Subjects

A subject is the central assessable content area of the platform: Excel 2016, Python, English B2. Every question, every domain, every test form is attached to a subject. This chapter covers the subject list, subject creation, and the multi-tab edit form that lets you configure everything — from the test’s commercial name to the administrators allowed to see the subject.

Open the page from the menu Question Module → Subjects, or directly at /subjects/AdminSubjectsWithTable.

The table lists every available subject, with its ID, name, subject family, language and version. The filters at the top of the page let you narrow down by free text, language or family.

Create a subject

Creating a subject is a two-step process: a minimal dialog to choose the subject family, then the edit form to configure everything else.

Step 1 — Choose the family

1. From the Subject management page, click Add a subject in the action bar.

   

2. In the dialog that opens, select the subject family the new subject belongs to (Office, Programming, etc.).

3. Confirm. The platform creates an empty subject and takes you directly to its edit form.

Step 2 — Fill in the essential fields

On the edit form (page SubjectUpdate), start by filling in:

• The name of the subject (tab Description).
• The subject details (tab Subject details): subject type, reference language, public/archived status, version.

The subject appears in the list as soon as you save. You can then come back later to fill in the remaining tabs.

💡 Empty vs published subject — A subject created without questions or complete settings remains unpublished by default (the Public checkbox is off). Candidates and client account administrators will not see it until you explicitly publish it.

Tabs of the subject form

The edit form (page EDIT A SUBJECT) is organised into eight tabs:

Tab	Contents
Description	Subject name and Long name (single- or multilingual depending on the switch).
Subject details	Type (Standard, Programming, Remote, …), TOS and ITS group, reference language, Public/Archived status, presence of micro-skills, version, icon.
Level descriptions	For each level from 1 to 5 and each language, a description of what a candidate at that level can do.
Jobs per level	For each level × language, a list of jobs corresponding to that skill level. Used to surface career pathways in candidate reports.
Test commercial description	For each language, three texts (card snippet, long description, short description) used on public pages and in catalogues.
Question authors	Credit line for the subject’s authors and experts, displayed in reports — one text per language.
Specific details	Fields visible only for certain types: for example, the associated programming language for Programming subjects, or the remote application command for Remote subjects.
Authorized administrators	List of administrators allowed to see and edit this subject.

⚠️ Save between tabs — The Save button at the top right saves the entire form. You can therefore fill in several tabs and save just once. However, switching tabs without saving discards unsaved changes — remember to save before moving on to another subject.

Multilingual

For each subject, you choose whether the name and the description should be identical across all the account’s languages, or customised per language.

The switch Different descriptions in each language (has_mul_nam) toggles between the two modes:

• Off (default) — a single Name field and a single Long name field, shared across all languages.
• On — one block per language (FR / EN / DE / NL / ES / IT / EL / AR depending on your offering) with a Name and Long name specific to each language.

💡 When to enable? — Multilingual mode is useful for subjects whose commercial name differs by country (for example, a certification test with a different local acronym). For the vast majority of technical subjects (Excel, Python), a single name is enough.

The other tabs (Level descriptions, Jobs per level, Commercial description, Authors) are always multilingual: you fill in one description per language, regardless of the has_mul_nam setting.

Levels and jobs per level

The Tosa platform scores candidates on a 5-level scale (Initial / Basic / Operational / Advanced / Expert, depending on the subject). Two tabs let you document these levels:

Level descriptions

The Level descriptions tab provides, for each language, one text per level (1 to 5) describing what a candidate at that level can do. These descriptions appear in every candidate’s report: “Level 3 — The candidate can build simple pivot tables…”.

Take care over these descriptions: they are the main information the candidate receives about what their score means.

Jobs per level

The Jobs per level tab provides, for each language and each level, a list of jobs that correspond: “Level 4 — Management controller, Junior financial analyst”. This information is shown in reports to give the candidate a professional projection.

Recommended format: a comma-separated list of jobs, aligned with the job reference frameworks of your market.

Test commercial description

The Test commercial description tab provides three texts per language, used on public catalogue pages (isograd.com, tosa.org) and in invitation emails:

• Card description (its_tst_des[car]) — a few words for the catalogue thumbnail.
• Long description (its_tst_des[lon]) — detailed descriptive paragraph.
• Short description (its_tst_des[sho]) — tagline.

Fill these texts in only if the subject is intended to be sold through the public catalogues. For an internal or proprietary subject, they can be left blank.

Question authors

The Question authors tab contains a single free-text field per language: the credit line for the authors and experts who designed the subject. This text appears at the foot of every candidate report: “Subject designed by Prof. Jean Dupont, University of Paris”.

Useful for editorial traceability and for crediting external contributors.

Type-specific details

The Specific details tab shows fields that depend on the subject type (typ_id) configured in the Subject details tab:

• Programming (typ_id=1) — shows the Associated programming language field (Python, JavaScript, …). Determines the execution environment for code questions.
• Remote (typ_id=2) — shows the Remote application command field (the invocation path for the remotely controlled application, for example Excel or Word installed on a VDI).
• Standard (typ_id=3 or 4) — the tab is empty; no specific parameter is required.

Changing the type dynamically hides or reveals the fields: no need to reload the page.

Authorized administrators

The Administrators tab lists every administrator allowed to see and edit this subject. By default, a new subject is visible to administrators with the Read/write all subjects privilege.

• Tick the box next to a name to authorize that administrator on the subject.
• Untick to revoke their access.
• Use the Filter field above the list to quickly find an administrator in a long list.

💡 Editorial segmentation — This feature is useful when you have several production teams: each team sees only its own subjects. Unchecking it for all external admins ensures that a subject still being drafted is not visible before validation.

Duplicate a subject

Duplication creates a new subject from an existing one, copying all its configuration (name, descriptions, levels, jobs, etc.). It is the fastest way to start a closely related subject (for example, a new version of Excel from the previous one).

1. On the source subject’s row in the list, click the Duplicate icon.
2. Confirm. The platform creates a copy with the suffix “(copy)” and takes you to its edit form.
3. Rename the copy immediately to avoid confusion, then adjust the fields as needed.

⚠️ Questions are not duplicated — Duplicating a subject copies its configuration but not the questions attached to it. The duplicated subject therefore starts with zero questions — it is up to you to write them or transfer them afterwards.

Delete a subject

1. On the subject’s row, click the Delete icon (trash can).
2. Confirm the deletion in the dialog that appears.

⚠️ Subjects with questions — A subject that contains at least one question cannot be deleted. The platform shows an error message (“Cannot delete this subject because it contains questions”) and the deletion is cancelled. Before deleting, remove or archive the questions attached to the subject.

💡 Prefer archiving — For an obsolete subject whose history you want to preserve, do not delete it: archive it via the Subject details tab (Archived checkbox). The subject disappears from default lists but remains viewable, and old reports continue to work.

Export the list

The Export to Excel button in the action bar generates an .xlsx file listing every subject currently filtered on screen. Useful for periodic reviews or for sharing the list with external contributors.

Transfer subjects to production

The Transfer subjects to production button in the action bar opens a wizard that lets you promote a subject from the pre-production environment to public production. This is the step that makes the subject (and its questions and test forms) available to real client accounts.

Follow the wizard to select the subject(s) to transfer, confirm the preflight checks (presence of a minimum number of calibrated questions, complete description in each active language, etc.), then validate the transfer.

⚠️ Sensitive action — A subject transferred to production becomes immediately visible to client accounts. Check meticulously before confirming: an incomplete or unreviewed subject can reach candidates.