Home exams scheduled to begin at the end of April

Assignments will also replace exams in some modules

Semester two undergraduate assessments will be conducted through a mixture of online and offline exams and assignments, College has announced. Senior Lecturer Kevin Mitchell and Vice Provost Jürgen Barkhoff laid out the timetable for the assessment period in an email sent to all undergraduate students this afternoon.

Exams will be scheduled between Monday April 27 and Saturday May 9. These will be a mixture of real-time online exams, and take-home papers with a set deadline for completion. In some modules, assessment will be conducted through assignments, the deadlines for which will fall between May 11 and May 15.

College have said that they hope to have details of assessments in each school finalised by early next week, at which point they will be communicated to students. Timetables for precisely when assignments and exams will take place will be released “as soon as we have finalised them”, the email stated.

Students in Schools with professional accreditation requirements and Health Sciences students whose assessments have been expedited are not included in this schedule.

The email went on to say that College recognises “that some students may have technical issues with poor connectivity…or concerns about access from different jurisdictions and time zones”. A mock exam environment is to be set up for students to test their ability to participate in online assessment. Those who face technical difficulties have been asked to contact IT Services “who are exploring a number of solutions”.

Additionally, Barkhoff and Mitchell advised those with “generally difficult working conditions at home, either for studying or completing assessments” to contact their tutors individually. The email promised they would be “as generous and flexible as possible in taking such circumstances into account in considering requests for a deferral”.

The email made no mention of petitions circulating among students for college to adopt a “no detriment” policy with regard to semester two assessments. Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) President Laura Beston said on Twitter yesterday that she had met with Provost Patrick Prendergast, and that he would in turn be meeting with Barkhoff and Mitchell to discuss the proposal.

Beston went on to say: “We also discussed…isolation and the need for support in gaining refunds for students who had to vacate their accommodation. Please be assured that [TCDSU] are doing all we can to solve the issues that this difficult time has caused.”

Jack Kennedy

Jack Kennedy is the Editor-in-chief of the 68th edition of Trinity News. He is a Computer & Electronic Engineering graduate, and a former Assistant Editor, Online Editor, and Deputy Online Editor.