How to Support Students Who Have Multiple Final Exams In 24 Hours
Giving students 24 hours to complete a final assessment might make a lot of sense in a time of emergency, but it can also cause anxiety for students if they are unclear on expectations. You can help by clarifying expectations and stating clear limits in advance. To assist all of your students, but particularly students facing this additional challenge, please include the following in your exam information to students:
- Put all instructions about the exam into the introduction of the exam to ensure that your students have easy and clear access to any instructions, including logistics and what they should do if they have trouble submitting the exam. If you have already provided these instructions elsewhere, repeat them within the introduction to the exam.
- Provide students with an estimate of how much time the exam will likely take (i.e. I expect it will take you about three hours to write this exam)
- Provide students with clear requirements related to their answers to short answer and essay questions, such as minimum and/or maximum word counts for answers. This will also help you manage the time needed for marking.
Be aware of and provide students with needed supports and accommodations required from Access and Equity Services (AES). You can find information about meeting these requirements during the COVID-19 pandemic on the AES website.
If you know of specific students in your classes who are scheduled to have two exams within a 24 hour period you could:
- Email deu.exams@usask.ca to verify if a conflict exists for a student requesting a change.
- Discuss with those individual students what specific additional needs they may have, if any.
- Negotiate an earlier 24 hour period of time for the release of the open book exam
- Offer those students a bit of extra time, such as a 48 hour window
