Undergraduate teaching term information

On this page you'll find the resources you need for teaching undergraduate courses in the Faculty of Arts in a particular term, including important dates, grades, academic rules for assignments and tests, academic integrity information, course outline requirements, as well as resources for course development and student support. This information was previously distributed in the Beginning of Term and End of Term memos sent by the Arts Undergraduate Office. 

Winter 2025 End of Term Reminders

Schedule 

  • Classes End: April 4 

  • Study days prior to exams: April 7, 8 

  • Final exam period: April 9-25 

  • Final examination emergency days: April 13 and 26 

AccessAbility Services and Academic Accommodations  

Assignments, Tests, and Final Exams section of the Calendar includes:    

  • Academic rules and timing of tests, assignments, exams/final assessments  

  • Accommodations  

  • Exam and course work retention rules  

Grades 

  • Available Grades  (Calendar), including non-numeric grades   

    • INC grade process and form (Registrar’s Office, sign-in required) 

    • Failing grades will appear as submitted on the student transcript, but grades in 0-32% range are calculated at 32% in averages  

  • Grade submission (Quest)   

  • Grade submission dates (Registrar’s Office, sign-in required):  *Attention! Late grades can prevent student academic progression! Please try and get them in on time*  

    • April 22 for all courses without a scheduled exam or final assessment during the Final Exam Period  

    • May 1 for all online courses with a scheduled final examination during the Final Examination Period. 

    • 7 days after exam for all courses with a scheduled exam  

    • Grades begin to appear in Quest April 27  

  • Grade changes must be submitted within one year from the Officially Graded/Standing Decisions Date (May 20, 2025)   

Spring 2025 Beginning of Term Reminders

What's new?

NEW - Effective Spring 2025, self-declared Covid absences have been discontinued. Covid is being treated like any other illness i.e. students can use their short-term 2-day absence without documentation, or obtain a VIF to submit through the Absence system. Self-declared Covid absences should still be upheld for the Winter 2025 term. 

NEW - WatSEE Instructor and Graduate Student Supervisor Toolbox - The WatSEE framework applies a holistic, developmental lens to student experience. Instructors are encouraged to draw on this valuable toolbox of resources to integrate WatSEE principles and practices into their courses and promote student flourishing.

NEW - Ontario’s Bill 166 requires that every course must include the individual cost for each textbook or other learning material and indicate whether it is required or optional.

  • Outline.uwaterloo.ca has a dedicated field for this information, making it easier to generate data for a report.  
  • If you don’t use outline.uwaterloo.ca, staff in departments and the AUO will collect this information from your course outlines. This takes significantly longer than downloading the field from outline.uwaterloo.ca. Please consider using Outline to help streamline this process and save time. 
  • Outline and the resources on the teaching term information website now include mandatory statements that are to be included in all course outlines. 

NEW - Due to a major Outline update as well as new Arts mandatory statements, formatting and content in all policy sections will be out of date. If you are copying from previous outlines we recommend deleting all content under the Administrative Policy section and reselect to ensure you have the most up to date content. This will also ensure you are not duplicating content that is now included in the mandatory section.

NEW - Student Accommodations – information for instructors (PDF) 

Additional Resources

  • Generative AI Use resources 

  • Course materials should be available to your students online. Contact the library for help. 

  • W Store continues to provide course materials and services to the campus community. Instructors may place their course adoptions for the winter term online, using W Store’s online adoption system. 

  • Find info shared with students by the Registrar’s Office at the RO’s Mass Communications page. (Registrar’s Office, sign-in required) 

  • Our colleague Dr. Christine Logel (Social Development Studies) has developed a free, online course that provides evidence-based advice for designing course outlines that foster student belonging, equity, and growth. 

Schedule Highlights 

  • Classes: May 5 to July 30
  • Victoria Day (holiday): May 19
  • Additional Day (holiday): June 30 
  • Canada Day (holiday): July 1 
  • Make-up day for Victoria Day: July 2 [Monday schedule used]
  • Make-up day for Additional Day: July 28 [Monday schedule used]
  • Make-up day for Canada Day: July 29 [Tuesday schedule used]
  • Pre-exam study days: July 31 and August 1 
  • Civic Holiday: August 4 
  • Final exam period: August 5-16 
  • Final examination emergency days: August 10, 17 and 18 
  • Co-op work term: May 5 to August 22 
  • Class enrolment – if students aren’t able to add your class on Quest, consult the Enrolment problems and course overrides page. 
  • New Religious Observance Self-Declaration Form in Quest 
  • Important Dates 

Syllabus / course outline

Outline 

We strongly encourage Arts instructors to use outline.uwaterloo.ca. Outline Uwaterloo is a great tool to develop, revise, and store your course outlines. The advantages of using Outline include:

  • consistent and up-to-date required statements
  • AODA compliance
  • transfer credit assessments 
  • AND, new Winter 2025, documenting the cost of teaching materials

Additional benefits of using this system:

  1. Empowers students to view their course outlines at any point in their academic career.
  2. Gives students a consistent information layout across all their courses.
  3. Simplifies administrative and archival processes by keeping all our outlines in one place in a standard format.

