Note that, when assigning the battery to a session, the open / close dates defined for the session do not apply to individual deliveries within the battery. Furthermore, the battery’s timezone will be defined when assigning the battery to a session (or when launching the battery via LTI).

To preview a delivery, select the eye icon. To remove a specific delivery, select the X icon.

7. When you are finished, select CREATE BATTERY to confirm the creation of the battery.

Once a battery is launched in the Portal, it is presented to the test taker as a normal session would be. All the monitoring actions available to proctors for sessions will be available.

Editing a battery

You can edit existing a battery by clicking the ellipses () located at the right of the row for each battery. A menu will be presented with the available actions:

  • Edit: The Edit action will open a page similar to the one used to create new batteries, but prefilled with available data of the selected battery. All configuration options in Battery Settings are may be edited. Users can also use the Edit option to add or remove deliveries in the Select Deliveries tab.

  • Activate/Deactivate: The Activate or Deactivate actions allow admins to change a battery’s status.

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