Administrators Archives - Page 2 of 2

Exam Technical Support Information

Technical Requirements

Aquifer’s exam platform is built using web standards, the program runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, or any other device with a modern web browser. We recommend using a desktop computer or laptop, the screen on a mobile device would be too small.

Hardware

Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10, Windows 11
Mac OS X version v11 thru v14 (Sonoma)
1GHz processor or higher
17” screen or larger monitor (Desktops)
13” screen or larger (Laptops)

Internet/Network Bandwidth

Broadband (DSL, Cable or T1)
256Kbps or higher per workstation

Exam Compatibility Check (For students with personal laptops)

Students using personal laptops should be advised to arrive early to detect any problems with their local firewall.

Additional Workstations

Extra workstations/laptops should be available to replace computers that may malfunction during the test session. These spares should be enabled for wired and wireless LAN use.

* Adapted from the NBME Quick Start Guide to Web-Based Exam

Technical Support Staff Responsibilities

Individuals serving as technical support for an exam are expected to ensure that all computers being used for exam administration can deliver the exam securely and successfully.

In advance of administering the exam, we recommend…

Set up a dedicated workstation/laptop in each testing room that will used by the proctor in that room.
If you would like to run a sample test to verify the secure browser has downloaded and is working successfully, please contact exams@aquifer.org to request a test login for your institution.

It is the responsibility of the technical support staff to…

Have knowledge of the operating system (OS), virus checker and browser version that reside on institutional workstations/laptops or examinee laptops.
Be knowledgeable about the network architecture of the testing rooms.
Verify that Internet connection speed is adequate (minimum T1) for the exam.
Be available to be onsite on the day of the exam to resolve technical problems that may arise.

Exam Support

If an issue arises during the exam:

1. Contact your institution’s technical support staff.
2. Access Aquifer Exam Troubleshooting Tips.
3. If neither of those addresses the issue, contact Aquifer’s exam support staff weekdays 8 am – 5 pm ET, except federal holidays.

Contact exams@aquifer.org or (603) 727-7002 ext. 2 with any questions about test administration activities.

Security Reminder

Please remind all faculty and students that all exam content is confidential and should not be shared with anyone, at any time, in any way.

Create a CDME Exam Roster

In Aqueduct, Custom Course Manager and Lead Course Administrator users are responsible for exam standards, utilization, and identifying learners who will require access to scheduled assessments.

If you’re a Custom Course Manager or Lead Course Administrator, please follow the instructions below to create a CDME exam roster, which can then be downloaded and forwarded to Aquifer’s exam management team. You will find resources for successful exam management here.

Please note that a Custom Course is required in order to utilize Aquifer Exams. Learn how to set up a Custom Course.

How to Create an Exam Roster

FROM WITHIN YOUR CUSTOM COURSE: Choose the More Actions button on the top right-hand side.
From the Course Management page, use the right-hand column to select those users who will need to be rostered into the CDME.
Please verify that your list is correct before moving onto the next step – Review the list of student emails. Please ensure that no student is listed as UNKNOWN UNKNOWN. If they are, please contact those students directly and have them complete their registration. Students not registered are ineligible for CDMEs until they have completed their registration.
When all students are correct, Choose Exam Roster button in the top right-hand corner.
An Excel CSV file with a roster of these students will be downloaded onto your computer.
Attach the downloaded file to your Exam Request Form.
You can expect to receive a confirmation email that the roster has been received and is being processed.
Approximately one week in advance of your exam date, you should expect to receive an exam guide from exams@aquifer.org
If you have any questions or concerns, please direct all inquiries to exams@aquifer.org or call the exam helpline at (603) 727-7002 ext. 2.

Exam Troubleshooting

For Aquifer Pediatrics – Aquifer Family Medicine – Aquifer Radiology Exams

Exam Results

Student results are sent to the clerkship within two business days. Aquifer does not share results directly with students.

Students Logging Back into Exam Platform

Often students will attempt to log back into the exam platform after their administration is over. If a student is “stuck” at the login page, they will need to perform a hard reset of their device in order to return their device to off the Secure Browser. They can be instructed to do a hard reset, or they can be referred to call the helpline.

Printing Individual Student Reports

Aquifer sends two reports with students results from their exams. One is the Administrator’s report, and the other is the Student’s report. For those institutions that desire to give individual reports to students there are a few ways to do so:

Print the entire document and disseminate individual paper hard copies to students directly.
Create individual PDF’s for each student: Open the document and hit the “print” icon, select # of the pages (the student report is 2 pages per student, so 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, etc), click the PDF button at the lower left, save as PDF, and change the name of the PDF(to the student’s name) and save it in the correct location on your computer. When you have done this you will have an individual PDF for each student, and can send them as an email attachment to students directly.

Additional Support

For further assistance, please call the Helpline weekdays Mon-Fri 8am to 5pm Eastern Standard Time, except on federal holidays at (603) 727-7002 x2 or email at exams@aquifer.org. If you receive a voicemail, please leave a name and number, someone will return your call as soon as possible.

