Assessments
The Charter of Students’ Rights enshrines the right to fair and reasonable assessment. The Policy on Assessment of Student Learning (PASL) substantiates that right. Its provisions are elucidated in the headings below.
According to PASL, “Assessment” means the process through which progress and achievements of a student or students are measured or determined. Based on established criteria and standards, assessment provides ongoing feedback to the student about the quality and extent of their knowledge, understanding, and performance, and determines assigned grades.
According to PASL, assessment practices:
- are aligned with and reflective of the commitment to healthy teaching and learning environments
- conducted in a fair, reasonable, and equitable manner,
- clearly communicate expectations to students
- hear and respond to student concerns,
- are reasonably scheduled,
- are inclusive and diverse, offering reliable judgment of student knowledge, understanding, and performance,
- proportional to workloads, task due dates, and credit value of the course,
- uphold high academic standards and promote academic integrity,
- determine grades consistently and based on high standards,
- equivalent across course sections (in terms of worldload and assessment tasks),
- pedagogically sound and aligned with learning outcomes,
- allow for valid and reliable judgments about individual student learning
This means that:
- grading is designed to indicate an individual student’s achievement of learning outcomes,
- ranking students is not the primary goal of assessment,
- average grade and/or distribution of grades for any course, examination, or other academic task is not predetermined,
- courses have more than one graded assessment task (with a few exceptions).
— PASL ss. 4.1-4.4
If you feel the principles of assessment have been violated by your instructor, contact studentrights@ssmu.ca.
Scheduling
Several rules exist on the scheduling of assessments.
If an assessment is scheduled during add/drop:
- alternative arrangements must be provided for students registering during that period,
- missed assessments, including attendance, must have a make-up option
—PASL 5.4.
No assessment may be due during fall or winter reading breaks (PASL 6.8).
All assessments must be due before the last day of Exams as specified in the University Calendar (PASL 6.6).
In-term assessment tasks must be due in the last 10 working days of classes as specified in the University Calendar, except:
- Oral exams in language courses,
- Take-home assessment tasks (eg. essays, papers, examinations, problem sets, lab reports) if the questions, topics, and/or instructions are given to students at least 15 working days before the end of classes,
- Assessment tasks worth 10% of less of the final course grade.
—PASL 6.7
Grade Breakdown
According to the Policy on Assessment of Student Learning
- There should be more than one graded assessment for each course* (4.4(d))
- Any assessment task that must be completed in order to pass the course must be worth at least 20% of the course grade, listed in the syllabus, and justified pedagogically (5.8)
- Final exams must be worth between 25% and 75% of the course grade, not more or less (9.6)
*Exceptions are made for single-project courses, such as undergraduate/graduate thesis courses, internships, and individual readings courses.
If you believe that an assessment scheme is in violation of university policies, contact studentrights@ssmu.ca.
Feedback
The Policy for Assessment of Student Learning states that students have the opportunity to receive timely and ongoing formative and summative assessments.
- Formative: feedback they can use to improve during the course.
- Summative: feedback used to judge students’ knowledge, understanding, and performance at the end of a unit, course, or program to determine if they have achieved learning outcomes.
—PASL 4.3
Students must have the opportunity to receive formative feedback before the official course withdrawal without refund deadline (PASL 5.3).
If your instructor has failed to provide feedback in line with the University requirements, contact studentrights@ssmu.ca.
Third party review
“Students have a right to an impartial and competent review of any mark”
— Charter of Students’ Rights 25
Students may request review of any assessment task, including recorded oral assessments (PASL 8.1).
The process will depend on your Faculty, but in all cases you must request the re-read within 10 working days of the date the graded material was returned (PASL 8.1, 8.2).
Consult this page for more details on requesting your re-read.
No penalty may be imposed for requesting an explanation of a grade or a re-read.
If you are having issues accessing third party review, or the review process is conducted in violation of university policy, contact studentrights@ssmu.ca.