SPO 1st test (April 8th) – additional information and instructions

7 abril 2021, 13:28 • Rui Manuel Moura de Carvalho Oliveira

The 1st SPO on-line test, scheduled for April 8th (16:00-17:30), will be comprised by 4 Groups of questions and each Group constitutes a “Woksheet/Ficha de trabalho” that will become available in Fenix in sequence, at pre-scheduled times and with also with pre-scheduled time-limits for submitting answers in Fenix. Answers must be submitted in Fenix before the time-limit defined in the exam paper for each Group.

Group I (valued with 3 points out of 20) includes questions of a conceptual or ”theoretical” nature, all with multiple answer options (closed form) and students should select the most appropriate answer (only one answer is allowed). Please note that a WRONG answer (or more than ONE ANSWER) implies a 30% DEDUCTION of the grade in that question. In case you don't know or don't want to answer some question, submit the worksheet without any answer to that question. The corresponding Woksheet/Ficha de trabalho” will become available in Fenix at 16:00. 

Group II (valued with 7 points out of 20) is constituted also by questions of a conceptual/”theoretical” nature, but with “open” answers (text to be inserted in spaces provided). The corresponding Woksheet/Ficha de trabalho” will become available in Fenix a few minutes before the time-limit for submitting answers to Group I. This allows students to better manage the available time, distributing this margin of some minutes (about 5 to 10 minutes) among the 4 Groups of questions. In total, the time allowance for Groups I and II will be about 30 minutes.

Groups III (valued with 3,5 points out of 20) and IV (valued with 6,5 points out of 20) are constituted by questions of an applied nature with “open” answers. In both cases, answers must be sketched/hand-written in blank sheets of paper, with the student identification (name and number) at the top, which should be scanned and the corresponding file (a PDF file is more compact and takes typically less time to upload) submitted in Fenix using the “Submit -> Projects” option (two “Projects” named “SPO-Test1-Group3” and “SPO-Test1-Group4” will be created in Fenix for this purpose). The file name with answers should include the student number, with the format “SPO-Test1-Group?-YourStudentNumber”. The Woksheets/Fichas de trabalho” with Groups III and IV will become available in Fenix also some minutes before the time-limit for submitting answers to the previous group and a 5 minutes extra-time will be conceded to prepare and upload the file with answers in both cases (see announcement posted on March 29th with recommendations on apps to scan documents and to prepare the file with answers). Time-limits to submit in Fenix the files with answers to Groups III and IV will be defined in the test paper.

In all 4 Groups of questions multiple submissions are allowed (up to the time-limit defined for each group), but only the last one submitted will be considered.

The conditions for the realization of these online SPO exams have been published before in Fenix and all students must accept these conditions (declarations of acceptance should have been already submitted in Fenix by all students intending to take this test).

3 “independent” Colibri/Zoom sessions will be created for the SPO 1st test and each student is assigned to one (and only one) of these sessions based on his/her student number (instructions on this will be posted before the test). Students should join the Colibri/Zoom session created for the test (invitation/link will be sent to all students registered for the exam or posted in Fenix) at most 15 minutes before 16:00 on Thursday, April 8th and should have readily available their official student cards or some identification document with a photo (they might be asked to show this document in front of the camera, as well as their consultation elements). Students must change the identification under which they appear in Zoom to the following format: SudentNumber-FirstName-LastName (e.g., 81523 Luís Silva).

It is advisable that students reduce the volume of their computer speakers so that they are not disturbed by background noise that might be generated (while keeping the microphone always on). If they have some doubt and want to put some question to the professor in charge of monitoring the exam, students should use primarily the “Chat” facility in Zoom, but these should be reduced to a minimum and only in really justified circumstances.

Should any problem occur during the test, namely difficulties in accessing the  “Woksheets/Fichas de trabalho” or submitting answers, students should immediately report these using the “Chat” facility in Zoom and/or by email, attaching photos, print screen images or similar to fully document the situation. If you are not fully confident of the reliability of your internet connections, computer, etc., then you should consider the possibility of using the facilities made available by IST for this purpose.

If you still have any doubts concerning this SPO online test, please send an email and we will do our best to clarify the issues.

Rui Oliveira

1st SPO test (April 8th, 16:00-17:30) – registration and declarations (reminder)

5 abril 2021, 19:15 • Rui Manuel Moura de Carvalho Oliveira

Please remember that all students intending to take the 1st SPO online test (April 8th, 16:00-17:30) must register timely in Fenix for this online test until April 6th. Without this previous registration, the student will not have access to the test paper.

Furthermore, students must also submit in Fenix (project named “Declarations”) a document with her/his declarations (see announcement posted on March 29th) not later than April 6th. This is also a pre-requisite to take the SPO online tests/exams.

