We operate a computer-based testing facility using PrairieTest, and our facilitators document issues that occur at individual testing workstations.
A typical report might include:
Testing center/location
Computer or seat number
Date
Approximate time
For example:
Computer 15 — September 4 at approximately 10:35 AM
When reviewing the report later, we need to determine who was actually sitting at that workstation at that time and what course they were taking an exam for.
PrairieTest already has the reservation and seat-assignment information, but we do not currently have an automated way to retrieve it.
Desired Capability
Ideally, we would like a read-only API that allows an authorized testing center to look up historical seat occupancy.
Conceptually, we would provide:
Testing Center + Seat + Date/Time
and receive:
Student name
Student UID/institutional identifier
Course
Seat
Reservation date/time
Reservation ID, if available
The main question we are trying to answer is:
Who was actually using seat/computer X at this date and time?
The timestamp would usually be fairly specific, but it would be helpful if the lookup could also accommodate an approximate time.
Example
A facilitator submits an issue report containing:
Testing Center: Engineering Testing Facility
Seat: 15
Date: September 4, 2026
Time: 10:37 AM
Our automation could query PrairieTest and receive something like:
Student: Jane Smith
UID: jsmith
Course: EECS 280
Seat: 15
Reservation: September 4, 2026, 10:00–11:30 AM
We could then automatically associate that information with our internal issue report instead of requiring staff to manually research it.
API Preferred, Automated Export Also Helpful
A read-only API would be our preferred solution.
However, an automated export would also meet the need if PrairieTest could provide reservation and seat-assignment data in a way that we could retrieve programmatically.
For example, a scheduled CSV or similar export containing:
Student name
Student UID
Course
Seat
Reservation start/end date and time
Testing center/location
Reservation ID
would allow us to perform the seat/time lookup within our own system.
We would generally only need approximately 30 days of historical data.
Access
We would expect this capability to require authenticated, authorized access for the testing center. We only need read access to reservation and seat-assignment information; we would not need the integration to modify PrairieTest reservations.
Why This Would Help
Testing-center operational issues are often reported based on the physical workstation, not the student's identity.
Being able to automatically connect:
workstation + timestamp → student + course
would make it much easier for testing centers to investigate workstation problems and other reported issues without manually searching PrairieTest after the fact.
We operate a computer-based testing facility using PrairieTest, and our facilitators document issues that occur at individual testing workstations.
A typical report might include:
Testing center/location
Computer or seat number
Date
Approximate time
For example:
Computer 15 — September 4 at approximately 10:35 AM
When reviewing the report later, we need to determine who was actually sitting at that workstation at that time and what course they were taking an exam for.
PrairieTest already has the reservation and seat-assignment information, but we do not currently have an automated way to retrieve it.
Desired Capability
Ideally, we would like a read-only API that allows an authorized testing center to look up historical seat occupancy.
Conceptually, we would provide:
Testing Center + Seat + Date/Time
and receive:
Student name
Student UID/institutional identifier
Course
Seat
Reservation date/time
Reservation ID, if available
The main question we are trying to answer is:
Who was actually using seat/computer X at this date and time?
The timestamp would usually be fairly specific, but it would be helpful if the lookup could also accommodate an approximate time.
Example
A facilitator submits an issue report containing:
Testing Center: Engineering Testing Facility
Seat: 15
Date: September 4, 2026
Time: 10:37 AM
Our automation could query PrairieTest and receive something like:
Student: Jane Smith
UID: jsmith
Course: EECS 280
Seat: 15
Reservation: September 4, 2026, 10:00–11:30 AM
We could then automatically associate that information with our internal issue report instead of requiring staff to manually research it.
API Preferred, Automated Export Also Helpful
A read-only API would be our preferred solution.
However, an automated export would also meet the need if PrairieTest could provide reservation and seat-assignment data in a way that we could retrieve programmatically.
For example, a scheduled CSV or similar export containing:
Student name
Student UID
Course
Seat
Reservation start/end date and time
Testing center/location
Reservation ID
would allow us to perform the seat/time lookup within our own system.
We would generally only need approximately 30 days of historical data.
Access
We would expect this capability to require authenticated, authorized access for the testing center. We only need read access to reservation and seat-assignment information; we would not need the integration to modify PrairieTest reservations.
Why This Would Help
Testing-center operational issues are often reported based on the physical workstation, not the student's identity.
Being able to automatically connect:
workstation + timestamp → student + course
would make it much easier for testing centers to investigate workstation problems and other reported issues without manually searching PrairieTest after the fact.