2.1.1 Sorting

The column controls pictured in figure 2-2 allow you to sort the table by any column available.

Example: Sorting a table by an arbitrary column

To sort the table by a certain column:

1. Click on the name of the column by which you want to sort the data!
2. You now see, that the table is sorted by first name. This is also indicated by the arrow besides the column name. To reverse the sort order, simply click the same column name again.
3. As you can see, the sort order has been reversed.

Additionally, you have the possibility to select the columns which you want to display in the table.

Example: Selecting the displayed columns

To display additional columns:

1. Click on the arrow button on the right side of a column.
2. You now see a list of all columns that are available for display.
3. In this list, click on the checkbox besides the column names to activate or deactivate the columns you want to show / hide in the table.

2.1.2 Quick search

The quick search window on the top left of the SP table allows you to search for any text within the SP records. As soon as you enter any text in the search field, the table will be filtered and only SPs that match your search will be shown.

Example: Searching for an SP by name

To search for an SP by name, e.g. you search for Mr. Henry Jones.

1. Click the search box on the top left of the screen.
2. Enter their name, e.g. Henry and you will see the results almost immediately.

Besides searching for SPs by name you can also search by other attributes.

Example: General use of quick search

To search for an SP by city, follow these steps:

1. Move the cursor over the wrench symbol to the right of the search box .
2. Click the columns in which you want to search, e.g. City.
3. Enter the search term you want to search by, e.g. the name of the city. As in the previous example you will see the results almost immediately.

As you could see in the two examples you can search the following columns via the quick search box: Name, First Name, Postal code, City, Street, Telephone, Telephone 2, Mobile, Email, Bank, BIC, IBAN, Comment.

A click on the arrow symbol executes the search once again.

2.2.1 Linkage

The leftmost dropdown menu from figure 2-5 is the same for all of the filter boxes. It contains the linkage operation which defines how the filter is applied in conjunction with the preceding filter. The two possible values are:

• OR: means that an SP has to match with either the preceding filter or the filter that is getting the OR-linkage attribute.
• AND: defines that the criteria of this current filter and the criteria of the previous filter have to apply both.

Note, that the order of criteria is relevant for the linkage-attribute. The linkage setting of the first-defined filter is irrelevant, but the last criterion is always the strongest.

Example: Using multiple search filters

You want to search for female SPs that are either more than 60 years old or younger than 30 years old. Thus, you'd follow these steps:

1. Click on the gender button . In the menu that appears you select the gender to be female.
2. Now you select women who are younger than 30. To do that you click on the numeric filter button , select the smaller than sign (<) and enter the number 30.
3. Finally, you do the same as in item two, but now you select the larger than sign (>), enter the number 60 and select the linkage to be of type OR.

If you have a look at the result now, you will notice that there are male SPs in the result. This is because the last criterion is linked with OR-Linkage, which basically makes this selection to be: Show all SPs who are female and younger than 30 years old, or show all SPs who are older than 60 years old.

Instead we wanted a selection which shows all SPs who are younger than 30 years old or older than 60 years old and are female. To achieve this now, we continue:

4. In the criteria table that appeared, click on the trash symbol besides the filter where you filtered by gender.
5. Now we add the same filter again at the end of the list, as described in item 1. (Click on the gender button. In the menu that appears you select the gender to be female.)

Now you see the results you actually wanted.

The SP database, showing only SPs who are female and either younger than 30 years old or older than 60 years.

2.2.2 Comparisons

Most filters have a comparison operation, where in the simplest case you can just select whether an SP should have a certain attribute or not. For example when using the Profession-filter, you can select if the SP should have a certain profession, but it is also possible to select that he must not have a certain profession.

The numeric filter allows for mathematical comparisons such as equal (=), not equal (≠), greater than (>) and less than (<). Similarly the Languages filter allows the same comparisons to language skill levels.

2.2.3 Attribute and Questionnaire filters

Whereas most of the filters are rather straight forward to use, the Attributes and Questionnaire filters are special. The Attributes filter, shown in figure 2-6, is used to search for user definable attributes (see chapter Define and use attributes). It is easy to use, as it only shows a simple drop-down menu from which you can select all of the available attributes.

The more interesting filter is the Questionnaire filter. In it, the questionnaire can be searched. This is a collection of user definable questions, that each SP can answer. For more information on how to use the questionnaire, plese see the chapter in question. With this filter it is possible to efficiently search this questionnaire. When you first click the Questionnaire filter button, you are confronted with a text field into which you can type a keyword to help find the question (see figure 2-7). As soon as you enter something into this textbox, a menu with matching questions appears.

After selecting a question, you can define what answer you are looking for. Depending on the type of the question, either a drop-down menu appears (see figure 2-8) for multiple choice or yes/no-questions, in which you can select the answer you are looking for, or in case of an open question answered with written text, you can enter text in a textbox (see figure 2-9).

Example: Searching SPs by questionnaire items

Important: Note, that you have to have these questions defined in the questionnaire before this example works. See chapter The questionnaire.

You want to list all the SPs that wear glasses and are motivated by money. This means that the questionnaire has to have some questions defined, which cover these two points. In our example the two following questions are predefined:

• Do you wear glasses?
• What motivated you to participate in our simulation patient program?

The first of the above questions is a Yes/No question, while the latter is an open question.

To create the filters, follow these steps:

1. Click on the Questionnaire button .
2. Enter the word "glasses". A selection box should appear, displaying every question in the database that contains the word "glasses". In the example there is only one available, the question Do you wear glasses, which you now select by clicking it.
3. Make sure that the two drop-down-menus are set to answered with and Yes, then click Add.
4. Now to add the second filter you click the Questionnaire button again.
5. Enter the word "motiv" and select the question What motivated you to participate in our simulation patient program?.
6. Make sure that the drop-down-menu reads ansawered with and enter the word "money" in the textbox. Then, click Add.

