End of term

If you have any questions or suggestions for items to add, please email Carol Knipe.

Sections:

• Grades in LEARN
• Grade submission deadlines and final exam/assessment period
• Make-up exam dates and processes
• Guidelines for Grading in ENV: DNW, INC, IP, NMR
• INC Grades: Process for granting and resolving an INC
• Mental Health Resources
• Instructor: Student Privacy
• TA: Student Privacy
• Petitions: Request for information from Registrar's Office

Grades in LEARN

Releasing final grades:

IMPORTANT - Please note that Policy 46 - Information Management states: “Final examination and final course grades shall not be posted before the final examination period ends.” (under Appendix A - Access to and Release of Student Information).

If you do not have a final examination, some component of student grades should not be released to comply with the spirit of Policy 46 (i.e. so that students cannot calculate their final course grade). There is no required grade amount that be held back.

The last day of the Spring 2024 examination period is August 16, 2024. All submitted grades will begin to be viewable to the student, via Quest as of August 18, 2024. Final grades can be released to students by this date.

NOTE - This applies to graduate courses as well.

Quest will not release any grades until after the exam period is over. Please see the Grade submission schedule for further details or contact your departmental administrator.

Information about how to export grades from LEARN is provided below.

Final grades in LEARN:

The Final Calculated Grade and Final Adjusted Grade columns in the LEARN gradebookare NOT visible to students in LEARN, so you don't have to worry about releasing them accidentally.

To check what a student sees - enter some grades in for the Test Student and then impersonate the Test Student and click on Grades. Here's how to view as a Test Student.

Final grade calculation:

If you are using LEARN to calculate your final grades, it is recommended that you verify that your grades are being calculated accurately BEFORE you submit them to QUEST. If you would like help with this, please contact LEARN Help (learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 41744).

Exporting final grades from LEARN in QUEST friendly format:

You can export final grades from LEARN in a Quest-friendly format (Grades > Enter Grades > Export Adjusted Final Grades for Quest) to make uploading to Quest easier. Here are detailed instructions (including how to easily transfer grades from the "Final Calculated Grade" to "Final Adjusted Grade").

Uploading final grades to QUEST:

You will need to upload your final grades to Quest. You can upload final grades to Quest whenever you like because Quest will not release any grades until after the exam period is over. Here are instructions about how to upload final grades to Quest or contact your Departmental Administrator.

If you have questions or problems, please don't hesitate to contact LEARN Help (learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca, ext. 41744) or Julia Burke.

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Grade submission deadlines and final exam/assessment period

The grade submission memo (PDF) is available on the Registrar Resources for Staff and Faculty page under Communications to Instructors.

Following is a quick reference for Spring 2024 grade submission timelines:

• Grade submission is open in Quest (new and revised grades): July 31, 2024 - August 20, 2024
• Exam/Assessment period: August 2, 2024 - August 16, 2024
• Grades due for all courses without a scheduled exam or without a major assignment during the Final Exam Period: August 15, 2024
• Grades due for all on-campus courses with a scheduled exam or a major assignment due date during the Final Exam Period: due seven days from the date of the final exam
• Grades due for all courses: August 20, 2024

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Make-up exam dates and processes

The Make-up Exam Session Memo (PDF) is available on the Registrar Resources for Staff and Faculty page under Communications to Instructors. 

All students and makeup exams must be uploaded to Odyssey by the examination makeup session deadlines set out by the Registrar’s Office.

Note: These make-up exam sessions are not mandatory. Instructors still have the option to accommodate their students outside of these dates and times.

To be included in one of these make-up sessions, student information must be entered into Odyssey by the instructor. The course coordinator/advisor or Exam Representative can also enter this information upon approval of the instructor into Odyssey. Students who are approved and entered can view their make-up date, time and assigned seat in Odyssey. Any students who show up to an RO make-up exam session who are not entered into Odyssey or reported to the Scheduling Office will not be permitted to write and will be directed to contact their instructor.

It is recommended that an alternate exam be uploaded into Odyssey, or the instructor may choose to use the existing upload for the make-up exam session(s). All exams must be uploaded and approved by the Registrar’s Office print deadlines to be included in the make-up exam sessions. Once the exams are uploaded and approved, the Registrar’s Office will print, administer and proctor the make-up exam sessions in designated rooms. Instructors are not required to attend the make-up exam but are welcome to join us.

