Mathematics Instructors.

Many of you have received e-mails from students requesting flexibility and/or modifications to the final exam offering.  For all courses (except for Math 2A and 2B), we believe that these decisions are best left up to the individual instructor.  If you are teaching a course with multiple lectures/instructors (e.g, 2D, 2E, 3A, etc), we encourage you to consult with your colleagues to see if a course-wide policy (e.g., all Math 2D sections have the same policy) would make sense, but this is not a requirement.

Below, we are providing you with the following guidance about your options.

Guidance on Final Exams (except for Math 2A/B)
The Mathematics department is here to support you in your decisions.  Thus, please make the decision that you feel is best for your class and for your students…you know them best!  Communicate any concerns or questions to Zhiqin, and we will do our best to make sure you can focus on teaching your courses and delivering appropriate final exams.

Thanks Chris, Bob, and Neil for the extensive discussion of the guidance!

Sincerely, 

Zhiqin



Attachments:



         2A/B: Neil Donaldson
         2D: Hamed Youssefpour and Scott Northrup
         2E. 3D: Kenn Huber
         3A and 13: Bob Pelay
 9, 10, 105, 110: Shuhao Cao



In particular, C- and below will record as NP, C and above will record as P. An instructor just needs to enter a regular letter grade. If the student requested a P/NP, the system would automatically change it to P/NP. Nothing particularly needs to be done on the instructor’s side. 

 

More information from the adminstration.

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

As we prepare to administer final exams, we wanted to send a quick note with some resources and reminders. We recognize that many of you already administered midterm exams remotely and that the mechanics of teaching are currently something of a work in progress. 

The Academic Senate and the Office of the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning have developed the following guiding principles to keep in mind when planning your exams:

We also ask that you consider the following recommended practices not only for finals, but when scheduling all remote exams:

 

Information on remote exam monitoring and proctoring is available here. Because of concerns about privacy and data sharing, the only third-party proctoring solutions approved for use at this time are Examity and Respondus. Please be aware, however, that there are known issues with both. At this time, Examity provides limited live proctors, and neither Examity nor Respondus work with Chromebooks. Please keep this in mind if you plan to use either software.

Further, both Examity and Respondus monitor individual students and behaviors using video and video analysis during a remote exam to preserve academic integrity. Before using either, instructors should notify students that they will be recorded. Please use this language: “This program uses video recording or other personal information capture for the purpose of facilitating the course and/or test environment. Pursuant to the terms of the agreement with UCI, the data is used solely for this purpose and any vendor is prohibited from redisclosing this information. UCI also does not use the data for any other purpose. Students who wish to opt out should contact the Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning at 949-824-3291.”

Alternatively, Zoom can be used much in the same way we proctor exams in person, with instructors and TAs viewing students and their environments during the exam. Due to data privacy concerns with third-party solutions, some UC campuses have restricted remote proctoring options to Zoom alone.

You are welcome to contact the Division of Teaching Excellence and Innovation or the Office of Academic Integrity & Student Conduct to discuss privacy-protective alternatives, including how to use question banks in Canvas.

Thank you,

Michael Dennin

Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning

 

James Steintrager

Chair, Academic Senate