To our U of T Engineering undergraduate students
The Faculty’s primary aim is to support our students to complete this term by providing you with the best possible learning and assessment experience that we can at this point. To do this, we are asking instructors to develop alternatives to final exams, now called final assessments, that let students best reflect their learning in each course, using guidelines that include:
- In the development of these plans the Faculty expects that all course instructors will consult with students in their courses in appropriate ways.
- Instructors will then put the proposed option to a student vote. With the approval by a simple majority of those who vote, the course can move forward with the proposed plan.
- For consistency, the Faculty suggests that courses use one or a combination of the following approaches for the final assessment:
- Take-home exam,
- Final report, essay, project, lab and/or
- Quercus online quizzes
- In designing their plans, instructors will consider solutions that support Academic Accommodations and Academic Integrity.
As I shared with you earlier this week, for this Winter 2020 semester only, students enrolled in undergraduate programs will have the option of choosing how their grade is recorded on their transcript, which could include a percent (%) grade as normal, or opt for a Credit or No Credit (CR/NCR) option after they see their final grades. Students would also have the choice to drop a course with no academic penalty at that time. We have also created an undergraduate student FAQ page to answer many of the questions that will come up, and we will continue to update it as we hear your feedback.
Graduate students: We are working with the School of Graduate Studies on options for final assessments in your courses and will be following up with you directly in the coming days with more info.
Chris
Christopher Yip
Dean
Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering
University of Toronto