User Roles & Permissions

In Aqueduct, your program will have complete control to manage your users and assign permissions in a way that fits your structure. Our system is built to offer a range of permission options to best suit your program’s needs.

Setting Up a New Subscription

Before rostering users into Aqueduct, carefully review the User Roles below to fully understand the features available with each role and their associated permissions. You have complete control over who can view reports, add student rosters, and access student data, the system is designed so you can manage your subscription in a way that best fits your program needs. Decide who will fill each of these roles in your program as the first step to your successful startup.

Please note that each user may be assigned to only one role in Aqueduct.

Checking Your Aquifer Role

Your program will determine your role and permission level in Aqueduct when you are added as an administrative user. Your role is stated in your initial email invitation and is listed on your “My Profile” page in Aqueduct. If you need to create Custom Courses or access student progress reporting but do not have the appropriate role, please contact your Program Service Administrator. If you are unsure who fills that role at your institution, please contact Aquifer Support.

Aquifer Aqueduct Roles & Permissions Edited 2.21.24

Program Service Administrator

The Program Service Administrator is the primary subscription manager for the program and has the highest level of permissions in the system. This is a required role. There can only be one Program Service Administrator for each program. Users in this role:

Serve as Aquifer’s primary contact regarding subscription renewal
Add administrative users to the system and assign roles and permissions, including assigning a Curriculum Administrator, IT Manager, and other key administrative roles as required by your program
Manage (add, edit, and remove) all users—students and administrators
Determine who will upload student rosters. Students must be rostered in Aqueduct to gain access to Aquifer courses, and the Program Service Administrator, a separate Student Roster Manager, or the Curriculum Administrator can do this. The Program Service Administrator should decide who will perform this role and make sure they are assigned a role in the system and are prepared to upload the student roster
Access the searchable Content Library to easily sort and filter cases and scripts and quickly view case synopses and learning objectives
Full authorization for tracking and reports at the program, course, case, and student levels
At the highest level in the permission hierarchy—the Program Service Administrator can perform any role within the system as fits your program, including creating custom courses, viewing student cases, adding/deleting other educators, and performing any other role
Access Calibrate formative assessment set up and reporting if assigned to Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, or Radiology.

Curriculum Administrator

The Curriculum Administrator serves as an overall administrator for the educational content and has access to all courses and reports. This role is optional and is often assigned to a Curriculum Dean. New programs can add up to 3 Curriculum Administrators to their program. These users may identify and oversee subscriber program standards for incorporating curricular content into courses, including use for grading and assessment. Users in this role can:

Manage (add, remove, and edit) most administrative users (Student Roster Managers, Lead Course Administrators, Custom Course Managers, and Teachers) and all student users
Access all program, course, case, and student reports
Create custom courses
Access the searchable Case Library to easily sort and filter cases and quickly view case synopses and learning objectives
View ungated case content—with the ability to see answers to embedded assessments, advance through a case, and access the case summary at the end of a case without having to click through each card or complete each answer as required in the student role
Access Calibrate formative assessment set up and reporting if assigned to Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, or Radiology.

Lead Course Administrator (NEW)

The Lead Course Administrator (LCA) role is designed to provide a more efficient and FERPA-compliant administrative experience using Aquifer products.

Each program can have up to three (3) LCAs per subscribed Core Course (Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Geriatrics, Radiology, Neurology). And up to three (3) LCAs for the Clinical Excellence course case sets. At a minimum, Institutions should assign at least one (1) individual as an LCA for each course available in their subscription.

An LCA can:

Create and populate custom courses
Add and remove students/learners
Add and remove course managers and teachers
View course and case usage for Core Courses
Access Calibrate formative assessment set up and reporting if assigned to Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, or Radiology.

Custom Course Manager (NEW)

The Custom Course Manager (CCM) can create and manage their own custom courses, including the assignment of other CCMs or Teachers. CCMs have Teacher-level access to the Aquifer Signature Courses, meaning they can see student reports only for their custom courses and the custom courses created by others to which they are assigned.

Teachers

Teachers (preceptors, didactic instructors, etc.) have ungated access to Aquifer courses, meaning they can view the student cases, the answers to embedded assessments, and the case summary without having to click through each card in a case content or custom courses to which they are invited. Teachers can view all the Aquifer courses your program subscribes to. Additionally, they can view that content if assigned to a custom course. Teachers do not have access to view reporting. There is no limit to the number of Teachers a program may add to the system. Teachers can:

Access the searchable Content Library to easily sort and filter cases and scripts and quickly view case synopses and learning objectives
View ungated case content—with the ability to see answers to embedded assessments, advance through a case, and access the case summary at the end of a case without having to click through each card or complete each answer as required in the student role