Now you see all the simulated patients that wear glasses and answered the motivation-question with an answer containing the word "money".

SP database with all SPs wearing glasses and motivated by money

2.3.1 Editing SP data

There are several types of data that can be edited. Let's concentrate on the SPs basic data first. The following example shows you how to change SP details. When you click on Add SP below the SP table view or if you click on Edit in the controls panel in the top right of the screen, the same mask will show. So the procedure for editing SP data or adding a new SP is basically the same.

Example: Adding a new SP or Editing SP basic data

We want to edit some basic attributes of the simulated patient Isaac Hausner. After we selected him in the SP table view by clicking on his name, we can edit his data by following these steps:

1. Click on Edit in the controls panel in the top right of the screen.
2. In the upcoming screen you can edit the name and contact data of the SP. For example you can change his email address.
3. If you click on the tab particulars, you're able to edit additional information, such as birth date, height, weight, marital status etc. We can e.g. change his profession by clicking on the profession suggest box and clicking or typing a new profession.
4. Editing bank account information works the same way. You can enter account number and bank address information in the entry mask. The country dropdown is the same type of dropdown menu as the profession and nationality boxes found in the Particulars tab.
5. You may also add comments with custom formatting to each SP. These comments can also be searched using the quick search and can therefore be used to add custom information. The formatting options are a subset of those found in regular word processing software.
6. After you have done your changes, click on Save on the top right of the control panel. If you decided to throw away your changes, you can also click on Cancel.

Additionally, there are some attributes that have to be edited by other means. These would be the Language skill, the attributes and the questionnaire. The latter two are treated in their own chapters.

You may want to have certain SPs who are able to communicate in certain languages. The language skills tab allows you to specifically define which languages a simulated patient is able to speak on what level.

Example: Editing language skills

You want to add language skills to a certain SP.

1. Go to the Language skills tab in the SP details view.
2. Select one of the pre-defined languages from the language drop down.
3. Select the skill level at which the SP is speaking this language.
4. Click on Add language skill
5. You will now see the language skill has been added. To delete it again, click on the icon on the right side of the entry you want to delete.

2.3.2 Status, deletion and synchronisation

In the SP database, each SP has a status. There are several statuses an SP can be in and these all have different implications which mainly show in the possible actions of the control panel. In the following list, the implications of each status is described.

• Active: This is the default status and means, that the SP is available for OSCEs and can be modified in any way you like.
• Inactive: An SP can be excluded from participating in future OSCEs by deactivating the SP. This means, that he cannot be selected in any new OSCEs and his data can not be exported to the SP Portal
• Anonymized: After an SP has decided that he does not want to take part in any OSCEs anymore but he has been in OSCEs in the past, the SP can be anonyized. This means that any personal data of the SP gets erased.
• Exported: This status indicates, that the SPs personal data is currently accessible through the SP Portal and to prevent inconsistencies the SPs data can not be edited.

Now a few examples follow to help you with actions that are relevant to the statuses.

Example: Deleting / anonymizing an SP

To delete an SP, follow these steps:

1. After you selected the SP to delete from the table, click on the trash icon Delete button on the right side of the SP controls panel.
2. You will be presented with a pop-up that asks you for confirmation. In this pop-up, click "OK".

If the SP has already been assigned to a role in an OSCE in the past, the SP cannot be physically deleted from the database. Instead, all SP data will be anonymized (replaced with xxx).

Example: Deactivating and reactivating an SP

1. If an SP should be deactivated, click on the Deactivate button. Note that this is only possible if the SP is not currently in the Exported status!
2. After the SP has been deactivated, you can choose to reactivate the SP again by clicking on the Activate button to reactivate the SP.

Example: Synchronize SP data with the SP Portal

If you want to synchronize an SPs personal data with the SP Portal, follow these steps:

1. After you've made sure that the SP is in an active state, click the Sent To DMZ button. This sends the SP data to the DMZ (Demilitarized Zone - in this case a server that is accessible publicly over the internet) so it can be accessed via the SP Portal
2. if the export was successful, you will be notified.
3. Now the SP can log in to the SP Portal and edit his data (see chapter 6)
4. After the SP has come through and updated his details on the SP Portal, you can reimport the data by clicking on Pull From DMZ to reimport the data.
5. If the import was successful, you will be notified.

2.3.3 Define and use attributes

For SPs it is often desirable to exclude certain body parts from examination, e.g. if they are scarred somewhere or just don't feel comfortable with it. Defining such attributes could later on help in assigning suited SPs to roles.

There are three different types of attributes: scar, tattoo and Do not examine. Use them where appropriate - scar if you define a scar, tattoo if you define a tattoo and Do not examine if there is some other reason a certain body part should not be examined.

All the attributes can be found when you click on Attributes in the SP-section of the OSCE Managers navigation. You will be presented with a table showing all the predefined attributes and the option to add new attributes.

Example: Defining new attributes

To add new attributes that could be assigned to SPs, follow these steps:

1. In the navigation menu on the left in the SP-box, select Attributes.
2. You will now see a list with all the predefined attributes.
3. Select the type of attribute you want to define; either scar, tattoo or Do not examine
4. Enter the name of the body part and click on Add attribute.
5. Finally, you see that the attribute has been added.

Example: Changing and deleting attributes

The last attribute you added to the list, a scar on the lower leg should be designated more clearly. To change it:

1. In the list of attributes, click on the edit button
2. A pop-up window appears in which you can now change the type of attribute or change its designation. After you've changed it to what you wanted, click the OK button.
3. After you've saved the changes, they should immediately appear in the table. If you decide, that you don't need the attribute after all, you can delete it by clicking the . Be aware that you can't delete attributes which are currently assigned to any simulated patient!

