User Guide - AI-ENG Exams

Open it inside the system from Help → User Guide. Every screen also has its own short explanation: the (?) button in the screen header, and the help icon next to each field.

1) Signing in

• Keep me signed in on this device: keeps you signed in for 90 days on this device only. Do not use it on a shared device. You can revoke it later from My Account → Trusted Devices.
• Forgot your password? From the sign-in screen: you receive a time-limited reset link/code.
• Brute-force protection: after 5 wrong attempts the account is locked for 15 minutes. Wait, or contact the administrator.
• The "I'm not a robot" box: after a wrong mobile or email sign-in, a box with an image of digits appears under the password. Type the digits you see (Arabic or English digits) along with your password, then sign in. Hard to read? Press New code next to the image. Each code works once and only for a few minutes; if you get it wrong, a new code appears. The box goes away after your account's next successful sign-in, and it may appear from the start when the same device has made repeated wrong attempts. Nafath sign-in and trusted devices do not need it.
• New account: Register → confirm your mobile with a code → confirm your email → the account then waits for administrator approval; you are notified when it is activated.

In the trial environment (simulation mode) no real messages are sent: codes appear in the simulation panel at the bottom of the screen.

2) The workspace

2-1) Side menu

Ordered by daily use: Dashboard (your home screen) → your system's business modules → Basic Data → Notifications → Administration → My Account → Help. You only see what you have permission for.

2-2) Tabs

• Every screen opened from the menu opens in a new tab; earlier screens stay open with whatever you typed.
• Clicking a screen that is already open takes you to its tab instead of opening it twice.
• Right-click a tab: close, close all but this, close all, close to the right/left.
• Middle-click closes a tab. The first tab is pinned.
• Open tabs are remembered and come back the next time you sign in.

2-3) Top bar

2-4) Intro video

Shown once per sign-in. Choose Don't play again to stop it; bring it back any time from the Intro video link at the bottom of the page.

3) Entry screens (forms)

• Dropdowns are searchable: type part of a name (diacritics ignored, the other keyboard layout accepted) and move with the arrow keys.
• Linked lists (country → region → city → district): choosing the upper one fills the ones below.
• "Important instructions" card at the side of the screen: collapse it with the arrow and it stays collapsed on every screen until you expand it.

4) List screens (the unified data grid)

Every list screen has the same tools:

1. Paging: move between pages, change the page size, or Show all.
2. Quick search by text, and voice search with the microphone button.
3. Column-header filters: the funnel next to a column title:
   • text: "contains";
   • list: pick one value or more;
   • date: from/to;
   • number: from : to (leave one side empty for an open range, e.g. "from 10" and above). A filtered column shows a filled gold funnel. Clear removes its filter.
4. Advanced search: record date from/to, and reference number (Id) from/to.
5. Columns: choose which columns show and drag to reorder - saved for you only, per screen.
6. Grouping: group by one column or more to see counts per group; export and print keep the same structure.
7. Export: Excel, HTML or PDF (print).
8. Import from Excel: download the import template → fill it (Id = 0 adds, Id > 0 updates) → upload → check the preview (duplicates are caught before saving) → confirm → read the results report.
9. Control board: (for users who can edit) a board of switches for every yes/no field (active, visible...) across all records, with "set all" and one save.

Colours carry meaning: green = complete/active, gold = partial, red = incomplete/disabled.

5) The exams system - the full path

From start to finish: academic structure → question bank → building and publishing the exam → delivery and monitoring → grading → approval and publication → appeals and certificates → analytics and bank improvement. Every screen works within your scope: you see your sections and your unit only (the exams manager sees everything).

5-1) Exams Overview - your home screen

The first screen after signing in (for staff), with five questions in order:

1. What needs action now: exams starting within 24 hours still in draft, items awaiting grading, results awaiting your approval, open appeals, questions awaiting review, statistically flagged questions, attempts with integrity events, and exams with reliability below 0.70.
2. How much we have: courses, running offerings, learners, approved questions, current term exams.
3. How it is distributed: questions by type, difficulty, cognitive level and status; exams by status and type.
4. Is the record complete: questions without an outcome or topic, courses without outcomes, offerings without an instructor, topics with few questions.
5. What happened recently: the latest publications, submissions, approvals and appeals.

Every card opens its screen in a new tab; a red card needs urgent action.