IT Administrator

The IT Administrator serves a supportive role, helping to whitelist your program’s specific domain to ensure users receive automated email messages and addressing firewall or other implementation issues as needed to facilitate access. New programs initially have permission to add one IT Administrative user. Users in this role can:

Reset user passwords
Verify user permissions
Resend email invitations to administrative and student users
View all administrative and student users

Student Roster Manager

The Student Roster Manager is an optional role that can upload and manage student rosters for your program. Depending on how you choose to manage your subscription, the Program Service Administrator or Curriculum Administrator may upload student rosters, or you may assign this role to a separate Student Roster Manager, perhaps in the Registrar’s Office. New programs initially have permission to add one Student Roster Manager user. Users in this role can:

Upload student rosters
Manage (add, remove, or edit) all student users
Schedule and re-send student email invitations
View program-level reports on course and case usage

Exam Proctor

The Exam Proctor is the individual who supervises students using Aquifer Exams. This person can be any qualified individual the clerkship approves to supervise test-taking students. The exam proctor is not a specific role within Aqueduct.

For the Internal Medicine Clinical Decision Making Exam, this individual has the responsibility of:

Starting the exam for each student utilizing the exam proctor dashboard
Pausing the exam utilizing the exam proctor dashboard, if necessary
Communicating with Aquifer’s exam support staff if any issues arise during the exam

Learn how to Add Administrative users to your program.

Resetting Your Password

Current Password Policy –

Passwords must be at least 12 characters long ✅
Passwords must contain at least one uppercase alpha character (A-Z) ✅
Passwords must contain at least one lowercase alpha character (a-z) ✅
Passwords must contain at least one number. ✅
Passwords may not contain part of the username, first name, last name ✅
Passwords must be changed at least every 180 days ✅
Users may not reuse passwords ✅
Accounts are locked after 5 failed login attempts ✅

1. If you forget your password, Aquifer can help you regain access to your courses and information right away. From the Sign In page, click the Forgot Password link.

2. You will be brought to a page where you can enter your Account email address. After entering your email address, click “Send me instructions to set my password“.

3. You will receive an email with instructions to reset your password. If you do not see this email, check your spam mailbox. Follow the instructions in the email to reset your password. Click the link to reset your password.

4. You will then be brought to a page where you can reset your password. Please put in your new password twice to confirm and click on “Change my password”. You will then be logged in with your new password.

SUBMIT A SUPPORT TICKET

CALL AQUIFER SUPPORT (CALL BACK ONLY)

Student Progress Reporting

Tracking Student Usage and Performance

Aqueduct provides easy access to a range of interactive report dashboards. Program Service Administrators, Curriculum Administrators, Lead Course Administrators, and Custom Course Managers can all access reports on student progress through Aquifer courses, cases, and Integrated Illness Scripts. (Note: users in a Teacher role do not have access to view student reports, and Custom Course Managers may only view reports from their own custom courses)

The Aqueduct Reporting Experience

It’s quick and easy to find data by student, case/integrated illness script, or course. Our reports are simple to generate and easily understood.

All reports can be viewed online in the interactive dashboard, or downloaded and exported to a CSV file. Please note that times will appear local time on screen, but all exports display in Eastern Time.

Reporting by Course Type

Aquifer Signature Course Reporting: Reports for Aquifer Signature courses that come standard with your subscription include student progress for:
- Every case or Integrated Illness Script in the Signature Course
- Every student that is registered in the system.

Note: Course reports can get large if your program has registered a lot of students and may include students who have not been assigned to work in the course. We recommend creating custom courses to access tailored reporting.

Custom Course Reporting: Creating a custom course is a recommended step for programs that wish to access reports tailored to a specific set of students and/or cases. Custom course reports include student progress for:
- Just the specific cases and/or Integrated Illness Scripts that you have assigned to the students
- Just the specific students you have assigned to the course

Optimizing your reports is just one of the many reasons to create a custom course—learn more.

The Course Report

The Course Report provides a quick view of students’ progress through each case or Integrated Illness Script in a Signature or Custom course.

There are two different ways to access course reports. You can now get directly to your course reports by clicking the “View Report” button on the “My Custom Courses” card. Alternatively, you can click “Courses” on the left-hand navigation to take you to your courses page. From there, select the report that you wish to view.

Landing Page:

Courses Page:

The Course Report will appear with student progress through all content in that specific course.

Select the date range for the report. Your report will include progress in all cases and scripts started during that time period

Select Date Range and Choose Cases or Scripts

If you are viewing a report for a custom course that includes both cases and Integrated Illness Scripts, student progress for the cases and scripts will be listed in separate tabs.