Example: Assigning predefined attributes

To assign attributes that have been previously defined, as shown in the two preceding examples, you have to follow these steps:

1. After you selected a simulated patient from the SP table, click on the Attributes tab.
2. In the auto-complete box on the bottom left, enter e.g. the word "scar". The box now shows all possible attribute choices containing the word "scar", i.e. it shows all attributes of the scar type. Now, select the appropriate attribute by clicking on the correspondant choice, e.g. "Scar Shoulder (left)".
3. Click on the button Add attribute
4. You see, that the attribute has been successfully added to this SPs list of attributes.

If you want to delete the attribute from the SP, you have to click on the button with the trash icon: .

Important: Please be aware that attributes are not synchronized with the SP Portal and thus can not be added by the SP himself!

2.4.1 Structuring the questionnaire

The questionnaire has a simple structure. It doesn't just contain questions. Instead, the questuions are grouped. The groups are ordered and the questions within each group are ordered as well. That means you can define the sequence in which the questions will be presented to the SP.

The screen you are initially presented with only shows you the groups that have already been defined and some search boxes and controls. The following screenshot has annotations explaining what you see in the questionnaire definition view.

2.4.2 Adding, editing and deleting questions

If you click on a question such as the one seen in the , you will be presented with the question details screen. There you see the details of the question presented once again, as well as the Edit and Delete buttons.

To delete a question, click on the Delete button.

To edit a question, click on the Edit button.

To add questions to the questionnaire, click on the Add question button as described above. You will be presented with a view in which you can describe a new question. If you clicked on the Edit button of an existing question instead, you will see the same view, except that there is already some data present.

The fields you are presented with are:

• Type: select the type of question i.e. the way the question should be answered. See Types of questions for more info.
• Question: This is the text that will be displayed and should be answered by the SP (or a staff member if the question remains private).
• Belongs to title: This allows you to change the group to which the question belongs to.
• Previous question: As of the writing of this document this does not work and has no influence on anything.
• Send to DMZ: If this is checked, the question will be synchronized with the SP Portal, so the simulated patient is able to fill out the data by himself.

2.4.3 Answering questions

Of course the questions can be answered after they have been defined. This can be done by the simulated patient himself, if he has been exported to the SP Portal. For details about answering questions in the SP Portal, see the chapter SP Portal!

This chapter explains how the SP questionnaire can be filled in via the OSCE Manager. To start, go back to the SP table view and select the SP for which you want to fill in the questionnaire. On the bottom of the now visible SP details view you see the questions grouped into the defined groups as explained in the previous chapters.

In this view you see all the informations about the currently selected question group.

• On the top you can select the group of questions you want to have displayed by clicking on the appropriate tab. Note that these are the same groups as they were defined earlier.
• To the left of the tab selection you have arrow buttons which help you to navigate the tabs. They are mainly necessary if there are too many tabs to conveniently display. you can use them to scroll the tab bar to the right, to the left or to select a tab via drop-down menu.
• When a tab is selected, all the questions in the corresponding group are displayed in the table below. Its columns contain:
  • An indicator whether a question has been answered or not . This is also indicated by the background color. Orange/yellow indicates unanswered questions and white/grey background indicate answered questions.
  • The questions themselves.
  • The answers whereas the possibilities to answer the questions depend on the type of question.
  • A field that allows you to add comments. Please be aware, that comments can not be added by the SP in the SP Portal but only by a staff member in this mask!
• On the bottom you have a search field in which you can type a keyword to find a question containing this keyword.
• Furthermore there are two checkboxes that allow you to select wheter to display only answered, unanswered or both types of questions. Please be aware, that as of writing this document, the default is to only display answered questions!

4.1.1 Defining and editing disciplines

To get an overview of all the available disciplines, click on Disciplines & Skills in the Role group of the OSCE Managers main menu.

You will be presented with an overview of all the disciplines in a table that is functionally similar to e.g. the attributes table. You have the possibility to add new disciplines by entering a name for the new discipline in the bottom left box and click Add discipline. It's possible to edit the names of defined disciplines by clicking on the corresponding edit button or deleting disciplines by clicking on the delete button . Note that you can't delete disciplines that have any skills assigned!

Of course it is also possible to filter the table by entering a discipline name in the search box on the top left of the screen.

4.1.2 Defining and editing skills

To define and edit skills, first you must click on one of the disciplines in the table described in the previous chapter.

You will be shown another table where you see all the skills associated with the selected discipline. In the screenshot below for example, you see all the skills that are defined within the discipline of First Aid.

As usual, to edit a predefined skill, click on the edit button and to delete a skill, click on the delete button . Note that you can't delete skills to which a role has already been defined!

To add a new skill, click on the Add skill button. You will be presented with a dialogue as shown in the screenshot below.

There are three fields you have to fill in that define the skill:

• Skill: this is the name of the skill.
• Max. students: The maximum number of students that an SP can endure when he plays a role to test this skill. This will force the OSCE Manager to make a change of SP during an OSCE when this number of students has been reached for an SP testing this skill. (*)
• Academic year: The academic year in which this skill will be tested in an OSCE (BA.1 - BA.3 or MA.1 - MA.3 for Bachelor and Master respectively).

4.2.1 Adding a new skill

If you want to add a skill in the role table view, first you click on the Add skill button. You will be presented with a small dialog.

All in all, the fields to fill in are the same as in the dialog shown in Defining and editing skills, except, that there is also a field to define the discipline. Please see this chapter for a short explanation on what each field does.

