Overview

When we talk about the Exam ecosystem, it involves multiple processes which are completely defined by the Institutes and may cover one or more from Slot Booking, Admit Card Generation, Reschedule, Score Card, Retake Attempts and so on. The enablement involves Configuration of the Exam Workflow and Partner Configurations. While we know that we have pre-integrated Exam Partners i.e. Wheebox, AoN Cocubes and Mercer Mettl, we have always been working to ensure that these configurations are easy to understand and act on.

In this article, we will quickly touch base with Enablement of Wheebox Exam Partner for Exam ecosystem.

Understanding the Exam Workflow

The first and preliminary step for Wheebox Integration is to get a complete understanding of the Exam workflow as expected by the Institute. 

Once the requisite approvals are in place, share a copy of the Requirement gathering Sheet with the Institute. This comprises questions for the Institute which will help us to understand the Exam Workflow as well as a few questions for Wheebox which are more around the technical nitty gritties. With necessary information in hand, you may proceed with the next action.

Configure the Exam Workflow

Click on Settings -> Institute Configuration -> Manage Exam Config. You will land on the Manage Exam page as below:

To configure the Exam Workflow for a Form, click on Exam Config button on top right corner and the exam configuration flow will open up. This is the first of the 2 steps involved in the Exam Configuration.

Start with selecting the Form name for which exam has to be configured and under the exam partner, search and select Wheebox. 

Then you will see the Whitelisting options which are only for testing purposes. If there is an IP or email which is whitelisted, the exam ecosystem will be functional only on the respective Machines or for the selected Candidates. Please note that, if the Exam Ecosystem is whitelisted for selected IP(s) or Email(s), the status will be shown as Test Mode in Manage Exam page.

You will then be asked to select the Wheebox version. Currently we have integrated three versions namely 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0. You could fetch the Wheebox version from the filled RGS and the same has to be configured here.

The next set of steps enable us to configure the various steps involved in the Exam Workflow along with associated data points.

Enable Slot Booking : This is to enable the Book Exam Slot button for the eligible Candidates, which will allow the Candidate to SSO to Wheebox and select his Venue/Date/Time Slot. Clicking to check the same will ask you to enter the Eligibility Start and End Dates which define the duration within which the Exam will be conducted. This information is passed to Wheebox via Exam Information.

Only Static date is applicable for all pre-integrated vendor partners. The other 2 options do not apply.

Enable Online Exam : This is to enable the option for the candidate to Take Test directly without any need for the Candidate to book his slot. Here you will be asked to enter the Name of the Button to be shown on the Candidate Dashboard

Receive the Appointment/Slot Details/Enable Admit Card : This will enable the Modify Appointment API on which Wheebox pushes the Candidates Slot booking details. This is possible only in the case where slot booking is enabled for a particular institute.

Upon checking the enable Admit Card option, you can choose an admit card template which will be visible to the student on their applicant dashboard once the Candidate has scheduled his exam and details received by NPF via Modify Appointment API.

Also, admit card can be configured in document templates where the user can choose document sub -type as 'Admit Card' and it will be visible in the drop down in admit card template dropdown in exam config.

Receive the Candidates Result/Enable Scorecard: This will enable the Result Notifications API which is used by Wheebox to push the Results of the Candidates. Also, you could configure the Template for the Scorecard which could be downloaded by the Candidates from Student Admission Portal. 

Enable Exam Rescheduling : This module allows the Candidates who have scheduled their Exam, to change their Exam Venue or Date or Time any time within the allowed window for Rescheduling. Based on the Institute's requirements, you could define the number of times a candidate can reschedule his exam attempt, Button name to be shown to the Candidates, Time duration before which a candidate is allowed to pay for reschedule and/or Reschedule Exam, define the payment details etc.

***As of now, rescheduling option is not configured or active for vendor Wheebox, as we have not received any requirements from Wheeboxor institutes for the same.

Allow multiple attempts/Retakes : This allows Candidates to take more than one Exam Attempt. Basis Institutes requirement, we can define the conditions when a Candidate is allowed for Retake, Payment to be taken for Retake (if any), Name of button, Time gap between any two attempts etc. 

#As of now, we have not received reschedule or retake configuration requests for Wheebox. Hence, the Re-scheduling and Retake options are optional to configure in this case.

Show Exam Graph : Here you can define all the Exam dispositions which you would like to see in the Exam Attempts dashlet on Admin Dashboard.

Collected by Vendor : Not Applicable

Blocked Actions Status : Not Applicable

Status : This defines if the Exam Ecosystem will be Active or not. The same action could also be performed from the Manage Exam Config Page.

Exam Partner Configuration

To configure the Wheebox Exam Partner, you have to enter the following

1. Slot Booking API - This is consumed while SSO the Candidate to Wheebox
2. Select Trigger Point - This defines the eligibility for Candidates to be allowed for Exam Scheduling.
3. Registration API - To push the Candidates Demographic Data to Wheebox
4. Authentication API - To generate the access token.
5. Company Code, Encryption Key and Access Token - These keys can be taken from Wheebox and are very much Client specific.
6. Exam Series Code - The Exam series code uniquely identifies an exam in Wheebox. This could be Static in which case, the same could be input. Or it could be dynamic in which case, it has to be populated against the candidate basis of the logic. The same is pushed in Exam Information
7. Enable Module - Not Applicable
8. Generate Client Candidate ID from - You may select if the Client Candidate ID will be the same as Application Number or Payment ID which will be pushed to Wheebox in Demographic Data.

Click on the ‘Save Config” option to save the settings. This will also clear all the Static caches and save the settings for exam integration.

After this, if you select the form name in the Filter option in Manage Exam Config page, you will be able to see the status of the Application-Exam Integration (Active/Inactive/test mode) and the exam vendor as well.

Result Mapping

The result mapping allows us to populate the results in Application Manager. Once the student is able to SSO to the vendor platform, and completes the exam, the vendor then pushes back the result on the NPF Result API using the JSON/XML sent in the Result Data in Manage Exams

Upon clicking the preview button , in Manage Exam >> Exam Result Data, you can then see the Result JSON/XML

You can then copy the JSON and paste it under the ‘Template Format’ Dialog box. Then Click on the ‘Validate JSON’ button. It will then provide u Sectional and subsection headings for marks obtained for each section and subject

You can then choose to map the fields in JSON with Admin fields, to populate respective Result Data in the selected Admin fields on AM. 

In case the Admin field you want is not created, you can create one, by clicking on the create new Admin Field button when a drawer will open as shown below. Once you have created a new admin field and mapped it to the related score heading, you can then save the config and same will be visible in AM. In order to map multiple fields in AM, you can click on the Add more option to create a new field and map it to the result. 

NOTE:  Result mapping should only be done, after saving the main exam config. Once the student is able to SSO and the result has been fetched on the NPF Result API, only after that should you map the Result JSON.

Implementation Tracker and Sanity Sheet:  Once the configurations are done, the next step is to test the Candidate Flow basis the configuration wherein the concerned SPOC needs to provide a sign-off on the

Implementation Tracker & Sanity Sheet Sample and maintain a weekly data in the sanity sheet to make sure there are no discrepancies. 

NOTE: Once the integration is completed, and you are facing any errors while successfully enabling SSO to the vendor portal, please refer to the Exam Ecosystem Debugging Kit for first level debugging. If the case persists, then you may contact the product team to resolve the same.