Under the Cases or Integrated Illness Scripts tab you will see:

List of Students Including Email Address, First Name, Last Name
- Every student registered in the system will appear on reports for Aquifer Signature courses
- For custom courses, only students that have been assigned to that course will appear, regardless of whether they have registered in Aqueduct. Students who have not yet registered in Aqueduct will appear as ‘Unknown Unknown’

All Cases or Scripts included in the Course
Total number of cases or scripts completed by each student
Progress through each case or script in the course that has been started in the given time period shown in individual columns
- Complete = green check mark
- Complete partially completed = yellow circle showing the percentage of the case that is complete. Note, the percentage does NOT represent a grade or score!
- Not started = red circle
- Any color circle with a black outline = indicates that the student reset the case
Search For a Specific Student: You can use the Search function to search for a specific student by entering the student’s name into the search box

The Export button for all reports is located in the upper right hand corner of the screen.

Case Completion Notes

Students must answer all three required feedback questions at the end of each case—and click the Finish Case button in the Case Summary Download section—in order for the case to appear as complete on reporting. If students have worked through the case content but haven’t completed the feedback questions or clicked Finish Case, their work will show as partially completed—a yellow circle showing the percentage complete—on all Aquifer reports.

The Case Detail Report

The Case Detail Report is a drill-down report that shows the progress that all relevant students have made within a specific case within a course.

From within your Course Report, you can access case-specific reporting in just one easy step:

From the Course Report: In the header row, click on the case number you need to access.

The Case Report includes each students’ progress through a specific case with the following information:

Time from Case Start to Complete
Percent of the Case Completed
Case Reset Status (indicated by a black outline around the case completion circle)
Pages Completed
Case Start Date (local time shown on-screen)
Date Case Last Accessed (local time shown on-screen)
Case Completion Date (local time shown on-screen)
Case Summary statement (if applicable). If the student is asked to write a summary statement as part of the case you will be able to view his/her submission here. The Summary Statement column will be blank if the student has not written a summary statement and will show N/A if there is no summary statement question within the case.
Expert Comment summary statement (if applicable) for easy evaluation of your students’ work. Note: Scroll to the right to view this column.
Note: The number of times the case was reset by each student will show in the Case and Student Report exports only.

Case Detail Report with summary statements

The Integrated Illness Script Detail Report

If your course includes Integrated Illness Scripts you can drill down to view details on student progress through each script.

To access the Integrated Illness Script Detail Report from the Course Report:

If you are viewing a report for a course that includes cases and scripts, first click on the Integrated Illness Script Tab at the top of the report. If your course includes only scripts you can skip this step.
In the header row, click on the name of the script you need to access.

For each student, the Integrated Illness Script Detail report includes:

Time from Script from start to completion.
Percent of the Script Completed (measured as percentage of sections opened)
Case Reset Status (indicated by a black outline around the case completion circle)
A check box to indicate whether the Mechanism of Disease Map has been opened
Implications for Further Workup: If students record notes in this section within the script, their work appears on this report.
Implications for Further Management: If students record notes in this section within the script, their work appears on this report.

The Student Detail Report

You can also view detailed reports on a single student, which reflect the same information found in the Case and Integrated Illness Script Detail reports, but organized with all the content completion progress in the course for a single student.

To access a Student Detail Report for a specific student:

From the Course Report: In the header row, click on the email address for the student you need to access
Use the tabs at the top of the report to toggle between the student’s progress in cases and Integrated Illness Scripts

Managing & Removing Administrative Users

After administrators are added to your program, it’s easy to manage your administrative users in Aqueduct. Users with administrative user management permissions (view roles and permissions for details) have the ability to:

Remove administrators from your program
Export an administrative user list
Edit administrator user roles
Send email invitations to administrators at any time
Sort and filter administrators in a variety of ways

The Administrative User Panel

The administrative user panel provides at-a-glance information and useful tools to help you manage your users.

To access the administrative user panel, click on Users in the side navigation after you have signed in.

Overview

Once you have navigated to the Administrative user panel, you’ll notice that the Administrators tab will be activated automatically. Please note that student users are accessed separately by clicking on the “Students” tab.

The top of the Administrator User Panel displays your admin user counts at a glance, listed by their assigned role. Counts include:

Registration Pending: The number of admin users who have access to your program but have not registered in Aqueduct yet
Active: Administrators who have completed their registration
Total: All admin users currently rostered in your program (both registration pending and active)
Max: The maximum number of admin users that may be added based on your institution’s current subscription

You will also see Send Email Invitation, Export User List, and Remove Selected Members buttons. These three options are inactive until users are selected.

All users are listed at the bottom of this page and may be sorted, filtered, and exported in a variety of ways.

Filter & Sort Options

There are a variety of options available for sorting your administrator list. Below your admin user statistics, you’ll see a full list of your admin users with a variety of options for filtering, sorting and selecting. You can Search (1) by last name, first name, or email address in the search field.

Aqueduct’s admin user panel allows you to Filter by Role and Filter by Status. Use the dropdown menus to sort the list of admin users below by Aqueduct role assignment or registration status.

You can also sort in ascending or descending order by first name, last name, email, role, clinical discipline, and date added (2). Please note first name, last name, and clinical discipline is entered by users when they complete their registration and will not be available for administrators who have a status of “Registration Pending.” The role field indicates the role assigned to the user in Aqueduct.

