Education
Update: Examinations after corona at the Humanities Faculty
The Faculty of Humanities is following the university's decision-making process with regard to the handout circulated on 22 March. The essence as far as (digital) examinations is concerned is that we go back to the pre-corona situation of two exam opportunities:
“4. Every student is entitled to two assessments. The arrangement whereby programmes that offer an exam on location offer an extra opportunity or an online exam to students who were unable to take the physical exam due to corona-related reasons ('directive on offering examinations') will be terminated with effect from block 4 (as of 4 April 2022).”
What often happens now is that lecturers request an on-campus online test (in Remindo) and at the same time a home online test (= remote back-up option). As a faculty, we will no longer offer this option for the following reasons:
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According to the university guidelines, this is no longer necessary. Someone who is ill can make use of the second opportunity.
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The duplicate preparation of exams results in a lot of extra work for the support staff. If, for example, 50 out of 100 tests have to be prepared twice (the home variant requires separate preparation), this means 50% more work in peak periods. Converting exams for students shortly beforehand is an additional task that is also laborious.
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A home-online test with proctoring is more susceptible to fraud than an on-campus online test. We accepted this during corona, but now that corona is over, this objection does count.
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We want to avoid a situation where people get used to the idea that there is always a home variant available (even in non-corona-related cases).
Exams at home (online)
Fully home-based online exams are possible, but discouraged; on campus is better for the quality of the testing. The faculty asks study programmes to be cautious about offering online home exams in the future, because it is difficult to guarantee that they are 100% equal to tests on location. Proctoring does contribute to this but is often experienced as unpleasant and, according to the protocol, can only be done if necessary. So, only if there are specific reasons for this, and the quality of the assessment can be guaranteed, can a teacher consider offering an online home exam. The protocol states:
“In the case of a 'Completely at Home Online' test, proctoring is permitted at FGW when all possible alternative forms of examination that do not require online proctoring have been considered and an online remote examination with proctoring has proven to be the last option.”
Examination opportunities due to corona before 28 March 2022
If a student has missed an examination in block 1, 2 or 3 (before 28 March 2022) due to 'corona reasons' and the new exam opportunity is scheduled in block 4 (on or after 28 March), the student remains entitled to this new exam opportunity; the directive 'offering exams' continues to apply in full to exams in block 3. This is to ensure that the student's compliance with the coronation measures is not to the student's disadvantage.
Students who were too ill to take part in the exam, due to corona or something else, were not covered by this regulation. For them, the regular rules regarding illness applied (and still apply).
To prevent students who pose a risk of infection from coming to the campus for an exam in block 4, the lecturer can choose to offer the exam online, but this is not encouraged.