5-2) Academic structure and learners

5-3) Question bank

• The ten types: single choice, multiple choice, true/false, matching, ordering, fill in the blanks, numeric with tolerance, short answer, essay (with a rubric), file upload. Each question has a topic, outcome, cognitive level, difficulty, default marks and an explanation.
• Media: the upload button in the question editor takes an image (JPG/PNG/GIF/WEBP up to 2 MB), audio (MP3/WAV/OGG/M4A up to 15 MB) or video (MP4/WEBM up to 60 MB) and inserts it into the question text, an option or a matching or ordering item (the row media button appends it to the last text field you selected), or the "Media" field. The learner gets a player with controls in the exam browser, the learner app and the review. A shared passage (a case or a listening recording) carries its own media for several questions. Ready example: the TRN-ENGL course (listening and viewing) and its two exams.
• Plays allowed: the "Plays allowed" field on the question and the passage (0 = no limit, up to 10) sets how many times the learner can hear the recording or watch the video in the whole attempt, as in official listening tests. The learner gets a Play button and a "left" counter instead of the browser bar (no seeking); pausing and resuming do not use up a play. The server counts the plays, so reloading the page does not reset them.
• YouTube: the YouTube button in the editor inserts a video link, shown embedded (youtube-nocookie, sandboxed so it opens no windows outside the exam). Play limits do not apply to it, so upload the video itself for strict assessment.
• Life cycle: draft → in review → approved (or rejected with comments) → retired. An author cannot approve their own question; editing an approved question used in a published exam creates a new version.
• Import: Excel with the template, the plain-text Aiken format or an IMS QTI 2.1 package (from Canvas, Blackboard or Moodle), with a preview before saving.
• QTI exchange: "Export the selected bank as a QTI 2.1 package" on the import screen exports the bank's questions with their media to move them to another system or bank; this system's packages carry a sidecar that restores both languages, level, difficulty, topic, passage, rubric and plays allowed without loss.
• AI generation (when the system administrator enables the "AI in exams" module, which is off by default): the "AI generation" source on the import screen - paste a paragraph of lesson material and pick the type, the count (up to 10), the level and the difficulty, and the suggested questions appear in both languages with their keys and explanations; untick what you do not want, then "Import" saves the selected ones as drafts that go through the usual review, with a "generated" note. The material is sent to the provider and its text is not stored; do not include personal data. On a choice question preview, "Review options" gives an advisory opinion on each option (good, weak, key in doubt) without changing the question.
• Bank inventory: a topic × level report that reveals gaps before building an exam.

5-4) Building and publishing an exam

1. The exam (a document): offering, type and mode, window, duration, attempts and their policy, marks and grading scale, shuffling and negative marking, result visibility and review policy, issue a certificate to passing learners, and security (IP ranges, safe browser).
2. Blueprint: rows (section × topic × outcome × level × difficulty × type × count × marks) with a live sufficiency check: green = the bank has several times enough, gold = barely enough, red = not enough.
3. Generation: deterministic forms (A, B, C...) balanced in difficulty that prefer unused questions.
4. Readiness then publication: a checklist that blocks publishing if an item fails; after publication the exam is frozen and learners get a notification.
5. Sessions and seats for on-site exams, then printing: forms and keys, the seating plan and the attendance sheet.

5-5) Delivery and monitoring

• The learner starts from My Exams; time is kept by the server and keeps running even if the page is closed, answers are saved automatically (and kept on the device when offline), and the exam is submitted automatically at time-out. One device per attempt.
• Live monitor: a board per published exam with running attempts, remaining time and integrity events (leaving the window, copying, going offline, IP change, another device), with extend time, force submit, reopen and move device - all with a recorded reason.
• Paper exams with OMR sheets (Exams → Answer Sheets (OMR)): for a published exam whose questions are all multiple choice, multiple answers or true/false with at most five options, up to 60 questions. "Prepare sheets" creates a sheet for each learner with their form (from their seat when seats are assigned), and "Print sheets" prints an A4 page per learner with corner markers, the encoded sheet number and the bubbles of their form's questions in booklet order - print at actual size and give each learner their sheet with the booklet of their form. After the exam upload the scanned images (JPG/PNG, 150 dpi or higher, up to 100 files): certain sheets are saved directly as auto-graded attempts that enter results and approval like any attempt, and doubtful ones (faint shading or two options in a single-answer question) go to Review sheet: the image beside each question's reading and fill ratios, so you correct and save. Upside-down or skewed sheets are read; if a sheet code cannot be read, upload it alone and type its printed number.

5-6) Grading, results and approval

• Auto-grading of objective questions at submission (with the scoring policies: all-or-nothing, partial, partial with penalty).
• Grading (manual): by question not by learner, blind under an anonymous number, with the rubric; with grading assignments (from the exam row) it becomes double: a gap above the threshold sends the item to the moderator. "Suggest mark" (with the AI module, for essays with a rubric) fills each criterion score and feedback from the answer and the rubric only (no learner name) with the reason - the grader reviews, adjusts and saves the mark; nothing is saved automatically.
• Results & approval: marks, grades and statistics; a post-exam key override of a question (void with full marks, drop from the total, accept extra options) regrades everyone with a log; approval in two levels by default (instructor → head of department) after the window closes and grading completes, and whoever graded every manual item alone cannot approve the final level. The final level publishes the results.
• Attempt detail: every question with its key, the learner's answer and marks, and a mark change with a written reason shown in the change log.

