--- title: "Doing blueprinting and station authoring in StudyDrome" description: "How StudyDrome holds the design decisions: the blueprint matrix, stations as ordered checklists with scales and critical items, imports, and versions." canonical: https://studydrome.com/docs/osce/design/in-studydrome-blueprint-and-stations/ updated: 2026-09-27 --- # Doing blueprinting and station authoring in StudyDrome How StudyDrome holds the design decisions: the blueprint matrix, stations as ordered checklists with scales and critical items, imports, and versions. The design section ends with a signed blueprint and a bank of reviewed stations. StudyDrome Exam Manager stores both. The blueprint is a coverage matrix drawn over a question bank or over one OSCE exam. A station is a question. Its body is an ordered checklist with section headers, a scoring scale, critical items, and its own version history. This page explains what the product does for each decision in the section. It uses the product's own labels. Two pages on the product site go into more depth. [Blueprint coverage for OSCE exams](/exam-manager/osce/blueprint/) covers the matrix, its options, and the Excel export. [OSCE exams in StudyDrome](/exam-manager/osce/) covers the whole OSCE model from circuit to standard setting. This page serves as the bridge between the guide's decisions and those screens. ## The blueprint: a coverage matrix with history The [worked blueprint](/docs/osce/design/blueprint-worked-example/) is a grid of competencies against systems. In StudyDrome, the same grid is the **Blueprint** view. It opens from the **OSCE Exams** list as a row action, or from the **Tests** menu for a whole bank. Each axis is set separately in the **Blueprint Options** drawer. The choices are **None**, any tag type in the account, or **Skills**. Tags carry the systems and presentations; the **Clinical Skills** library carries the competencies. So the guide's rows and columns map directly onto the two axes. Each cell lists the stations at that intersection. Every station in the cell shows its observed facility across all past administrations and the number of times it has run. Empty intersections are left out, so the grid stays readable. The summary line reads "{n} questions · {m} with exam history". Drawn over one exam, the matrix is the coverage claim for that sitting. Drawn over the bank, it is the [bank owner's](/docs/osce/design/station-bank-management/) report. It shows which cells have stations and which have none. It shows which stations have run and how they performed. The Excel export colors each cell by the facility band its stations fall into. Cells with no history get their own color. The coverage picture survives being emailed to a committee. The matrix reports coverage. The working group builds the exam, decides the weights, and signs the grid. The matrix shows what the result covers, cell by cell. ## Stations: an ordered checklist with a scale A station written to the [five-part template](/docs/osce/design/writing-a-station/) becomes a question of the OSCE station type. Its body is an ordered list of rows. Each row is a checklist **Item** or a **Section** header, and the sections are the marking scheme's phases or domains from the [marking scheme page](/docs/osce/design/designing-the-marking-scheme/). Candidate instructions and the case sit on the station. The examiner sees the items in order on the day. Scoring follows the guide's decision on scales. A **Scoring Scale** is a named, ordered set of levels. Each level has a value, a label, and a description. A scale is defined once under **Scoring Scales** and reused across stations. A station uses one scale for every item by default, or a scale per item when a row needs a different scale. Scales can be deactivated without deleting them, so a retired scale stays readable on past results. Each station is classified twice: by tags, which are hierarchical, and by **Clinical Skills**, a flat per-account library of named skills with an optional code. Both feed the blueprint axes. ## Critical items and the examiner's view The [critical-error policy](/docs/osce/design/critical-errors-and-must-pass/) becomes two settings. On the station, any item can be marked critical with a fail threshold. A recorded score at or below that threshold fails the station, regardless of the total; an empty threshold means zero. One shared rule evaluates critical failure for both the candidate-centric and the station-centric reports, so the two can never disagree. An item the examiner did not score does not trigger a failure. The examiner sees the rule on the sheet as **"Critical: Fail if ≤ {threshold}"**, next to the item, while scoring. The manager side shows a **Critical** badge on the item with the tooltip "Failing this item can fail the station." Critical failure is evaluated per station. It fails that station. It fails the exam only when the station is also marked must-pass in the exam's standard setting, which is the second setting and lives on the station's standard-setting row alongside its pass mark. The [scoring section](/docs/osce/scoring/) covers that row. ## Rest stations and linked groups The [station types page](/docs/osce/design/station-types/) gives two circuit rules. StudyDrome builds both into the model. A **Rest Station** is a circuit slot with no station attached: it collects no scores and is always excluded from the Global Rating. A linked pair is a group with an explicit order inside it, so the two parts run consecutively without a rotation break. The station-list document for the day reports the totals: stations, active stations, rest stations and linked groups. The Excel version labels each slot "Scored" or "Rest" and each linked member "Group {id} / {n}". ## Getting stations in: import, the builder, and the template Stations arrive three ways. They are authored on screen under **Questions**. They are imported from Excel through **Import OSCE Stations**, in four steps: **Upload File**, **Preview Stations**, **Select Target Bank**, **Import Results**. Two layouts are accepted: a **Station Template** with one scale for the whole station, and a **Per Item Template** with score columns per row. The parser detects which layout a sheet uses. A batch workbook holds one worksheet per station, up to 50 stations per file. The two free tools on this site write that format. The [OSCE checklist builder](/tools/osce-checklist-builder/) builds or validates a marking scheme and exports an XLSX that imports as-is. The [OSCE station template](/resources/templates/osce-station/) is a complete starter station in the same layout. ## Versions The [bank page](/docs/osce/design/station-bank-management/) asks for a version history on every station. StudyDrome writes one. Every create, update, checklist edit, or duplicate of a question writes a new numbered snapshot. The snapshot carries the timestamp and the name of the person who saved it. The history is listed from the question, and any version can be opened and read in full. That is the record a metric drop or an appeal needs first. ## What stays with people The product draws the matrix, stores the stations, and applies the rules the committee wrote. The working group still sets the weights and places the stations. The review workshop still decides what enters the bank. The committee still approves the critical items and the must-pass stations. StudyDrome makes each of those decisions visible, on the grid, on the sheet, and in the history, so the people who made them can show their work. > [!NOTE] > **Book a pilot** > Bring one reviewed station set and your blueprint. We will import the stations, draw the matrix over them, and walk your working group through the cells. Start at /register/.