And please read carefully the announcements previously posted (namely on March 29th) with additional information about the 1st test. Further instructions will be posted before the test.

Rui Oliveira 

Instructions to download the simulation software (SIMUL8)

1 abril 2021, 17:59 • Rui Manuel Moura de Carvalho Oliveira

Instructions on how to download the simulation software (SIMUL8) to be used in the simulation project are now available in section "Project work".

However, it should be stressed that this software is not yet required for the preparation of the 1st report, which should be submitted until the 5th of April. For the time being, you should concentrate on the topics relevant for the 1st part of the report – Chapters 1 (introduction), 2 (problem structuring and formulation) and 3 (system analysis and conceptual model presentation) - see doc “Simulation project work_ Instructions and recommendations” available in the same section of Fenix.

Rui Oliveira

SPO trial test

30 março 2021, 13:58 • Rui Manuel Moura de Carvalho Oliveira

A trial test is now available in Fenix, without any time constraint (but with indication of the time that would be allowed should this be a “real” test). Control the time it took you to provide and submit your answers since this will be instructive as to how you are supposed to perform, in terms of time management (and this will be presumably a critical issue) during the coming tests/exams.

This trial test (English version only), which is a reproduction of one of last year’s exams, is constituted by 4 Groups of questions. Each group is a separate “Worksheet/Ficha de trabalho” and the time-limits indicated somehow mimic the ones that could be defined for the 1st test scheduled for April 8th. The times at which these “Worksheets/Fichas de trabalho” would be made available and corresponding answers be submitted in Fenix (“simulating” what would be done on April 8th, starting at 16:00) would be the following:

     .  Group I (“theoretical” questions) becomes available at 16:00 and answers must be submitted up to 16:09

     .  Group II (“theoretical” questions) becomes available at 16:04 and answers must be submitted up to 16:30

     .  Group III (“applied” questions) becomes available at 16:20 and answers must be submitted up to 16:45

     .  Group IV (“applied” questions) becomes available at 16:35 and the file with answers must be submitted up to 17:20 (including 5 minutes extra time, after the Worksheet is over, to prepare and submit that file in Fenix - project  “SPO-TrialTest1-GroupIV” in Fenix)

Altogether, these illustrate the various forms of questions and types of access to the questions and of submission of answers in Fenix. Students are strongly recommended to get acquainted with these various forms. This trial test will be available in Fenix until April 7th (up to the time-limits indicated for each group of questions).

Reactions to this experience and suggestions will be most welcome (the sooner, the better!).

Please note that question 3 of Group I and questions 3 and 4 of Group II in this trial test are about program topics not covered this year by the 1st test since only the program topics treated in the theoretical class until last Thursday (March 25th) are eligible for this year’s 1st test. 

Answer topics/solutions to this trial test are now available in Fenix (section "Previous tests/exams").

Please read carefully also the announcement posted on March 29th with additional information about the 1st test.

Rui Oliveira

1st SPO test (scheduled for April 8th, 16:00-17:30)

29 março 2021, 12:43 • Rui Manuel Moura de Carvalho Oliveira

Following instructions received from IST governing bodies, the 1st SPO test (scheduled for April 8th, 16:00-17:30) will be on-line and carried out using the Fenix platform, namely facilities associated with “Worksheets/Fichas de Trabalho” and also “Projects”. As such, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT ALL SPO STUDENTS BECOME FAMILIAR WITH THE USE OF THESE FACITILIES IN FENIX.  

This online test will be constituted by 4 groups of questions, each constituting a “Worksheet/Ficha de Trabalho” that will become available at pre-defined times (and answers must be submitted before also pre-defined times that are posted in the test paper). These groups of questions will be performed in sequence (one after the other), with an overlap of some minutes between them, i.e., the “Woksheet/Ficha de trabalho” corresponding to a group of questions will become available in Fenix a few minutes before the time-limit for submitting answers to the previous group. This allows students to better manage the available time, distributing this margin of some minutes (about 5-10 minutes) among the 4 groups of questions. Multiple submissions of answer files are admitted, but only the last one will be considered.

Two of these groups of questions will have a conceptual/theoretical nature and the others an applied character (similarly to tests and exams of previous years available in Fenix). The questions might take 3 forms:

1) Questions with multiple answer (closed form) options, of which students must choose the (most) correct answer (similar to the surprise-quizzes that have been performed during the theoretical classes); for questions of an applied character, the options might be simply numbers and the students should carry out the appropriate calculations to identify the correct numerical answer;

2) Questions with “open” answers, where students enter answers (as text and/or numbers) in spaces provided in the “Worksheet/Ficha de Trabalho”;

3) Questions with “open” answers that should be handwritten, namely those that require drawing/ sketching some diagram (such as a Life Cycle Diagrams). In these cases, the answers that should be handwritten (and diagrams should be sketched by hand) in a blank sheet of paper, with the student identification (name and number) at the top, which should be scanned (using some appropriate app) and the corresponding PDF file submitted in Fenix (before the time limit defined in the exam paper) using the “Submit -> Projects” option (appropriate projects will be created in Fenix to submit these files with the answers). The file name should include the student number, with some format (such as SPO2021-Q3-YourStudentNumber) to be defined in the test paper.