Please note, that you should fill in the discipline in any case, even though the application does not force you to!

4.2.2 Searching for roles

To search for roles, you can use the searchbox on the top left of the screen. There is a plethora of choices concerning what exactly you want to search, that is displayed when you open the search preferences menu by hovering your mouse over the wrench icon.

4.3.1 Creating, editing or copying a role

There are three ways to access the editing screen for basic role information:

• In the role table, you click on a skill to which you want to add a new role. If there are no roles present yet, you will be immediately presented with the mask where you have to fill in the roles' basic information.

• If there is already at least one role present in the selected skill, you will have to click the "+" button on top. .

• If you want to edit the basic information of an existing role, you click on the Edit button on the top right of the roles control bar.

After you've done one of the above steps, you will see the following view. Note: if you are creating a new role, most of the fields remain empty, of course!

The mask that you see contains the following fields:

• Acronym: This is an abbreviation or a short hand name for a role. It will be displayed anywhere where a short hand name is more convenient. Please choose a name that makes it clear what role is meant.
• Role designation: This is the full and descriptive name of the role. This will be used whenever there is enough space available to display the full name of the role.
• Role type: There are three possibilites for this option:
  • SimPat: designates a regular role, where a simulated patient has to be examined by the student.
  • Supernumerary: a role where someone has to play a role which doesn't involve being examined.
  • Material: a role where only some equipment is required, but no one has to play any role.
  Note, that the distinction between SimPat and Supernumerary mainly exists for cost calculation reasons.
• Academic Year: This allows you once again to define in which academic year a role is to be tested in the OSCE.
• Skill: This allows you to change the skill to which the role belongs.
• Absolute number of backup-SPs: This is the absolute minimum number of SPs that would be on backup for this station during an OSCE.
• Proportion of backup-SPs vs. no. of circuis: The number of SPs that are on backup per circuit for this role. I.e. if this role is used on four circuits in parallel at an OSCE, the stated number of SPs times 4 have to be there as backups.

If you go to the checklist tab, you'll see only one field where you can give a designation to the checklist of this role.

After you've defined all the basic information, you can click on Save to store your changes. If you've been editing an existing role, you will be presented with a dialog. See next chapter

You can also copy a role. To do this, simply click on the Copy button in the control bar on the top right side. This creates a copy of the current role.

Important: Be aware that as of the time of writing this manual, checklists and scripts are not copied; that means that a copy of a role references the same checklist and script as the original, and changes to either of those will be seen from both roles.

4.3.2 Roles and versions

Over time you may want to change a role. Maybe you've had a role that you had in an OSCE for two consecutive years, but now you want to change some parts of it to not let the students' information exchange ruin the novelty of the role. Thus you decide to change some symptoms and therefore the SPs role and the checklist have to be changed. Now the OSCEs that were held in the past still used the role with the old checklist and script, and you want to keep it that way. Now what to do?

Luckily, the roles have versions. If you go to the editing screen and click on the Save button you will be presented with the following dialog:

You can select between:

• Major changes: This is what you would want to do in the above scenario. This effectively creates a copy of the role as it was and archives it.
• Minor changes: If you don't need to access an old version and just did some small changes, you select minor changes. This just overwrites the current version of the role.

Everytime you make a change that triggers the appearence of the version dialog, and you select either Minor or Major changes, the version number of the role gets updated. In case of a major change, the number before the dot gets bumped and the number after the dot gets reset to zero (e.g. from 1.2 to 2.0). In case of a minor change, the number behind the dot is increased by one.

Important: Note, that this dialog only appears when you either save changes, that you made in the Edit screen of the role or when you save changes you made to the role scripts. If you change any other aspect of the role, even the checklist, you will not be asked about a version change. Thus, if you know you're going to make significant changes to a role, you have to take care of correct versioning yourself!

Since the role gets archived when you do major changes to it, you can still access old versions of the role if you want to by clicking the Previous version button in the main control bar. If you are currently looking at an older version of a role you will notice this by the fact that you can't make any changes. To access future versions, click on the appropriate Next version or Current version buttons.

4.3.3 Printing a role

To print a role, click on the Print button. You will be presented with a small dialog where you can select what you want to print (shown below).

• Role Scripts: In this dropdown menu you can select whether you want to print scripts and if so, whether you want to print all the scripts or just the one for either the examiner, simulated patient (SP) or Station specific documents. (See role scripts for detailed information on these documents).
• Master data contains part of the basic role information, specifically the general identification of the role as seen in the Role tab on top.
• Room facilities: check this if you want to print the room facilities table.
• Checklist: tick this checkbox if you want to print the examiners' checklist associated with this role.
• Files: if you want to print additional files required or associated with this role, activate this box. (see chapter cards for information to additional files).

After you've made your selection of what you want to print, click on Print. The OSCE Manager will create a PDF document that you then can download and print.

4.3.4 Basic role information

This chapter focuses on the Role authors, Keywords, Learning Objectives and Past use of role tabs in the role view. The Role tab has already been covered in Creating, editing or copying a role.

4.3.5 Checklist

This is one of the core aspects of the role. This is the checklist that the examiners will fill out to evaluate the students during the OSCE. There is the possibility to print the checklist, so it can be filled out in paper form, or you can also export the checklist to eOSCE, an iPad application, that allows the examiners to fill out the checklists on a tablet computer.

In the screenshot below, you'll see a view of the checklist in a role about Loss of consciousness with colored annotations. You can see, that the checklist is divided into several sections that group questions or items, that belong together.