To sort, click on the button for the field you wish to select (3). The button you select will turn a darker blue while your sort is active, and a pointer will appear next to the text indicating if your list will be sorted in ascending or descending order. Click the button again to change the sort order.

Selecting & Deselecting Users

In order to use the administrative user management tools, you will need to select a user, or group of users, you wish to manage. After using the filter and sort options to display the list of users as you’d like, there are two methods to select and deselect students.

Use the Select All Shown or Deselect All buttons above the list.
Check the box next to each administrator you wish to select. Check the box again to deselect.

Selected admin users are highlighted and show a checkmark in the box next to their name.

Selecting and deselecting administrative users

Administrative User Management Tools

Our user management tools make it quick and easy to edit and export users, or send email reminders to your unregistered users.

Editing User Roles

Changing the role assigned to an administrative user is easy.

Next to the user you want to edit, select the Edit Role button.

This will open a page entitled Edit Role for [user’s name]. Choose the appropriate role from the drop-down menu by clicking on the up and down arrows. Click Update.

You will be directed back to the Users page for your program. A message will be open at the top of the page indicating whether or not you have successfully added users, “Group role was successfully updated.”

Note: If your program already has the maximum number of users for a role (viewed form the main user panel), you will not be able to add additional users in that role. Please contact Aquifer support for assistance.

Send Email Invitations

Email invitations can be sent to administrative users with a Registration Pending status at any time. Please note that all admin users automatically receive an email invitation when they are initially added to the program. You may wish to send reminders to administrators who have not signed in to access your course after a few months, or a period of time that fits with your program’s schedule.

Email invitations will ONLY be sent to users with a Registration Pending status.

To send an additional email invitation, select the users you wish to email, and click the Send Email Invitation button.

You will receive a pop-up prompting you to confirm that you wish to send an email to the selected users. Click OK to continue sending the email invitation.

After emails are successfully sent, you will see a confirmation note in the light blue box at the top of the page.

Please note: Emails will not be sent to users with an Active status. If you select users with a mix of statuses, emails will be sent to only those who have not yet registered. After clearing the pop-up, the message at the top of your screen will show which emails were sent to users.

Export User List

To export a list of users to a csv file, select the admin users you wish to export and click the Export User List button. Your browser will direct you to download and save the csv file for your use.

Removing Administrative Users from Your Program

Removing admin users from your program will discontinue their access to your Aquifer courses and reporting. There are two ways to remove admin users from your program.

Batch Remove Admins

To batch remove admins using a list of email addresses, click the Remove Admins button at the top of the page.

On the Batch Remove Administrators from Program page, add emails (comma separated) for the users that you wish to remove from your program and click Remove Administrators.

You will receive a pop-up message asking to confirm the removal of the listed administrators. Click OK to confirm that you wish to proceed.

After the process completes, you will see a confirmation in the light blue notification bar at the top of the page.

Remove Selected Members

You can also remove administrators by selecting them from the user list, and clicking on the Remove Selected Members button. The options for sorting and filtering your user list allows for efficient use of this method for removal.

You will see a pop-up notification asking you to confirm deleting the selected users. Click OK to continue.

After the process completes, you will see a pop-up confirmation.

Once administrators are removed from a program, they are no longer able to access Aquifer courses or reports.

Creating Custom Courses

Why Create a Custom Course?

Organize rotations, blocks, or academic years: Custom courses make it easy to assign specific cases and Integrated Illness Scripts to students, track class or cohort progress at a glance, and include course specific information or directions for students

Align Courses to Your Curriculum: Pick and choose content to create courses that fit your curriculum. You can create courses that align to longitudinal integrated clerkships, bootcamps, electives, or specific student’s remediation needs. You can integrate cases from our free courses, like High Value Care, with a discipline-specific course that you subscribe to, enriching an existing course. If you have access to Integrated Illness Scripts you can create a custom course with select scripts for students to compare and contrast using one of our ready-made Integrated Learning Sessions for instance, or combine them with our cases to enable a rich learning experience.

Track and monitor progress for a specific group of students: Reports for custom courses are tailored to include just the students and just the cases or scripts assigned to that course, making it easy to track and monitor student progress in the course at a glance.

Manage Exam Rosters: Creating a custom course is a required step for subscribers using Aquifer exams, and allows for quick and easy exam roster creation.

Create a New Custom Course

Tip! Do you want to copy a set of cases or users from an existing course to a new custom course? Save time by using our new Duplicate Course feature, which allows you to copy cases and/or users to a new custom course. If not, continue with the directions below to create a new custom course.

1. Click on Content Library in the side navigation.

2. Use the Searchable Content Library filters to select the cases and integrated illness scripts you want to add to your custom course. Note: Skip this step if you want to create the custom course shell first and add cases later or create an exam roster.

After you have added your content, you can click “View Selected Items” to verify you have selected the cases and scripts that suit your course.

