Dear Students

First and foremost, I hope that you, your families and friends remain well. This is a very difficult time for everyone and many of you are experiencing a range of challenges in addition to health concerns. We all know this has been a lot for you to adjust to, but your resilience and willingness to adapt will stand to you and we are here to support you through this time.  

In my role as VP for Academic Affairs I’m writing to you to explain the planned arrangements regarding your upcoming examinations as I know this is of concern to you.  In this regard, we have set out to put both your long term interests and an understanding of your current situation at the heart of our work and approach to final assessments for this academic year.

The details of your exam timetable will be emailed to you directly tomorrow by your Faculty programme chair (or in some cases your module coordinator).  You will also find this information on Loop.  

Approach to Final Assessments

Since I was last in contact, the academic community of DCU has put a major effort into redesigning our approach to alternative final assessments, developing new schedules and evaluating the technical challenges involved. 

Throughout this process our priorities have been to:

• Help our students to complete this academic year

• Ensure academic integrity and maintain the value of your DCU degree

• Take account of these exceptional circumstances and ensure that we minimise negative implications (financial or administrative) for students who have to re-sit or postpone exams

• Use familiar online environments, where possible, to conduct exams

• Provide clarity at a time of confusion and worry

Exam Methods

Alternatives to campus-based exams will be conducted in various forms depending on your specific programme requirements. 

The exam methods used will include set tasks (e.g. a piece of work, such as essay, report, project etc.), or take-away exams to be submitted by a set deadline, oral exams or synchronous online exams (these are scheduled timed online exams e.g. multiple choice quiz, open book exams) where work may be inputted directly online or submitted when complete in an electronic file. The synchronous examinations will be scheduled so that no two exams clash.  

Over 70% of the alternative assessments conducted by DCU will be through set tasks or a take-away examination, and the remainder will be conducted on Loop, our online learning platform, which is familiar to all our students.  

Complete your academic year

Our focus in both teaching and in planning assessments has been to support students to complete this academic year on time.  In the current circumstances, however, we will permit students to postpone the Semester 2 alternative assessment (normally completed in May) to the August period without negative implications (please see below). It is important to emphasise that the August assessments will mirror those being held in May and will be the last opportunity to clear a module within this academic year.   

Maintaining the value of your degree 

We have gone to great lengths to ensure that the significance of your grades and the quality of your degree are unaffected by the modifications we have had to make in our approach to assessments. We have done this in a number of ways. 

Firstly, in re-designing assessments, module coordinators have developed marking schemes for those new assessments to ensure that we maintain the same standards as in previous years. Secondly, a specially developed, systematic Quality Assurance (QA) process was undertaken to ensure that alternative assessments are consistent with the learning outcomes, challenge, and student effort envisaged for the originally planned exams. While this process was underway, our deliberations were informed by engagements with relevant regulatory and professional bodies and our external examiners. 

From the outset, we developed a set of principles to underpin the re-design of assessments and a glossary of terminology to ensure a consistency of interpretation across the university. The DCU Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Policy continues to apply to this suite of alternative assessments.  

Following completion of the above processes to ensure that standards are maintained, we are now in a position to share information with you on the alternative final assessments and the schedule of those assessments. This will be done within your Faculty. While some inter-dependencies limit flexibility, the assessment schedule takes into account, in as much as is possible, the fact that students may be in different time-zones. The schedule also aims to deliver a manageable distribution of assessment activities and deadlines for all students.

Taking account of these exceptional circumstances and minimising negative implications 

I am confident that the vast majority of students can complete their year in May, and I encourage you to do so. However we are taking these exceptional circumstances into account.

All assessments have been adapted to be completed remotely, relying on familiar online environments and, where possible, minimising the potential for overloading our IT systems in the completion of synchronous online assessments.

As stated above, we will permit students to postpone the Semester 2 alternative assessment (normally completed in May) to the August period. For students who postpone in May due to the impact of COVID19, the August exam will count as a first attempt.

There will be no fees for either resitting exams or for taking them for the first time in August, having postponed from May. There will be no need to register for either of these contexts; this will happen automatically for anyone who has failed or postponed in May.  Resits of Semester 1 examinations will be treated in the same way as resits of Semester 2 exams and, in this regard, will also be remote alternatives to on-campus examinations ensuring that students now based abroad are accommodated.   

For students who fail a module in May, the failed grade will not carry forward in the overall grade for the year. Instead, in the interests of fairness across the entire student body, the minimum pass mark will be used.  At the same time, the Progression and Awards Board will, of course, take the overall academic profile of each individual student into account.

We are revising our approach to extenuating circumstances and, in general, we will not require independent evidence of same in the current context.  

Schedules and Technical Consideration

All students should note an important change – we have extended the examination period out to May 23rd. While we plan to deliver all assessments by May 18th, we want to allow for the need to address any unforeseen technical issues that may arise in these unprecedented circumstances. All students should therefore plan for the eventuality that they may be asked to engage with assessments out to May 23rd. 

We have set up a technical group to advise and support the smooth running of the alternative assessments and you will be provided with clear guidance on relevant technical issues over the coming period.

Approach to INTRA

INTRA is an important element of our degree programmes. Where it has not been possible for you to achieve the learning outcomes associated with your placement by completing your full placement period due the COVID19 emergency, an alternative assessment will be provided. The specific alternative assessments for your programme will be communicated to you by your Programme Chairperson/INTRA Coordinator. Further details are available on the DCU Coronavirus website here.

Queries

I appreciate that I have provided you with a lot of information to absorb. When you receive module specific information relevant to you from your Programme Chairperson or Module coordinator, please direct questions in that regard to them, as appropriate. Information on revised processes regarding postponement of assessments and extenuating circumstances (in the context of COVID 19) will be on the Registry website by Wednesday April 15th. All other queries can be directed to assessment_queries@dcu.ie and we will publish responses to Frequently Asked Questions under the student information section of the DCU COVID 19 site next week. 

Supports

We are committed to providing you with welfare, academic and practical supports throughout this time. 

We have some really useful material about preparing for exams and taking care of yourselves prior to and during exams in the Discover Exam Success section of the Student Learning webpages. You can learn some new learning strategies, find ways of staying calm and get tips on how to give your best performance on the day of the exam. Students may also find the Discover Assignment Writing section interesting, as you complete your assignments.  

Please also consider signing up for our ‘Virtual Exam Bootcamp’, which will cover motivation, exam strategies, exam stress and exam performance. It will be taking place during the week of April 20th. Registration will open shortly.

And on the day of timed alternative assessments or deadlines, we will provide enhanced supports for students including a ‘live’ DCU Examination Support Centre. 

All student welfare supports continue to be offered, albeit remotely via Zoom or Google Hangouts (meet). Students should simply mail the relevant service and a member of staff will get back to you promptly. Counselling is being offered online, and students struggling with finances may be able to get some financial assistance through the Student Assistance Fund. If a student has general enquiries and is not sure whom they need to speak to, a member of staff in the Student Advice Centre can advise them as necessary.

I want to wish you all the very best with completing the semester and your final assessments. These are unprecedented times and we recognise the challenges for you in coping with this.  Finally and most importantly, please stay well and safe throughout this period and prioritise your wellbeing.

Yours sincerely

Eithne Guilfoyle