Odyssey upload options:

• Instructions on how to enter student information and create instructor make-up exam sessions in Odyssey can be found at Registrar’s Office Final Examination Makeup Sessions.
• If you are using Akindi bubble sheets for your multiple choice exam, you can create your Akindi sheet at Akindi: Multiple-choice exam processing service | Multiple Choice Exam Processing Service | University of Waterloo (uwaterloo.ca). You can either print the appropriate number of photocopies and deliver them to the Scheduling and Examinations office (NH 1122) or send them electronically to regmstrs@uwaterloo.ca with all of the makeup exam information (i.e. which exam is this for, how many students are writing) and we will print them for you. Your final exam must be uploaded to Odyssey to be printed and delivered to NH 1122.
• (Preferred alternative to Akindi) You can upload your exam to Odyssey and choose the Crowdmark option. When creating a Crowdmark exam, Odyssey will ask you if you need a multiple choice sheet(s) that will be automatically added to your exam. It will also be printed and delivered to NH 1122.
• If you are using a Markbox exam, you must first fill out a W Print requisition form W Print - Requisition Form (uwaterloo.ca) and notify the Scheduling and Examinations office regmstrs@uwaterloo.ca that you are sending a Markbox exam to W Print to be used during the final exam make-up sessions. Once you deliver your exam to W Print electronically or via flash drive, they will print the final exams and deliver them to the Scheduling and Examinations office (NH 1122). If bubble sheets are required, follow the procedure in the first bullet.

Make-up exam pick-up:

Allwritten Crowdmark examswill be sent to W Print for scanning the day after they have been written unless otherwise requested.

All other written exams will be couriered to your department mail room the next business day. Any exams with Akindi bubble sheets will be scanned by the Registrar’s Office and sent to the instructor via email and the written exam in its entirety will be couriered to your department mail room the next business day.

If the instructor or a designate would like to pick up written exams in MC 4043, an email from the instructor must be sent to regmstrs@uwaterloo.ca before the date of the written exam.

Available pick-up days:

If you have any questions regarding the processes above for final exam make-up sessions, please contact ist-ems@uwaterloo.ca or regmstrs@uwaterloo.ca.

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INC Grades: Process for granting and resolving an INC

Granting an INC

As is normal policy, the mark of INC - Incomplete should only be used in cases where arrangements have been made with the student to complete outstanding course requirements.

• Once arrangements have been made the instructor is required to complete the INC form located on the Registrar Resources for Faculty and Staff webpage unless it is anticipated that the final grade will be available prior to the date final grades become official and standing decisions are published on Quest (see fourth bullet).
• Students can be given up to one year to complete the course work, but the instructor has the option of requesting completion of course work prior to one year.
• Upon submission of the INC form, the student will receive a copy for their records. It is important that the correct student email is entered on the form. This information is available through LEARN and on the official class roster.
• If it’s anticipated that the student will complete the outstanding course work and a final grade will be submitted before the day grades become official on Quest (September 12, 2024), an INC form is not required. You can submit the grade as normal by resubmitting the class list (up until August 20, 2024) or by sending the grade change to Kathy Giles, in the Registrar’s Office.
• If an INC grade is submitted without a form, you will be contacted and a form will be requested (if a grade is not submitted by the day grades become official on Quest September 12, 2024). To avoid added work on the part of the course administrator we ask that you are proactive in completing the form.

Clearing an INC: Submitting a final grade to replace an INC

Do you have a student who is completing an INC grade this term?

For an INC which you had granted in a previous term, you can:

i) extend the deadline (let Kathy Giles, Registrar’s Office, know the new INC deadline so it can be coded in the system) as long as it is within the year requirement to complete an INC (see Granting an INC, above).

ii) assign a numeric grade based on work completed. The final numeric grade is submitted to either your department UG advisor or Kathy Giles.

Please communicate with the student about how to resolve the INC. In particular, students near graduation may require the course credit to graduate. A student cannot graduate with an INC on their record.

Do you have a student who is writing the final exam/assessment this term in your course to complete an INC from a prior term?

Students resolving an INC this term, from a prior term, will need "Guest Student" status in your LEARN course website (contact LEARN Help, learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca, to arrange for the student to be added to your course on LEARN). If you were not the instructor for the course in the term the INC was granted, it is strongly recommended that you consult with the original course instructor to discern whether the outstanding course component offered this term remains a fair assessment. For a copy of the INC form, please contact either the instructor who granted the INC, the undergraduate advisor for the department administering the course, or Carol Knipe, Faculty of Environment undergraduate operations manager.