As to this last type of questions, please be aware that there is a number of freely available apps to scan documents and produce a single PDF file with the all the pages in that document, such as Adobe Scan, CamScanner, or TapScanner for mobile phones (among several others). Furthermore, the single PDF file generated by these apps can be immediately shared, e.g. sent by mail to a previously defined email address (presumably your own). This is much simpler (and quicker) than taking photographs of each page of the document, and thus producing several files (which are much heavier than the single PDF file generated by these apps). It is strongly recommended that students explore one of these apps (or similar) and train/become familiar with its use. Based on our experience, for a 3 pages document, this process shouldn’t take more than 2-3 minutes to have the generated PDF file in your mail, which you must then submit in Fenix. As such, extra 5 minutes will be conceded to do all this and it should be enough (most probably with some slack). But if your experience shows that you are slower than this, then it is obviously advisable that you start the process before the time limit defined in the test paper for that Group so that you do not risk being unable to submit the file in due time.

In some cases, the question might involve some diagrammatical representation and “Worksheets/Fichas de Trabalho” in Fenix do not support this. As such, these diagrams will be provided (at appropriate times) in a PDF file available in some section created by us in Fenix (instructions on how to download that file will be provided in the exam paper). As such, students might have to open and manipulate several files/windows during the test/exam and therefore they should me familiar on how to operate on such environment/conditions.

Time management will be presumably a critical issue during the coming tests/exams, and we are fully aware that students will always feel that the time allowed for submitting answers is short, although we think we have adjusted everything so that time allowances are tight but fair. Some (obvious) words of advice: consultation of your authorized elements should be reduced to a minimum (only when absolutely necessary, to look for some formula or clarification of some concept); do not get stuck in some question for which you don’t know immediately the answer (wasting time that you might need to answer some other question to which you could respond more quickly); use wisely the few minutes (about 5 to 10 minutes) overlap between different groups of questions, allocating time in accordance to your skills and level of preparation on the different topics.

Finally, all test questions be will be bilingual (in English and Portuguese). The answers can also be given in Portuguese or in English.

We will make available very soon in Fenix sort of a “trial” test, with sample questions of the various above mentioned forms so that students can train and become acquainted with the appropriate procedures in each case. Reactions to that experience and suggestions will be most welcome then.

According to IST regulations, all students taking on-line tests/exams must enter a Colibri/Zoom session created for that test/exam (invitation/link will be sent to all students registered for that test/exam) and keep the camera and microphone on during all the test/exam. The use of headphones (of any type) is not allowed during the tests/exams. If you do not agree with this, you cannot take on-line tests/exams and these will be replaced by an oral examination.  In any case, we will need one declaration stating your opposition or your explicit acceptance of these conditions.

Furthermore, you are also required to present a declaration in the following terms (in Portuguese or in English):  

 "When submitting online assessment tests, I declare on my honor that I will solve the test using only authorized consultation elements, autonomously and without exchanging any information by any means, with any person or repository of information, physical or virtual."

“Ao submeter provas de avaliação online, declaro por minha honra que irei resolver a prova recorrendo apenas aos elementos de consulta autorizados, de forma autónoma e sem trocar qualquer informação por qualquer meio, com qualquer pessoa ou repositório de informação, físico ou virtual.”

As such, please prepare a document (the file name should include your student number, under the format SPO2021-Declarations-YourStudentNumber) where you should include: i) a statement of your opposition or your explicit acceptance of the above mentioned conditions; ii) the also above referred declaration. A “Project” was created in Fenix (named “Declarations”) where this document should be submitted (using the “Submit -> Projects” option in Fenix) at your earliest convenience and not later than April 6th. This is a pre-requisite to take the SPO online tests/exams.

The only authorized consultation elements during the SPO tests/exams are: one A4 sheet (both sides) per test that must be handwritten (computer processed text or photocopies are not allowed). The content of these sheets is free, but it should include any formulas, definitions, etc. that might be needed during the test/exam and must have at the top (within a strip with about 2cm) the identification of the student (name and number). Students might be asked to show these consultation elements (in front of the camera) during the tests/exams.

Finally, all students must register timely in Fenix for this online test until April 6th. Without this previous registration, the student will not have access to the exam paper.

Best regards

Rui Oliveira