Setting Final Exam Requirements in CLSS
- Max Klinkert
Background
About Final Exams
By final exams, we mean traditional final exams held during the bylaw-defined final exam week during a two-hour exam period set by the Office of the Registrar and which are added to instructor and student schedules.
If students are required to take a final exam on a specific date at a specific time, then an exam should be scheduled by the Office of the Registrar, even if the exam is online. In-person exams will be scheduled in the same classroom in which the class met during the semester unless a schedule conflict makes this impossible.
The Office of the Registrar will schedule exams in the same room as the class was held during the semester, but instructors may request a different room assignment if needed. And, while university policy does not allow the Office of the Registrar to accommodate requests for exam time changes, instructors can request that the exam room be reserved to give students additional time to finish the exam if the room is available. Please note, however, that instructors may not REQUIRE students to spend more than two hours taking an exam as this can lead to student schedule conflicts.
To request a different classroom for an exam, please contact the Office of the Registrar at registrarscheduling@uconn.edu or the registrar staff of the appropriate Regional Campus.
Scenarios when an exam does NOT need to be scheduled
Any time an exam will not be held during a two-hour period during exam week as scheduled by the Office of the Registrar, an exam should not be added to the class. The following are common scenarios when an exam is NOT required:
When a project, report, or other alternative assessment takes the place of a final examination.
When an online exam can be started at the time of the student’s choosing, even if the exam cannot be started until a certain time, or if the exam must be completed by a particular time.
The scope of this article is limited to using CLSS to set final exam preferences. Please see the university catalogs and/or other resources for information about final exam and assessment policies.
What types of classes should not have exams?
While there is technically no rule against scheduling an exam for any class, most exams are scheduled for lecture, lecture - stand alone, and seminar sections. A small number of departments schedule exams for their stand-alone lab sections (i.e. labs not linked to a lecture), but labs or discussions linked to lectures should not have exams - these should instead be scheduled for the lecture section.
There are a number of rules built into CLSS meant to guide departments in determining how to set their exam preferences. The error messages built into these rules should contain all the information you may need, but you may also contact registrarscheduling@uconn.edu with any questions.
When should exam requirements be set?
Exam requirements will roll forward from the previous like term (e.g. spring to spring, fall to fall), and it is possible to update this information at any time. It is recommended that these requirements be updated as early in the scheduling cycle as possible, but it is important that all exam requirement updates be complete by the 10th day of the semester when the exam schedule process begins.
Having accurate information about which classes do and do not require exams allows only required exams to be scheduled, which helps to minimize exam schedule conflicts for students, instructors, and classrooms.
Instructions
While final exam requirements for most sections can be set using the Final Exam field in CLSS, exam requirements for lectures with linked labs or discussions must be set using Section Attributes as explained below.
Setting Final Exam Requirement
Using the Final Exam field (for most section types)
For most section types, setting final exam requirements is as simple as choosing either “Yes, Final Exam During Finals Week” or “No, No Final Exam During Finals Week” from the Final Exam drop-down menu.
The Common Exam option only applies to certain MATH and CHEM classes.
Section attributes for final exams (for lectures with linked labs/discussions only)
For lectures with linked labs or discussions, the Final Exam field is not editable due to the way these sections are structured in the Student Administration System. The field will be grayed out and will have a value of “Not Applicable When Linked to Any/All…”
To indicate the exam requirements for a lecture with linked labs or discussions, add the appropriate section attribute to the section. To add a section attribute, click the pencil icon next to Section Attributes:
In the Section Attributes window that opens, click the green “+” icon to add an attribute. If the section requires an exam, choose the “Final Exam: Lecture requires final exam” attribute from the drop-down menu. If no exam is required, select “Final Exam: No final exam for lecture.”
Once the appropriate attribute has been selected, click Accept and then save the section.
Checking the exam requirements for the sections in your department
It is possible to generate lists of classes that do and do not require exams using filters in CLSS. To use filters, open your Scheduling Unit in the term you wish to search in CLSS and then click the “Filter” button in the top right corner of the screen.
For all sections except lectures with linked labs or discussions, type “Y” (for Yes) or “N” (for No) in the “Final Exam Code” field under the “Section” group of fields in the Filter Sections interface:
For most sections, filter for exam preferences by typing “Y” or “N” in the Final Exam Code field. For CHEM or MATH sections with Common Exams, type “C.”
For lectures with linked labs or discussions, use the “Attributes Code” field under the “Section” group of fields. To find lectures that require exams, type “EXAM!!!LECEXAM.” For lectures that do not require exams, type “EXAM!!!LECNOEXAM”:
Use “EXAM!!!LECEXAM” to find lecture sections that require exams.
Use “EXAM!!!LECNOEXAM” to find lecture sections that do not require exams.