3. A new window allows you to add or remove cases and scripts. If you are satisfied with the selection, click Create Course

5. On the New Course page, enter:

Course Name: We suggest using a consistent naming convention that includes course and rotation name, such as “Family Medicine Clerkship: Block 4”.

Description: We suggest including instructor name, instructions for the course, which cases are assigned, due date, and anything else your students need to know.

Person Responsible: Select the user responsible for the course from your list of eligible administrators. The person responsible will be visible on the course page to all students and administrators associated with the course and will be notified when the course reaches its end date to either delete or extend the date of this course.

Start Date: Visible to all course users.

End Date: This date will show on the courses page for all associated users. When the end date is reached, the person responsible for the course will be notified and asked to delete or extend the date for this course.

6. Click Create Course.

7. You will then see a notification of successful course creation. On your new course page, you will see your course information at the top and the content you have selected showing below.

Add Users to the Course

Only the users that are added to custom courses will be able to view and access it, so it is important that you complete this step. All users assigned to a custom course will receive an automated email invitation. You can add or remove users at any time.

Remember: Users must be rostered in your program before you can assign them to a custom course.

From the custom course page, choose Course Users button in top right-hand corner. This will take you to the Course Users page.

You have two options to add users:

Option 1: Add by Email

Add by Email will allow you to batch add the students to the course, rather than adding them one by one from a list, and is recommended if you have a large group of students to add to a course.

1.Click Add By Email in the upper right-hand corner.

2. Insert comma separated email addresses into the open field. It is recommended that you have list of student emails in a column list (in Excel) which you can simply copy and paste into Aqueduct.

3. Select a date to schedule an email inviting users to access this course. If you do not choose a date, the email invitation will send immediately.

4. Click Add Users button directly under the field.

Option 2: Add by List

Add by List allows you to select users to add to your course by selecting them from the list of current users in the system. This option is recommended if you are adding individuals or small groups of students to a course.

1.Click Add By List in the upper right-hand corner.

2. Scroll through list to find specific users or use the Search feature to search for a user by name or email. Please note that if “Unknown Unknown” appears to the right of the student email address, they have not yet completed registration or signed in.

3. Click on a user to select them.

4. Select a date to schedule an email to your users inviting them to access the course. If no date is selected, the email will be sent immediately.

5. Once you have completed your selection(s), click Add Members button in top right-hand corner.

Confirm Your Users Were Added Successfully

1. A message will appear at the top of the course page indicates the users that were successfully added to the course.

2. If you receive a message saying “The following emails are not members of the group yet but were saved to be added to the course later ….” It means the system does not recognize those emails as having been previously rostered. Check to see that you entered the email addresses correctly. If so, contact your Program Service Administrator to ask to have the users rostered in Aqueduct. Once they have been rostered in Aqueduct they will be automatically be added to the course.

Click “Course Users” to view all users that have been added to the Course.

Click the “Course Users” button to view all users added to the Course. You can also duplicate your custom course to create new courses.

Rostering Students in Aqueduct

In Aqueduct, it’s easy for administrators to manage student access. The most important thing to know is that students need to be rostered in Aqueduct in order to have access to the Aquifer courses. Be sure to add new students to your program at the start of each academic year or semester.

Notes about Student Rosters:

Please inform students that you will be using their official institutional email address only. Using official institutional emails exclusively allows a consistent way for you and students to manage log-in, and for Aquifer support to assist students who need help.
The format for inputting a student roster is comma separated email addresses ONLY. You will want to download this list from your current system to a CSV file.

Access the Student User Panel

To access the student user panel, click on Users in the top navigation. From the program users page, click on the Students tab.

Details on the student user panel can be found in our Managing and Removing Student Users post.

Adding Students to a Program

From the student user panel, click on the Add Students button at the top of the page.

Copy/paste your student emails in comma separated format on the screen. You can also add new students one by one throughout the year as needed by simply typing their email address into the box.

If you would like to schedule an automated email inviting your students to access your program’s Aquifer subscription, click on the checkbox next to the “Send invite emails to students” text. If you do not want to send automated email invitations at this time, don’t check the box and click on Add Students. You will have the ability to send email invitations at any time once your students are added to your program.

If you wish to send an automated email invitation, a date selection field will appear after you check the send invite box. Schedule your email invitation by selecting the date on which you would like it to send. If you select the current date, your invitation will send immediately.

You will see a confirmation at the top of your User page listing the user(s) that have been added. If you have included any student emails that are already part of the program, you will see a red notification bar with that message.

The students you added will now appear in the student user list below as “Unknown Unknown”, showing their email addresses and a status of “Registration Pending”. When the students sign in and complete their registration, their status will change to “Active” and this screen will show the values that they enter for First Name, Last Name, and Anticipated Graduation Date.

To learn more about student user management and tools, please view our Managing & Removing Student Users post.

