Exam guidelines during the pandemic

On this page, you will find all of the most up to date guidelines from the Faculty of Engineering in the context of the pandemic for the 2021–2022 academic year.

Faculty of Engineering position on remote exam monitoring

The University of Ottawa has officially sanctioned Respondus as a remote monitoring tool for online examinations conducted through the Brightspace LMS. However, following a detailed consideration of the software, the Engineering Faculty Executive does not support the use of Respondus or other remote monitoring solutions in examinations. Professors are at liberty to employ Respondus if they so wish.  However, professors have an obligation to provide a fair and effective alternative assessment approach for students who opt out of remote monitoring for any reason. Furthermore, professors who do intend to use remote monitoring must make this clear in their syllabus, and must mention in the syllabus that students have the right to opt out and that an alternative evaluation will be provided for such students.

Please note that this position statement was shared with the Faculty of Engineering professors. Courses offered by other faculties (e.g. MAT, CHM, PHY, HIS, and PHI) may be subject to other recommendations, which apply to the Engineering and Computer Science students taking them.

Since the position statement issued above, please note that the University has authorized the use of Zoom without recording for live remote proctoring of exams. This does not require student approval.

Get more information on Respondus.

Teaching and assessment guidelines

  1. Our key priority is health and mental health of our students.
  2. Professors must recognize that students may be taking their courses from around the world in different time zones. Also, students may be quarantined at any time. Some will have poor internet access, and some have no camera. These situations need to be taken into consideration when delivering courses.
  3. Professors must hold at least some live, synchronous classes with students, and are strongly encouraged to also record these and post the videos to Brightspace. This is needed to accommodate students in different time zones and students who have poor Internet access.
  4. Professors are encouraged to show flexibility regarding attendance and submission of work.
  5. Students who will miss tests or deadlines for valid reasons, whether on medical grounds or due to exceptional personal circumstances, should follow the instructions in University Regulation I-9.5.
  6. Professors should hold assessments that cover all the material of the course and cover the learning objectives while reducing opportunities for cheating. If such assessments are structured such that there will be no final exams, this should be cleared with the chair and associate chair.
  7. If a final exam is scheduled, it will take place online only (not in person), at the time indicated in the exam schedule posted in uoZone (for students) and uoCampus (for professors).
  8. When administering tests and exams online, professors are encouraged to use processes, software and hardware tools with which the students have gained familiarity throughout the course. For example, if downloading paper forms and uploading scans or photos will be needed during exams, students should have gained familiarity with these procedures within the context of that course. Ample time for uploading and downloading should be allowed during exams, and accommodation should be granted to students who have technical difficulties with such tasks.
  9. Professors need to ensure extra time during exams is given to students who have been granted such time by Access Services.
  10. Professors should arrange for students to submit integrity statements along with their exams. The suggested integrity statement is below.
  11. A 24-hour take-home exam should not take more than 3 hours to complete and should be due at the ending time of the Faculty-scheduled period for the exam in that course.
  12. Professors must not penalize students who are not able to use a video camera.
  13. Where multiple professors are teaching separate sections of a given course, they must arrange to use the same methods of evaluation. English and French sections of the same course should use the same methods where possible.
  14. Professors should ensure their syllabus covers the approach to online education.
  15. Students will be given a regular alphanumeric final grade.
  16. Professors are encouraged to adopt approaches that minimize the risk of cheating, taking into account the accommodations mentioned above, and not making exams significantly more stressful than they normally would be.

Suggested integrity statement

I understand the importance of professional integrity in my education and future career in engineering or computer science. I hereby certify that I have done and will do all work on this examination entirely by myself, without outside assistance or the use of unauthorized information sources. Furthermore, I will not provide assistance to others.

Frequently asked questions for final assessments (FAQ)

For all updates on the COVID-19 situation we invite you to consult the University’s COVID-19 webpage regularly, which also has a Frequently Asked Questions section.