Start with Getting started with outline.uwaterloo.

Syllabus template and required elements

Accessible syllabus template, April 2025 (docx) - includes Faculty of Arts mandatory statements and University Senate-approved basic elements and required statements. 

Secretariat syllabus/course outline required elements

Mandatory and recommended statements to include in course outlines (2024) - Revised Spring 2025

Generative AI Use

Instructors take a variety of positions on the use of GenAI for assignments. Some instructors have assignments that encourage students to explore GenAI as a tool for academic work, whereas others do not permit any use of GenAI. Given this variability in approaches, it is important that your course outline and assignment instructions explain as clearly as possible what uses of GenAI, if any, are permitted in your course. 

The Office of Academic Integrity provides some recommended course outline statements on GenAI use. These include statements for courses that allow general use of GenAI, courses that allow conditional use of GenAI, and courses that do not allow any use of GenAl. Instructors can select and adapt whichever of these statements best fits the approach in your course. We also recommend that instructors remind students that policies on GenAI use vary from course to course. 

The Writing and Communication Centre also provides guidelines on generative AI and the writing process, which instructors are encouraged to share with students. 

Academic rules

Refer to the Undergraduate Calendar links below for all information about assignments, tests and final exams:

Reading Week (Fall and Winter terms)

Refer to Important Dates for specific Reading Weeks (scheduled pauses in the academic term). Reading Week normally begins on a Saturday and ends on the following Sunday. During this time, normal class schedules and academic requirements are suspended. Student services such as student advising support, Health Services, Counselling Services, the library, and residences continue to provide service.

Instructors are not permitted to administer, and students are not required to sit for examinations, tests, or lectures during Reading Week. There are to be no compulsory academic events (e.g., classes, labs, tutorials, seminars, exams). Deadlines for assignments are not permitted during Reading Week (see Scheduled Pauses in the Academic Term).

Instructors should consider including their availability in their course outline, if possible. When instructors are not available to assist students during Reading Week, alternate arrangements for students seeking help should be made.

Student Course Perception Surveys

  • Refer to Resources for Instructors for more information about the teaching assessment process, including Student Course Perception (SCP) Surveys.
  • Generally surveys will be opened near the end of each term, usually 2-4 weeks before the last day of courses.

  • All instructors will be encouraged to provide time during class to complete the surveys, but you can also complete them on their own time. Survey timing will vary between faculties. You will be notified by email and in class that they are ready for your input.

  • The evaluations can be completed using any computer, phone, or tablet device connected to the internet.

Exams

Refer to the Registrar Resources for Faculty and Staff website (login required) for Final Exam Management information:

  • Exam cover page
  • Final exam evacuation procedures
  • Proctor Instructions
  • UW closures during exam period
  • Retention rule: exams and other course work should be kept for a period of one year.

Arts Connect: Student Alert

Arts Connect logo featuring a cartoon Porcellino (the boar mascot) wearing an orange Arts shirt , wearing a backpack and holding books and an apple.

The Student Alert initiative runs each term through a widget in Learn. This is a targeted approach where students can self-select to receive support, can send an alert for a classmate, or an instructor can submit an alert for a student they are concerned about.  

Instructors will identify students who are:  

  • Performing poorly academically 
  • Chronically absent or disengaged from studies and class activity 
  • Seemingly isolated 
  • Exhibiting signs of distress  

When a Student Alert is sent by an instructor, the Arts Undergraduate Office (AUO) advising team receives an email message outlining the concern with the student and the student’s advisor will reach out promptly to provide support and make a connection.   

Learn how to add the Arts Connect widget to your course shell in Learn.

Privacy and information management

Instructor support links

Student support links

Academic Advising

Questions about completion of Arts degree requirements should be directed to the student's Academic Advisor. Similarly, students registered in other faculties who are taking courses in Arts should contact their respective program advisors.  

Student societies and associations

More comprehensive information and links can be found on the University of Waterloo Current Students page.

Contacts

Dean of Arts Office

Arts Undergraduate Office

Departments, Schools, AFIW (University Colleges)

Arts Computing Office