Engaging Your Faculty with Aquifer

With Aquifer you can tell your busy teachers to relax–you’ve got the core content covered! Now they can do what they love best: teach about patients, observe students’ skills, provide useful feedback, and mentor students’ professional development.

Realizing the full value of Aquifer occurs when students blend their learning from our cases effectively into their foundational knowledge and clinical experiences. Your clinical faculty, community-based preceptors, didactic faculty, and teaching residents provide invaluable opportunities for this cognitive integration to occur.

Eight Great Tips for Teaching with Aquifer

Be sure your teachers are registered in Aqueduct

We offer a variety of password-protected access options:

Student-level access: Includes card-by-card case navigation with a case summary provided upon case completion. All faculty, community preceptors, and residents who share your institutional email address may self-register for all of the courses to which your institution subscribes.
Teacher access: Includes open case navigation, access to the case summaries, and to the case search feature of the Aquifer website. Contact your institution’s Aquifer Program Service Administrator or Curriculum Administrator to authorize access.

Get to know our patients

Our case summaries provide an in-depth review of each case––the learning objectives, the differential and final diagnosis, and key teaching points. All of the summaries are available to registered instructors in the relevant Aquifer course. Encourage your faculty and residents to:

Familiarize themselves with the Aquifer cases that are common to their practice setting.
Incorporate relevant Aquifer case content into their didactic session.

Take Aquifer on rounds and into the practice

Our site is optimized for mobile access, making teaching on-the-fly easy. Your teachers may quickly find relevant cases or case content through our powerful search feature found on the Courses page.

Website search (open to the public): Searches the Aquifer site for relevant content, including the virtual patient presenting problems. Preceptors and residents can encourage students to complete Aquifer cases just prior to or following clinical patient encounters.
Case search (available to registered instructors only): Searches the virtual patient cases themselves, identifying all relevant content and multimedia within the cases and case summaries. Preceptors and residents can dive into the cases at a moment’s notice, drawing immediately from the rich resources that the cases provide.

Blend Aquifer content into clinical teaching

Encourage your clinical teachers to visit our Educators page and use our integration resources to:

Compare and contrast the presentation of Aquifer cases to students’ patients.
Draw from the wide array of available multimedia resources and Web links for use in their own teaching.
Employ the Aquifer clinical reasoning structure to frame and expand patient work-up and management discussions.
Use the case analysis tool to work through an Aquifer case together––or apply the tool to a challenging patient presentation.
Apply the Aquifer summary statement rubric to students’ real-time case presentations.

Support your teaching residents

Residents can be unsure in their new teaching role. Remember––they probably completed the cases as students themselves! Now they have access to the instructor resources. Urge them to draw from the cases they found most useful, and to use Aquifer’s Educator Resources as a way to get started.

Use student down time effectively

Clinics get busy. Admissions mount. Faculty and residents struggle to balance it all. Students worry about finishing this week’s cases. Problem solved! Increase your teacher and student satisfaction by letting them know it’s OK to give students some time to work on the cases when the day gets out of hand. How often is it that easy?!

Build on Aquifer content in didactic sessions

Decrease lecture time and increase active learning in your course or clerkship when you integrate Aquifer content into faculty or resident teaching sessions.

Align required case completion with your course didactic sessions––and cut down the need for your faculty to lecture. Ask them to do a chalk talk instead: We guarantee the students will enjoy it a lot more.
Expand on Aquifer content about the competencies that are more effectively taught in face-to-face discussions, including communication skills, professionalism, cultural competency, and systems-based practice.
Create active learning sessions––such as team-based learning or flipped classroom sessions––that require students to problem-solve and apply lessons they have learned from working through the virtual cases.

Create new learning experiences to elaborate on Aquifer

Educators have reported a number of innovative methods for expanding on Aquifer content––taking student satisfaction and clinical learning to a higher level:

Clinical reasoning assignments: Create and solve new “what if” scenarios built off of our virtual patients.
Patient safety and quality improvement exercises: How would you measure the quality of the care received by an Aquifer patient?
High fidelity simulation exercises: Create scenarios that make our virtual patients take a turn for the worse.
Standardized patient sessions: What would happen if this Aquifer patient could talk?

Orienting Your Students to Aquifer

Help Maximize Student Learning

Orienting your students to Aquifer will make a big difference in their learning experience. You can help them maximize their learning by sharing some key information to help them get started and understand how Aquifer fits into your plans for your course or clerkship.

3 Steps to Successful Orientation

As always, we’re here to help! Aquifer has developed resources to make it easy for you to share key points with students in a quick, engaging way. We’ve also identified the key questions you’ll need to consider about how Aquifer is integrated into your course to be sure students clearly understand your expectations.

1

Start with Our Slides

We’ve created slides with the basics on Aquifer cases and useful tips for students, ready to drop into your course or clerkship orientation.