• Name: Each checklist has a name that is displayed in the tab bar. See creating, editing or copying a role.
• Section: As mentioned above, the checklist is divided into sections. Each section consists of a section title, a description and contains questions. They can be ordered arbitrarily. Sections can be imported from other roles.
• Question: Each question (or checklist item) belongs to a section and consists of a question text, an instruction text and an option that marks the question as a question to mark a general impression. Furthermore, there are options and criteria belonging to each question.
• Options: Options are the possible options an examiner has to answer the question. Usually the options are ratings of the students performance in the topic covered by the corresponding checklist item.
• Criteria: These are a list of items that help the examiner assess which option to choose. Usually these are actions a student has to take to in order to fulfill a criterion.

4.3.6 Criteria for SP-selection

In this tab, you can define the criteria an SP has to fulfill in order to be adequate to play this role. These criteria are exactly the same as the ones in the advanced filters in the SP database, so please refer to this part of the documentation to find out how they work.

Additionally, there is a possibility to add further criteria that can only be enforced by human intervention. That means, it is possible to add key/value pairs (text), that will be displayed along with the role scripts to help instruct the SPs.

To add further criteria, enter a unique value into the first (key) field and any value into the second (value) field and click the Add search criterion button on the right.

The further criteria can also be sorted using the up/down arrow buttons and they can be deleted using the delete button.

4.3.7 Room facilities

In the room facilities tab, you can define what equipment needs to be in the room. In lots of cases, for example, there has to be a stethoscope and a divan bed present. All these objects can be added to this table. The table is meant to help organise the OSCE, so you can always check what inventory each room has to have.

To add a new object to the list, click on the Add object button on the bottom of the table. You will be presented with the dialog shown below.

• Object designation: The name of the object that should be added to the rooms inventory. This is a suggestive dropdown box into which you can enter text and it suggests you the possible choices. All the objects that you want to be able to add to a rooms inventory have to be previously defined in the room facilities administration!
• Quantity: designates the number of this type of object that has to be used. Please note the implications that the Allotted to... item has to quantity!

• Allotted to...: here you have several possibilities:

  • Day: This means that the same object will be used for at least the whole day. This would be appropriate e.g. for a divan bed.
  • Examiner: Each examiner receives his own object. This could for example be necessary for iPads, that are customised per examiner.
  • Student: There needs to be at least one specimen for every student that participates in this room. Appropriate e.g. for a pair of rubber gloves.
  • Patient: Items that need to be changed for each SP.

Of course, once again it is possible to delete entries in this table by clicking on the delete button .

4.3.8 Cards

The term cards stems from the fact that for certain roles in OSCEs, cards were used to convey additional information to the student that could not have been given any other, such as e.g. how the eye would actually look if the SP would actually have some kind of disease. In that case the card would simply show a photograph of an eye that shows the desired symptoms.

Technically, in this tab you can simply store any kind of file that needs to be used in the station, such as image files, video files or what ever else may be needed.

A first glimpse of the table shows you which files have already been uploaded. You have the possibility to re-order the table by clicking the appropriate up / down arrow buttons and you may download files that have been uploaded by clicking on the download button . To delete files, as usual, click on the delete button .

If you want to upload a new file, click on the Browse... button to locate the file you want to upload on your hard disk, add a description in the text box and click the Add card button.

4.3.9 Role scripts

This section allows you to create role-specific rich text documents or tables, that can be printed along with everything else from the role. This functionality is mainly used to add scripts for SPs, task descriptions and possible additional documents, such as maybe additional instructions for the examiner.

When you click on the Role scripts tab of a role, that does not have any role scripts assigned yet, you have to choose what kind of documents this role requires. This is done by selecting a template of document components. These document components describe who needs what document and can be created / edited in the system administration part of the application. In this manual I work with components I named "Default Role Documents", that consist of a task description, a script for the SP and additional instructions for the examiner.

Note, that these document components first have to be defined in the menu item Document components. If there are none defined yet, in order to create role scripts you have to define the components first!

To get started, select the document components you desire for this station in the dropdown suggestive search box and click the Select document components button.

You will be presented with an overview of the documents that are contained within the selected component. In the following screenshot you will see this view with colored annotations.

What you see in this perspective are several things. All the documents that are contained within the selected document component can be seen. Each of these documents does have:

• A title / description. This should tell you what this document should contain. In the example above we have e.g. "Task description" which is a pretty obvious hint.
• A box containing the intended audience of this document. This can be used when printing the role, to only print what you actually need. Maybe you have trainings for simulated patients for which you already need the scripts for the SPs. Then you only print the documents that are designated with "SP".

These last two items have to be predefined in the document components. The only thing you can actually do here is:

• Change the document components that this role uses by selecting another document component template from the dropdown menu on the bottom of the screen and clicking Select document components.
• Edit the actual documents by clicking the Edit button for the appropriate document.

When you edit a document by clicking the edit button, you will see a rich-text editor such as the one you already saw in the edit SP view. It's feature-set is just a limited set of the ones found in general word processing software. After you're done editing the document, click on the save button to save your changes. You will be asked whether this is a minor or major change to the role (see Roles and versions for explanation).

5.2.1 Creating a new OSCE

After you've defined the semester in which the OSCE should take place, you have to define the framework first. To start with this process you click on Define basic data in the OSCE Managers main menu on the left. You will be presented with an empty table.

You will be presented with the form shown below, in which you have to define the framework of the OSCE.

In the screenshot shown above, there are several parameters - mainly numeric values - to be defined. Some realistic sample values were filled in. The OSCE Manager uses these parameters to later automatically calculate the time tables. Therefore it is of course also necessary to correctly define the times required for stations and breaks between stations.

