Federations in PrairieTest
A federation is a group of testing centers that agree to serve each other's students. When centers join a federation, students whose exams are configured at one member center can reserve exam seats at any other member center in the same federation. This is useful when centers span multiple campuses, institutions, or regions and want to give students more flexibility in where they take their exams.
Key concepts
- Home center: the testing center where a student's exam is configured — it controls the exam settings, time-limit extensions, and accommodations.
- Serving center: the testing center where the student physically takes the exam.
For local (non-federated) reservations, the home center and serving center are the same. For federated reservations, they may differ.
How federations work
Federations are independent of any single institution. Member centers can come from different institutions, and a center can belong to multiple federations simultaneously.
A federation has its own staff, settings, and audit log. Federation staff manage the federation itself — approving new member centers, inviting other staff, and configuring federation-level settings. Center staff manage their own center's participation in federations from the center settings page.
Typical setup
- A center owner creates a new federation, which generates a join code.
- The join code is shared with other centers that want to participate.
- Each center owner enters the join code from their center's settings page, creating a membership request.
- A federation editor or owner approves the request, making the center an active member.
Once centers are members, students at any member center can reserve exam seats at other member centers, subject to the course being enabled for federation at its home center (see Enabling federation for courses).