What is Cirrus?

Cirrus is a web-based environment for digital assessments. You can use it for both final exams in a secure online environment and informal practice examinations. Cirrus at TU/e is also set up to deal with mathematical equations and other scientific formatting.

How does Cirrus work?

You create a question bank with a variety of questions: true/false, multiple choice and open questions, but also mathematical questions and more. Parameterized questions are very interesting, where each student gets a unique test.

You create assessments out of your questions library. Teacher Support will help you with scheduling: for final exams in a secure web environment, you will get an examination room that is set up for laptop use, the support of ESA Educational Logistics, and USB security dongles.

A great benefit of Cirrus is its analysis capability. How did your students do? Which parts were consistently difficult? Are there questions that low-scoring students do better on than high-scoring students? All information that points to potential issues.

Why would I want to use Cirrus?

Do any of the following points apply? Then Cirrus may be an interesting tool for you!

• I want to save time on creating and grading exams
• I want to use less paper
• I want to offer exam questions with rich media such as images, videos and documents
• I want to offer my students ways to practice
• I want to give my students immediate feedback on quiz questions
• I want parameterized exam questions
• I want to increase the quality of my exam questions
• I want to create a reusable question library

How do I effectively use Cirrus?

The most important thing is to consider your questions well. Set clear learning goals and use those as a starting point. Do you need a practice test, interim test or final exam? Teacher Support can help you analyze whether you are actually testing what you wanted to test.

Getting started with Cirrus

The best way to get started with Cirrus is just to get started. Contact your teacher supporter to set up the live environment. Our support is always tailored to your needs, and our Teacher Support officer in your department is always available for quick questions.