Once the outstanding assessment has been graded, you can use the information on the INC form to calcuate the final grade, and:

1. Inform the original course instructor of the final grade (include the assessment grade); and,
2. submit the final grade to either Kathy Giles in the Registrar's Office, your department UG advisor, or Carol Knipe, Faculty of Environment undergraduate operations manager.

Or you can relay the assessment grade to either:

1. The original instructor (preferred); or,
2. if the original instructor is no longer at Waterloo, the department UG advisor; or,
3. Carol Knipe, Faculty of Environment undergraduate operations manager.

Using the INC form, one of these points of contact should be able to calculate the final course grade.

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Instructor: Student Privacy

Best practices with regard to student assignments include:

Do

1. Make every effort to return assignments directly to the student(s). In cases where this is not possible or impractical (i.e., very large classes), assignments can be left in a public area for students to pick up. In this case, you must:
   • Make students aware in the course outline that this is the method of returning assignments;
   • Allow students to make alternative arrangements;
   • Set a defined time limit, not to exceed two weeks, for which the assignments will be left in the public area.
   • Indicate the grade assigned on the inside of the document, not on the cover page.
2. Keep unclaimed assignments for one year after the posting date of marks for the course, unless you otherwise notify students in the course outline that they will be disposed of earlier. Note that final exams must be kept for one year.
3. Ensure your TAs have returned all assignments to you.

Do Not

1. Provide a student’s work to another student unless you have written permission to do so.
2. Post final grades until the end of the final exam period.
3. Leave any records, assignments, exams, etc., with your TAs. All course material containing names, student IDs, email, grades, etc., are to be kept by the instructor only.

Best practices with regard to record keeping include:

Do

1. Keep any record with personal student information in a secure location. Hard copies with sensitive information, including student academic records, should be kept in a locked cabinet; electronic copies of sensitive records should be stored in password protected drives, folders or files.
2. Use the University’s confidential shredding program to manage the disposal of sensitive items. Each Department / School may have its own policy (see your contact person, below, for more information).
3. Follow university procedure for tracking the destruction of both electronic and print documents.
4. Create records with the expectation that they may become available under a freedom of information request.

Do Not

1. Store sensitive records longer than required.

Sessional instructors

Do not leave assignments, exams or other course materials that include a student’s name, ID number, email, etc., in your office if you are vacating the office after this term. Please contact your department administrator for details on where you can bring your course materials for safe keeping:

• ENVS courses: Carol Knipe
• PLAN courses: Sheree Solomon
• ENBUS and/or INDEV courses: Jennifer Nicholson
• KI courses: Solène Jollivet
• ERS courses: Patti Bester
• GEOG courses: Sophie Dallaire

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TA: Student Privacy

Do not

1. Leave assignments, exams or other course materials that include a student’s name, ID number, email, etc., in your office or any Grad student area.
2. Provide a student’s work to another student unless you have written permission to do so.
3. Keep course material with student information either electronically or in print after the submission of final grades for the term has taken place.

Do

• Return all assignments, exams, student records, etc., to the instructor of the course for safe-keeping.
• Destroy electronic and printed files that contain confidential student information.
• Use the University’s confidential shredding program to manage the disposal of sensitive items. Each Department / School may have its own policy (see your contact person, below, for more information).
• Follow university procedure for tracking the destruction of both electronic and print documents. The Records Destruction Form should be filed with either the instructor for the course or the department contact person listed below.
  • ENVS courses: Carol Knipe
  • PLAN courses: Sheree Solomon
  • ENBUS and/or INDEV courses: Jennifer Nicholson
  • KI courses: Solène Jollivet
  • ERS courses: Patti Bester
  • GEOG courses: Sophie Dallaire

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Petitions: Request for information from Registrar's Office

It is important to respond to requests from the Registrar’s office for information about how a student has performed in a class. When a student files a petition, they are asking for an exception to the rules based on other things that may have happened in their lives. A Petition does not allege that an instructor did anything wrong. The Petitions Committee needs this information to supplement the student’s narrative. Some of the key sources of information for assessing petitions include whether/how a student participated, when participation dropped off (or not) in the term, etc. The result can mean the difference between the existing grade remaining on the record, or, based on the evidence, the grade being changed to one of CR, NCR, or WD, which are quite significant from the student’s perspective. The Petitions Committee meets weekly; please respond to these requests in a timely manner.

Note: If these requests are unmanageable for you due to a personal reason, please let the Registrar's Office know so we can plan accordingly.

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