The following list describes the available settings:

• Remarks: This lets you add a few descriptive words to an OSCE. Currently, there are menus in the application in which this is the only feedback the user has for identifying an OSCE. Thus, it is advised to use something descriptive that uniquely identifies this OSCE.
• Academic Year: Defines the academic year for which this particular OSCE will be conducted. If it targets e.g. students in the first year of their masters you would select "1. MA".
• Repetition of OSCE: This is used if you want to conduct an OSCE aimed at students who failed the actual OSCE. If you check the field "Is this a repetition of an earlier OSCE?", you select the original OSCE that the students failed via this suggestive search field.
• Max. circuits: lets you define the maximum number of circuits that will be run in parallel at this OSCE.
• Max. students: lets you define the maximum number of students that will take part in the OSCE.
• Max. number of rooms: set the maximum number of rooms that will be available to you for conducting the OSCE. This concerns only rooms in which there will be a station!
• Station duration: the time in minutes, that each student has available per station.
• Short break duration: A short break occurs always after the time for a station ran out. This is the time a student has to switch to the next station.
• Short break with SP-changeover: This is used where skills are tested that strain the SP significantly. Because of this there could be a necessity for an SP to be relieved mid-rotation and the short break could be too short to allow for this.
• Medium break duration: The medium break occurs between the end of the last station of a circuit and the beginning of a new circuit, i.e. if a group of students finished their OSCE rotation and the next group of students comes in for their rotation.
• Long break duration: This is a special sort of break that allows you to have longer breaks e.g. coffee breaks for SPs and examiners in place of medium breaks.
• Max. time until long break: The amount of time that has to pass from the beginning of the OSCE, the last long break or the last lunch break until a long break will take place.
• Lunch break duration: the lunch break allows you to have yet another break with a different duration for having lunch. Important: The lunch break has the side effect of splitting the OSCE in two, which will later on give you the possibility to define a different set of stations before and after lunch breaks.
• Max. time until lunch break: As with the corresponding setting for long breaks, this lets you define the amount of time from the beginning of the OSCE to the lunch break.
• Import tasks from...: You may import the task list of an existing OSCE by selecting it here. Note that currently, the only information identifying the OSCE from which you want to import is the Remarks field...
• SP stays at station: If this box is checked, SPs will stay at a station and there will be no rotations of SPs.

Note that under normal circumstances at least the short break, medium break and lunch breaks will occur. But there are lots of possibilities to tweak the schedule and lots of the scenarios can be achieved by tweaking the time table accordingly. For more details and tips on adjusting timing of the OSCE, see the next chapter.

When you are finished entering these values, you can save this OSCE by clicking on the Save button on the top right of the screen. The OSCE you created will then appear in the table on the left. You can continue to enter basic data for more OSCEs that will take place in the same semester.

5.2.2 Edit circuit Details

The Edit circuit details view allows you to do the following tasks:

• Adjust some of the timing parameters mentioned in the previous chapter.
• Set the date and time of the OSCE and adjust the rough scheduling, such as if it takes place in one or more days or e.g. how many groups of students will go through the OSCE in one day.
• Define the layout of the circuit. What kinds of stations will there be, which roles will be tested and in which rooms will these be tested.
• Finally, it is here that you can - by clicking one button - automagically generate the whole timetable.

On the top right of this screen you will see several control buttons. These are not all active at the same time. They basically guide you through the process of planning the circuit.

Each of these controls (except the Save button) will move you through another stage of the circuit creation process.

• Save: This is merely for saving changes to the timing parameters.
• Generate: After you've defined all the stations you want to have in one cicuit, clicking the Generate button will generate all the circuits and days that the algorithm deems necessary to conduct the OSCE within the given parameters. Manual adjustments are now possible.
• Freeze: When you're sure that all the times, dates and skills are right, you can freeze the OSCE. The only changes allowed in the frozen status are room numbers and the roles played at the stations (roles, not skills!).
• Close: When your circuit is ready, you can let the OSCE Manager generate a timetable by closing the OSCE.
• Clear All: Clicking clear all will delete all the generated data and places you back in the station creation process.
• Reopen: This will only appear after you've Closed an OSCE. Clicking this button will erase all the generated timeslots / timetables and allow you to redesign the circuit details.

5.2.3 Import student data

Students have to be imported from a text file with comma-separated values (.csv) as they can be generated e.g. in Microsoft Excel. This was implemented this way, because it creates an interface of easy interoperability with a paltform where students can register for their exams online.

To find out more about the .csv format, see the wikipedia page or try saving an Excel file as .csv.

The .csv file to import student data needs to have column designations in the first line to indicate what kind of value can be found in each column. Thus, the order of values does not really matter.

The columns that may be present are the following:

• student_id: A unique numeric id for each student.
• name: The student's last name.
• prename: The students first name.
• email_id: The email address of the student.
• street: The street address of the student.
• city: The city the student lives in.
• gender: Either male or female, denoting the gender of the student.

Of the above possible fields of the .csv file, only the fields student_id, name and prename are strictly required. Though, it is advised to also store an email address via the email_id field! The student_id field allows you to modify the student list and overwrite it by re-uploading it.

Example: Importing student data

To import student data into the OSCE Manager, follow these steps:

1. You first have to prepare the CSV-File with the student data. The following listing shows an example of a possible excerpt from a .csv file you could use to import students.

student_id,prename,name
      782165,   Keith,      Addis
      251863,   Earnestine, Arzate
      864794,   Howard,     Beam
      700127,   Marguerite, Becker
      233904,   Scott,      Bertram
      768526,   Sherry,     Blankenship
      125868,   Clayton,    Bormann
      327757,   Kurt,       Brandow
      611992,   Robert,     Brim

2. After your data is ready, go to the Import student data option in the OSCE Managers main menu.
3. Select the OSCE you want to edit in the tabs on top of the screen.
4. Click the "Browse..." button to open a file upload dialog.
5. Select the .csv file with the student data you want to upload and click Open.
6. Click the Import Students button to upload the file to the server.
7. After a successful import you will see all the students listed in the table.

