Policies and Procedures

Here are some policies and procedures of which you should be aware when you are taking courses delivered by the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology.

Course Completions

You should note the end date for your course when you register. You can also check for the final month date on your course schedule. This is the month your course effectively ends. Typically, print based correspondence courses run 8 or 11 months. Online courses typically complete within 13 weeks.

In some cases it is possible to complete your course before the end date - that depends, however, on the course design. Check with the course instructor, before registering, to see if you can accelerate through the course.

If you have permission from the instructor to move ahead at a faster pace (accelerate), you must apply (by the application deadline) to write your exam early. Please attach an email/letter from your instructor indicating his/her permission to accelerate to the application form. See the Exams Section for further information.

Grades

Your final grade will be entered approximately 2-3 weeks following the final examination on the Student Service Centre.

You may appeal your final grade. Requests for formal appeal must be made through Enrolment Services.

Before considering a formal appeal, you should:

Discuss your concern with your instructor
Arrange to view your final exam. This must be arranged through the Academic Department to which the course belongs.

To appeal a final grade:

Please visit Enrolment Services for information about appealing your final grade: http://students.ubc.ca/calendar/index.cfm?tree=3,49,0,0

Click here for UBC grading practices

Deadlines and Withdrawals

For information about course withdrawals and refunds, please visit the Enrolment Services website at: http://www.students.ubc.ca/coursesreg/distance-education/withdrawal-refunds.

Course Accelerations

Accelerating a course means completing the course work then writing the final examination during an earlier examination period than the scheduled course completion date.

For information about course accelerations, please visit the Enrolment Services website at: http://www.students.ubc.ca/coursesreg/distance-education/course-acceleration.

Course Repeats

You may choose to repeat a course either to improve your GPA or to gain mastery over subject matter that is important to your degree and academic goals. However, before repeating a course, you should discuss this with your Faculty. Each Faculty may have different regulations and policies about repeating courses. You should also note the following:

The grade received for the course first time around will remain on your academic record.
You will not receive additional credit for the repeated course (Arts).
Your instructor may require you to submit different assignments on a repeat course. You will need to discuss expectations and requirements with your instructor at the start of the term.

Here are some questions to ask yourself before you commit to repeating a course:

Am I aware of the regulations for advancement for my faculty? See the resources below.
Have I discussed the requirements for repeating my course with my instructor? Am I clear about whether or not I will be able to re-submit previous work with changes?
Am I clear about my reasons for completing the course?

You might wish to repeat a course because:

You withdrew the first time you attempted the course.
You failed the course the first time you registered in it.
You want to improve your grade.

Repeating a course means that you must re-register and pay the full tuition and related fees. Each attempt at a course appears on your transcript.

Here are some links to UBC policy regarding academic advancement, for your reference:

Course Extensions

Extending a course means completing the course and writing the final examination during the next available examination period immediately following the scheduled course completion date.

For information about course extensions, please visit the Enrolment Services website at: http://www.students.ubc.ca/coursesreg/distance-education/course-extensions.

What do I do if I can’t complete the course before the end date?

Academic concessions such as course extensions are granted on medical or compassionate grounds as outlined by UBC policy and require supporting documentation and permission from your course instructor.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism means that you have:

Used another person’s words or ideas without acknowledging the source.
Allowed a friend to complete all or a portion of your work.
Submitted someone else’s work as your own.
Allowed a reviewer to make extensive revisions to an assignment.
Used information from an online discussion forum or website without proper citation.

To avoid plagiarism:

Give credit with proper citation to all sources from which you have quoted directly or borrowed ideas. This includes any and all visual or verbal communication containing content which originates from an identifiable source.

For extensive policy info and resources, refer to Academic Integrity – Learners’ Resources.

Student Evaluation of Teaching

Your feedback regarding your experience in the courses you take is valuable to instructors, faculty, administrators and course design teams as we revise and rework courses and curriculum to better meet the learning needs of students.

Distance courses delivered by CTLT are evaluated online via a service called CoursEval. Near the end of your course, you will be sent a link to login to CoursEval and evaluate your course instructors.

For more information about student evaluation of teaching at UBC, see the policy documents on the VP Academic’s web page. To learn about how to evaluate your professor in the most useful way, see the Tips for Evaluating Instructors on the Learning Commons website.

Transfer Credits

If you are planning to transfer credit for a UBC course to another institution, check with the other institution first about its policies regarding transfer credit. You may also consult the BC Transfer Guide at http://www.bccat.bc.ca

Exams

Enrolment Services manages examinations for all CTLT distance education courses. Online examinations are not administered by Enrolment Services, and you should contact your instructor with any questions you may have. For more information go to: http://www.students.ubc.ca/coursesreg/distance-education/final-examinations.

source: http://wiki.ubc.ca/Documentation:Distance_Learning_Support/Policies_and_Procedures