5-7) Appeals and certificates

• Appeal: the learner appeals a question or the whole result within the appeal window (7 days by default from publication), and the instructor accepts (with a new mark through the change log) or rejects with a written decision that reaches the learner.
• Certificates: issued automatically at publication to every passing learner of an exam that grants one, with a number, a verification code and a QR code. The Certificates screen prints and revokes with a reason, and "Issue missing" covers learners who passed later. Anyone can check them on the public verification page without signing in.
• Course gradebook (Grading & Results → Course Gradebook): every offering has a gradebook that combines its whole assessment into a final mark:
  • Items: "Add offering exams" adds the published ones (each learner's percentage comes from the counted attempt by the attempt policy, automatically), and "Add manual work" covers an assignment, project or participation with maximum marks. Each item has a weight, and the weights must add up to 100 to approve (the live total turns green at 100).
  • Marks: each manual work mark per learner, and Excused for any item (excluded, its weight spread over the rest). Absent from a closed exam is zero, and "Pending" means an ungraded attempt or an open exam. An incomplete row shows a provisional final with an asterisk and no grade or verdict.
  • Approval needs weights of 100, published results for every exam in it and no incomplete cell; the gradebook then locks, the learners are notified and see it under "My Course Grades". The grade comes from the default grading scheme and the pass from the course pass mark. Reopening needs a reason logged in the gradebook history.
  • CSV export to the student system: code, name, each item's percentage (EX when excused), final, grade and pass.

5-8) Analytics and reports

• Exam analysis (automatic at publication): mean, median, deviation and the percentage histogram, reliability (KR-20 or alpha) and the standard error, and for every question difficulty p, discrimination D, correlation and option shares, with flags (very hard, very easy, low or negative discrimination, ineffective distractor) and the suggested difficulty; the questions' statistics in the bank are updated.
• Learning outcome attainment: for each outcome the share reaching the threshold (70%) and whether the course attained it (75% of learners).
• Reports: grade sheet, item analysis, outcome attainment (per exam, offering or course) and integrity - with export and printing.

5-9) Learner portal

The learner app (http://localhost:5200 in development): the same screens in an app separate from the administration, installable on a phone or computer from the browser ("Install the app" under Account), in Arabic and English with a dark or light theme:

5-10) Basic data

The standard lists the other screens rely on:

The Setup & Reference Lists group gathers each module's reference lists (academic, question bank, exams) and the grading scales.

Tip: pick values from the lists rather than typing freely, because reports and filtering depend on them.

6) Notifications

• The bell shows the unread count; click it for the latest, or open Notifications → My Notifications for the full list.
• Notification preferences: choose the delivery channel per type (in-app, email, SMS).
• Supervisors: Send notification manually; Notification rules define when a notification is sent automatically (a record added/edited/deleted on some screen) and to whom; Notification types set their colours.
• Exam events arrive automatically in-app and by e-mail: for learners an exam published and a reminder a day before it starts, the result published, the appeal decision and a certificate issued; for staff a question awaiting review and its decision, a grading assignment and items awaiting grading after closing, results awaiting approval or returned, and a new appeal.

7) My account

8) For supervisors and the system administrator

Deactivating a user ends their sessions immediately on every device.

9) Help

10) FAQ

I can't see a screen my colleague uses. Screens follow your user type's permissions; ask the administrator.

The verification code did not arrive. Wait for the countdown to finish, then Resend. Check the mobile number. After 5 wrong attempts request a new code.

My account is locked. Wait 15 minutes, or use Forgot your password?.

The system says the verification code is wrong, but I typed it exactly. Each code works once and only for a few minutes: if the page stayed open a long time or you submitted again, type the new code shown now, or press New code for a clearer image.

Filtering returns nothing. Look at the column headers: a filled gold funnel means an active filter - clear it.

Columns disappeared from a list. Columns button → show them again, or Reset to default.

Text comes out in odd characters. The field's language differs from your keyboard layout; check the ع/En badge - conversion is automatic, or switch the layout.

I cannot see my result. It appears per the exam policy - usually after approval - and you get a notification when it is published.

My connection dropped during the exam. Keep answering: answers are kept on your device and sent when you are back online, and time is kept by the server. If the device fails, ask the proctor to move the attempt to another device.

The approve button is missing or disabled. Approval comes after the exam window closes and grading is complete (no pending items and no moderation pending), and the level depends on your role: the instructor first, then the head of department.

How does an employer verify my certificate? By scanning its printed QR code, or by opening the verification page and typing its code.