After you have imported students to the OSCE manager, you still have the possibility to deactivate a student for the exam. So, if for some reason, it is clear that a student can't take part in the exam, you can deactivate the student by clicking on the tick in the rightmost column of the students table. When the student is deactivated, he will not be planned into a timeslot. He will get marked with a cross in the rightmost column of the table.

5.3.1 SP Selection

In the SP Selection view you will be greeted with an empty table, a lot of buttons and a list of all the stations that require SPs in the current OSCE. The left side will eventually show all the SPs that are available for this OSCE and tools to manipulate this list. The right side of the screen shows all the stations in the current OSCE, sorted into all the seperate sequences / days that the OSCE is divided into.

5.3.2 Edit Schedule

In the edit schedule view you have the possibility to do some final adjustments in the planning stage of the OSCE before sending out the definitive schedules and exporting the checklists for use on iPads. The following screenshot shows an annotated overview of the schedule view.

There are several tasks that can be done or have to be done in this view:

• Assign students to timeslots.
• Assign SPs to timeslots.
• Assign examiners to timeslots.
• Swap individual students or SPs between timeslots.
• Change the duration of individual breaks.
• Shift the lunch break.

But first, let's have a more detailed look at the following timetable. You see some marked fields, namely students timeslots (in green), SP timeslots (yellow), examiner timeslots (pink) and breaks (blue). All the actions that have to be done in this view can be done by either using the action buttons in the top right of the view or by left- or right-clicking these schedule fields.

When clicking on any of the timeslots, you can see who is assigned to this timeslot and the exact times at which the timeslot starts and ends.

Apart from the timeslots and what they mean, there are some more things you may have noticed in the above screenshot:

• There is another station, "Student break". This is created automatically because the OSCE manager optimises the schedule in a way to guide as many students through the OSCE at a time. With all the given timing constraints the most effective way seemed to be to have one rotation of four students at first whereas one student has to wait at the break spot once instead of solving a station.
• There are two breaks shortly one after another. This is related to the previous point. When you look at the other circuits, you will see, that in the second rotation, there are also four students. As this seemed to be enough to accomodate all the students, there is a short break for the duration of one slot in the pink circuit at this point.
• The schedule looks cut off at the bottom. It is, there was a scrollbar omited from the screenshot.

5.4.1 Export data to eOSCE

If you want your examiners to use eOSCE to rate the students on iPads, the checklists and rotations have to be exported, so that the iPads can be prepared for the examiners. There are two ways to do this:

• Export the OSCE data directly to your account on the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3).
• Download the .osceexchange file and work using the Apple Configurator and the OSCE Editor that comes with eOSCE.

To use the first way to export the OSCEs base data to iPads, you simply have to enter the S3 bucket name you want to use as well as the access and secret keys that belong to them and then click the Save button. Exporting the data then works by choosing the OSCE exams you want to export (e.g. FS2014 3.BA for spring semester 2014, 3rd year of Bachelor) by ticking them and then clicking the Export button.

You then have your OSCE data on the Amazon S3 cloud computing platform. Now you just have to configure your iPads... (see Prepare iPads for examiners in the appendix, but skip the steps with importing and saving the file. You just have to enter the S3 credentials in the OSCE Editor so you can simply configure the iPads using the QR-Code).

On the other hand, we tend to prefer the variant using Apple Configurator. For this, just download the .osceexam file you want by clicking the Download link and then follow the instruction Prepare iPads for examiners.

5.4.2 Send Invitations

This allows you to send invitation mails containing the schedules to SPs and examiners. You can load a template, write a custom text and use the variables in brackets ([toName], [fromName], [assignment]) to place variables such as the recepients name to personalise the mail. You can save the template and you can also send the mail.

Just tick the recipients you want to have (or select All) and click on Send Invitations.

This all assumes that the OSCE Manager server has been configured accordingly!

5.4.3 Print schedules

This prints individualised PDFs made from a configurable template to send (via snail mail) to students, examiners or SPs. As in the email functionality, the templates contain bracketed variables that you can use to show the schedule, name, etc.

The PDFs created are fairly formless and ugly though, so you might wand to reconsider using this functionality at all.

5.4.4 Export alarm schedule

We tend to use an alarm system to signal the beginning and end of student timeslots, breaks etc using different sounds for each of these events. This alarm system can be configured using .csv files or a proprietary file format (qwt). These alarm times will be automatically adjusted every time you adjust the schedule. Once you are ready, you can simply export the schedule, either in .csv .qwt formats by clicking the appropriate buttons.

5.5.1 Import test results (eOSCE)

If you've used eOSCE for the exams, you can import the completed checklists from the Amazon Simple Storage Service. This is done analogous to the export by filling in your S3 credentials on top and clicking the Import button.

5.5.2 Statistical evaluation

This part of the application provides some tools to help you statistically evaluate the results of this OSCE. The individual performances of students are not scope of the OSCE Managers statistical evaluation tool, though. For the student assessment results, refer to the eOSCE documentation. Instead you can see how each checklist item performed or how each examiner rated the students.

There are two tables of data that the OSCE Manager can calculate from the exam results. This is selected in the drop down menu on the top right of the screen. There, you can select either:

• item_analysis: See the station statistics per checklist item.
• post_analysis: See the station statistics per examiner.

The statistics shown in both cases are quite different. The item_analysis is there to evaluate the quality of the checklist items, whereas the post_analysis determines whether an examiner rated very strictly or was rather lenient.

