[Academic] FW: Exam Announcement

[Audrey McKinnon]

Dear All,

In light of Erling's message (recopied below for ease of reference) on how the department plans to adjust for the impact on the assessment of students of the lost days this semester, can I ask any staff who are thinking they may need to make an adjustment to their exam papers to get in touch with Audrey and myself with a note of what action they feel is likely to be appropriate/necessary.

Best wishes,

Kevin

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Dear All,

The first round of UCU action completed on Friday 16th March 2018. Given that 12.5 teaching days were lost to the strike, corresponding to 28 % of the total the teaching time in the semester, the Department must find a way to minimise the impact of this reduction in teaching on the students. There are three options available to the Department:

1)    Reschedule the missing lectures.
2)    Post the material not delivered on MyPlace and ask the students to self study.
3)    Remove material from the examinations that has not been taught. 

Given the current pressures on the University estate Option 1 is not really viable, especially if every other department decides to reschedule their lectures that were cancelled as a result of the UCU action. As the exams are scheduled directly after the Easter Holiday we could teach in Week 11 rather than stopping in Week 10 as is the current practice.

In respect of Option 2 this would place significant pressure on students trying to balance their learning of the material that is currently being delivered with that being posted on MyPlace. This approach may lead to a significant number of complaints and appeals for the students.

Option 3 is the simplest and easiest to implement. The exam questions have been set and the papers have been sent to the external examiners for review. At the end of Week 10 of the semester staff should identify material that has not been taught and this will be removed from the paper. The marks should then be re-distributed to bring the paper back to 100 % To minimize any student stress staff should inform students as to the content that will be covered in the examination by the end of week 10. The following notification will be sent to the students through MyPlace and the Student Staff Committee: 

"Dear All,
As you will be aware the teaching of some classes has been disrupted by the recent UCU action. For those classes that have been affected the staff have been asked to indicate to you by the end of Week 10 the content that will be covered the examination."

There will naturally be a knock-on effect for next year, in that students will not have covered pre-requisite material for next year's classes. To support the students' transition to the next year, the content that is not taught should be made available over the summer through MyPlace and during the Development Week workshops will be held to support the students understanding of this material.

E. Riis
N. Langford________________________________________