Evaluation of Academic Progress

Dead Week

Evaluation Procedures

It is university policy that the instructor shall inform the students at the beginning of each course of the evaluation procedures planned for use in the course.

Retention of Records

Records of all graded work must be retained by the instructors until midterm of the semester following completion of a course or until all pending appeals and incompletes are resolved, whichever is later. Instructors leaving the university must file records of all graded work with their department office before departure.

Examinations

Examinations are one of the most common ways instructors assess student performance. In order that examinations can be a useful part of the educational process, the following policies have been instituted:

1. One purpose of examinations is to help students’ learning. Therefore, examinations should be evaluated as soon as possible after they are given and the results should be made available to the students in a timely way to enhance learning.

2. All tests and examinations administered between the beginning of the term and final examination week shall be held during a regularly scheduled lecture or laboratory class period for that course. A department may obtain approval to administer a separately scheduled examination if all of the following criteria are met:

a. The course is multi-sectioned.

b. A common departmentally developed examination will be administered to all students in all sections at the same time.

c. The test scores will be used as a basis for a uniform grading procedure for all sections of the course.

Requests to hold separately scheduled examinations must be made to the registrar and approved by the provost in time to be announced in the Schedule of Classes to allow students to plan in advance. Only under unusual circumstances will a course be approved for separately scheduled examinations if the deadline is past to include notification in the Schedule of Classes. Whenever a separately scheduled examination is administered, a regular class meeting during that week shall be omitted.

Students who are unable to take a separately scheduled examination at the scheduled time indicated in the Schedule of Classes, because of a course conflict or other legitimate reason must notify the instructor in advance and must be given the opportunity to be examined at another time mutually convenient for the student and the instructor. The instructor shall determine whether to administer the same examination or an alternate examination, or use an alternate assessment procedure.

3. At the end of the semester, a week is set aside for final examinations or other term evaluations, with a two-hour period normally scheduled for each course. The following policies govern the responsibilities of students and faculty members during this week:

a. Final exams may not be given at a time other than that for which the exam is scheduled by the registrar. An instructor may not give a final exam prior to final exam week nor change the time of offering of the final examination as it appears in the final exam schedule.

Permission to change the time for which an exam is scheduled may be given only by the dean of the college. If the instructor elects not to give a final exam in a course of two or more credits, the class is required to meet at the scheduled final exam period for other educational activity such as a review of the course or feedback on previous exams.

b. Final exam periods are determined according to the regularly scheduled meeting time of the class. However, certain courses are assigned special group exam times so that several sections of the same course may be tested together. If this results in conflicting group examination periods, students should inform the instructor in charge of the first of the two conflicting courses as listed on the final exam schedule within the special groups in question; that instructor is responsible for arranging a special examination or making some other adjustment.

c. Evening courses with lectures scheduled at 6:00 p.m. or later should give their examinations during finals week from 7:00-9:00 p.m. on the day the class normally meets. If this exam conflicts with an evening group exam, the instructor responsible for the latter must arrange a special examination for any students who have a conflict.

d. If unusual circumstances involve the need  for students to change the time of their final examination, they must obtain the approval of the instructor of the course.

e. If a student has three examinations scheduled on the same calendar day and wishes to change one to another day, the instructor of the course having the smallest number of students is responsible for arranging an alternate examination time for the student unless make-up exam times are available in one of the other courses.

f. All faculty members are considered to be on duty throughout the entire final examination week and are expected to be available to students during that week for discussion of any matters pertaining to the final examination and final grade or to other aspects of the course.

Dead Week

The last week of fall and spring undergraduate classes has been designated Dead Week by the Government of the Student Body and Iowa State University . The intent is to provide students with time for review and preparation for final examinations. Therefore, no student organization registered with the Student Organization Office may hold meetings or sponsor events without the expressed permission of Program Coordinator of the Dean of Students Office. For academic programs, the last week of classes is considered to be a normal week in the semester except that in developing their syllabi faculty shall consider the following guidelines:

a. Mandatory final examinations in any course may not be given during Dead Week except for laboratory courses and for those classes meeting once a week only and for which there is no contact during the normal final exam week. Take-home final exams and small quizzes are generally acceptable. (For example, quizzes worth no more than 10 percent of the final grade and/or that cover no more than one-fourth of assigned reading material in the course could be given.)

b. Major course assignments should be assigned prior to Dead Week (major assignments include major research papers, projects, etc.). Any modifications to assignments should be made in a timely fashion to give students adequate time to complete the assignments.

c. Major course assignments should be due no later than the Friday prior to Dead Week. Exceptions include class presentations by students, semester-long projects such as a design project assignment in lieu of a final, and extensions of the deadline requested by individual students.

Instructors are reminded that most students are enrolled in several courses each semester, and widespread violation of these guidelines can cause student workloads to be excessive as students begin their preparation for final examinations. Students are reminded that their academic curriculum is their principal reason for being in college and they have a responsibility to study in a timely fashion throughout the entire semester.