Both statistics do first have to be calculated after importing the test results. This is done by pressing the Calculate button just beside the dropdown menu for selecting the statistic you want to display. The calculation has to be done for both statistics separately.

5.5.3 Cost Accounting

The cost accounting screen is a fairly simple tool that lets you easily determine how many hours an SP/extra worked on a particular OSCE and thus how much he will be paid. The hourly wages used are the ones you entered when creating the semester in which this OSCE took place.

There are two main functions in this view:

• You can export an overview / calculation of all the costs that the SPs caused by clicking the Export button.
• You can export a PDF form for each selected SP by selecting the SPs via the checkboxes besides them and then clicking the Print button.

The form mentioned above is a work hour form of the University of Basel that can be sent directly to the accounting department to have the SP paid. If you want to have a customised solution, you would either have to manually change the PDF creation in the code or ideally, consult us.

8.1.1 Export single checklist

As has been mentioned in chapter Exporting checklists, each checklist can be exported individually to test it on an iPad in eOSCE. This instruction shows you how to install a single checklist from OSCE Manager on an iPad. We assume that you are logged in to the OSCE Manager and work on a computer running Mac OS X. Furthermore you have an iPad on which the eOSCE iOS app OSCE-Eval has already been installed.

Instruction: Install a single checklist on an iPad

1. Open the menu item Role - Role definitions.
2. Choose the role of which you want to export the checklist and click on the Export checklist button.
3. In the dialog that shows up, select Save file.
4. Start the OSCE-Editor
5. Open the import dialog via File - Import... and select the file you saved in step 3.
6. By now, the checklist should be visible in the Checklists view of the OSCE Editor.
7. To continue the preparation you should click the button New Station in the Stations view of the application. [New Station](img(eosce-single6.png)
8. Create a station and assign the checklist to this new station by selecting it in the dropdown menu of the "Checklist" column.
9. In the Examiners view you have to manually create an examiner by clicking the New Examiner button.
10. Repeat the same for candidates in the Candidates view.
11. In the Stations view you now have to link the examiner and candidate you just created to the previously generated station.
12. Save the file by choosing Save... in the File menu (File - Save...).
13. IMPORTANT After you "saved" the file you now also have to select *File

• Export Exam...*. An error message may appear which you can safely ignore.

14. In Finder, right-click on the file you just generated and select the option Show package contents in the context menu.
15. Copy the file data.oscexam to a folder of your choice.
16. Rename the file data.oscexam according to the following pattern: Text.Text.Template.oscexam. Note that you can freely select the "Text" part, but the part written in italics has to be exactly as written. See for example the next screenshot.
17. Connect your iPad to your computer and open iTunes. Go to the administration of your iPad and there, open the menu Apps.
18. Select the OSCE-Eval, click on Add ... and select the file you renamed before. Then, click on Apply to copy the checklist onto the iPad.
19. Start OSCE-Eval on your iPad. The checklist should now be visible in the app.
20. In the app, select the checklist and an examiner to view the checklist.

8.1.2 Prepare iPads for examiners

This step-by-step instruction explains how you can prepare iPads for examiners by loading them with all the checklists required for an OSCE. It is assumed, that you already exported a *.osceexchange file from OSCE Manager (see Export data to eOSCE) and have this file available. The instruction is split in three. First the checklists have to be exported to the Amazon S3 cloud storage and then the iPads have to be prepared, whereas there are two variants for preparing the iPads.

Instruction: Prepare iPads for examiners

1. Open the OSCE-Editor application
2. Go to File -- Import... and select the file you exported from the OSCE Manager (*.osceexchange).
3. Open the Settings view and enter your Amazon S3 credentials. To test whether your credentials are right, you can click on Test Connection.
4. Save the file via File -- Save....
5. Upload the checklists to the Amazon S3 cloud storage by clicking File -- Publish Exam...
6. You can now choose either of two methods to continue:
   • Configure iPads using Amazon S3
   • Prepare iPads using Apple Configurator Please don't mix the two methods, as this would lead to problems.

Instruction: Configure iPads using Amazon S3

1. Open OSCE-Eval on the iPad you want to configure.
2. Drag the OSCE-Eval interface down (towards yourself) until you see the Preferences button. Press this button for a prolonged time.
3. The iPads camera will be activated. Use it to photograph the QR-Code in the Settings view of OSCE-Editor. (see the last screenshot of the previous instruction)
4. As soon as the QR code gets recognized the iPad is ready for use with the Amazon S3 container.
5. Go to Advanced Settings -- Manual configuration and choose the rotations you want to download.
6. Repeat procedure for every iPad you want to prepare.

Instruction: Prepare iPads using Apple Configurator

1. Learn how to prepare your computer for use with Apple Configurator.
2. In the OSCE-Editor, while pressing the ALT-key, go to File -- Export Exam....
3. Save the rotation-file in a folder of your choice.
4. Start the Apple Configurator.
5. Make sure, that all the iPads you intend to use are supervised and that the OSCE-Eval app will be distributed to all these devices.
6. Create a user group for the OSCE.
7. In this user group, create a user for each examiner.
8. For every user/examiner, choose the matching rotation files that you exported from the OSCE Editor.
9. Open the package contents of the exported OSCE-Editor file (*.osceproj) by right-clicking on the file and selecting Show Package Contents.
10. Copy (not move!) the file server.credentials from the package and assign it to all users. This way, you don't have to individually configure each iPad for Amazon S3 use.
11. Connect all the iPads to the computer.
12. Select all users and click on Check out to prepare the iPads for the examiners.
13. When you want to take back the iPads from the examiners and remove the data, select the users and click Check in.