Download Student Orientation Slides

Download PowerPoint Slides

2

Watch Student Story Videos

Let your students hear from their peers to help them understand how Aquifer cases can help them advance their skills through complete, realistic clinical experiences. Show our two 1-minute videos in your orientation, or have your students watch them on their own by sharing this link: aquifer.org/students.

The Student Experience

3

Share Goals & Expectations for Your Course or Clerkship

Orient students to your rationale for using the cases in your curriculum is important.

Key Questions

Review the following questions during your course orientation or include the answers in your course materials.

How do our educational goals integrate into yours?

Review the Aquifer educational goals with your students and articulate how you have chosen to incorporate them into your own course goals. Discuss how the cases will advance their understanding of the foundational concepts and clinical skills within your course.

Which cases will the students be required to complete?

Many educators require students to complete all of the cases within an Aquifer course. Other approaches include assigning specific cases to fill an important gap in clinical experience or in faculty teaching expertise or assigning a specified number of cases of the student’s choosing.

Students are encouraged to complete the remaining cases as needed. You may also wish to make your students aware of the additional courses that Aquifer offers with each subscription.

Regardless of your approach, ensure that your students clearly understand your expectations at the beginning of the course.

How will student's case completion be monitored?

Most educators choose to use our student reports feature to monitor students’ case progress and engagement. Many document case completion to meet institutional case log or LCME requirements. Be clear with students at the beginning of your course that you will be monitoring their progress, and how and when they will be notified if they are falling behind, or devoting insufficient time and attention to the cases.

Will case completion be required by a specific date?

To assist students in pacing themselves through the cases, many educators assign a minimum number of cases to completed each week. Additionally, best practice suggests requiring students to complete a specific case prior to a didactic session or related clinical experience. Ensure students understand that case completion is a requirement and will be monitored through the student log report.

How can students make the most of their learning from the cases?

Our cases are very effective for self-directed learning and independent study. However, proactive students can further their understanding by intentionally integrating their learning from the cases with their clinical experiences. Consider suggesting these methods during your orientation.

Completing or reviewing Aquifer cases just before or after seeing a patient with a similar presenting problem.
Comparing and contrasting the presenting finding from an Aquifer case with their patients’ presentation.
Applying the Aquifer clinical reasoning approach to their patient presentations and write-ups.
Using the Aquifer summary statement rubric when writing summary statements in the patient record.
Reviewing their questions about the cases with their preceptors or teaching residents.
Applying practice guidelines identified in the cases to their own patients.

When will students be given time to work on the cases?

Our research has shown that intentionally building time into your course for students to work on the cases is a critical integration factor (Berman et al, Academic Medicine Academic Medicine 84(7):942-949, 2009). Identifying and listing time to work on the cases in your course calendar is a straightforward method to make this time clear to students.

How will students be assessed on their learning?

Integrating assessment closes the curricular loop and demonstrates to students that you value the Aquifer content and their time spent working through the cases. In addition to our Calibrate Formative Assessment for progress testing, some programs assign the Aquifer Clinical Decision Making Exam for Internal Medicine as a summative assessment. Other ways programs use Aquifer in grading and assessment is to include case completion as part of course grade, review students’ Summary Statement responses compared to expert comments, assign students to complete Aquifer’s Case Analysis Tool (CAT), or ask them to present oral reports on Aquifer cases, considering them as standardized patients. An early understanding of how their Aquifer work will be assessed ensures student attention to the cases, and enhances their engagement.

Webinar: Engaging Your Students & Faculty with Aquifer

For more tips on engaging and orienting your students with Aquifer, catch our panel of educators and student contributors sharing their experiences.

Don’t Forget: Anytime, Anywhere Access

Be sure to let your students know that all cases are available via our mobile apps. Download “Aquifer Clinical Learning” for iOS and Android to complete work anytime, anywhere—including working offline.

Technical Requirements

Technical Support Staff Responsibilities

In advance of administering the exam, we recommend…

It is the responsibility of the technical support staff to…

Exam Support

Security Reminder

Post Exam Issues

Additional Support

Setting Up a New Subscription

Checking Your Aquifer Role

Tracking Student Usage and Performance

The Aqueduct Reporting Experience

Reporting by Course Type

The Course Report

Case Completion Notes

The Case Detail Report

The Integrated Illness Script Detail Report

The Student Detail Report

The Administrative User Panel

Administrative User Management Tools

Removing Administrative Users from Your Program

Why Create a Custom Course?

Create a New Custom Course

Add Users to the Course

Confirm Your Users Were Added Successfully

Notes about Student Rosters:

Access the Student User Panel

Adding Students to a Program

Eight Great Tips for Teaching with Aquifer

Help Maximize Student Learning

3 Steps to Successful Orientation

1

Start with Our Slides

2

Watch Student Story Videos

3

Share Goals & Expectations for Your Course or Clerkship

Recommended Article

Key Questions

Webinar: Engaging Your Students & Faculty with Aquifer

Don’t Forget: Anytime, Anywhere Access