Announcements/ Notices/ Mass Mailing Sent to Full-time Undergraduate Students in the Past 6 Months

To:

Students with First Term Centralized Course Examinations 2020-21

Re:

Reminder for First Term Centralized Course Examinations 2020-21

Dear Students,

First Term Centralized Course Examinations will begin on 9 December 2020.  Please pay attention to the following regarding examination arrangements.

1.

Declaration of Academic Honesty

The University places very high importance on honesty in academic work, and adopts a policy of zero tolerance on academic dishonesty.  Students should have made the Declaration of Academic Honesty prior to taking examinations.  All students are abide by the statements in the Declaration in attending the examinations and MUST comply with the respective rules and regulations for taking online/face-to-face examinations.  All acts of academic dishonesty, once established by the concerned authorities, shall be disciplined in accordance with the University’s policies and guidelines governing academic honesty (http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/policy/academichonesty/).  Demerit records will be marked on student’s academic transcript and for some serious cases, the penalty includes lowering of degree honours as a result of academic dishonesty.  Therefore, students MUST take academic honesty very seriously when they attend any examinations/tests/other forms of assessments.

2.

Further update of the Final Examination Timetable

All students MUST check again the updated Final Examination Timetable on CUSIS, since there are further update after 16 November 2020 due to (a) late drop of courses, and (b) some more changes in the mode of examination (e.g. from face-to-face to online, or from without invigilation to self-arranged invigilation).

The Final Examination Timetable has been sent by separate e-mails to individual SEN students who need special examination arrangements as recommended by the Office of Student Affairs of the University.  Students should note that there might be subsequent changes to their individual examination timetable due to change of examination mode.  Students should follow the information stated in the latest e-mail sent to them to attend the final examination with special arrangements according to the date, time, and venue (applicable to face-to-face examinations).

Please note that students are NOT allowed to take the examinations if they have dropped the courses.

3.

Attending Face-to-Face Examinations

Students who will attend the face-to-face examinations on campus MUST arrive at the designated examination venue (e.g. University Gymnasium) at least 20 minutes BEFORE the start time of the examination (i.e. arrive at 9:10am if the examination starts at 9:30am).  The University will perform the following stringent precautionary measures in examination venues in addition to the “Guidelines for Precautionary Measures for Face-to-Face Examinations”.

Students are required to wear surgical masks throughout the examination, and should line up with social distancing for the following measures when entering examination venues.

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Body temperature screening at the entrance of all examination venues. Anyone with body temperature constantly at or higher than 37.5C will NOT be allowed to enter the examination venue, and they will be given proper advice for follow-up action.

o

All students are required to use alcohol sanitizer to clean their hands before entering the examination venue.

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After entering the examination venue, students MUST take up the assigned seat (the seat number is available in students’ individual exam timetable on CUSIS).  Alcohol wipes will be provided to students to clean the desk/chair of the examination venue as deemed necessary.

No eating or drinking is allowed inside all examination venues.

Please note that for social distancing, the seating arrangement in examination halls will follow that of the HKDSE and students are seated approximately 1.8 meters apart.  For examinations to be held in classroom, a venue with double-seating capacity will be used and students will be seated at least one meter apart from each other, and some vacant seats/rows will also be arranged as far as practicable.

In order to safeguard the health and well-being of the campus community, students who are not feeling well or who have respiratory symptoms should not attend face-to-face examinations, and should seek advice from RES for application for absence from examinations.  Students who are residing in Hong Kong but who do not feel comfortable to sit the face-to-face examination due to the pandemic should seek advice from the course teachers concerned directly so that other alternative arrangements can be made, including: (a) an online examination following the same format and the time of same examination session will be arranged by the course teachers, if there is an online version of the examination for students who are not residing in Hong Kong, and subject to the decision of the course teacher concerned; or (b) to be advised to apply for absence from examination and to be assessed later by make-up examination or by other forms of assessment.

4.

Attending Online Examinations

Students MUST follow the instructions of the course teachers to attend the examinations at the specified time earlier than the start time on the date of the examination for attendance taking or other logistics arrangements as required, where applicable.  Course teachers concerned should have arranged mock examination for students to familiarize themselves with the IT tools/platform before taking the actual online examination.

All students must read carefully the “Guidelines and Information for Students Taking Online Course Examinations” when preparing for online examinations.  Students who have genuine difficulties with the required computing equipment, proper environment and stable internet connection (especially for those who are taking the examination outside Hong Kong) for taking online examinations should report to the course teacher as soon as they can.  Course teachers concerned should also give clear written instructions, including but not limited to the following, to students before the online examination takes place.

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Exact time for students to logon the IT tools/platforms before the examination start time (e.g. 20 minutes before the start time of the examination).

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The method used to take attendance (e.g. students are required to show their Student ID Card or other identification document, where applicable, in front of the webcam).

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The IT tools/platforms to deliver the question paper(s) online before the examination.

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The back-up plan for students if they encounter any system failure/Internet problem (e.g. provide telephone number of the invigilator/course teacher for reporting problems).

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The IT tools/platforms that students will use to submit the answer scripts/sheets after the examination and the time allowed (e.g. 15 minutes) for submission of the answer scripts/sheet.

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The IT tools/platforms for invigilation during online examination with invigilation.

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The instructions for washroom arrangements during the examination for online examination with invigilation, e.g. to ask students to show the examination scripts via Zoom, or take a picture of the examination script and send e-mail to an account before going to washroom.

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For online examination with invigilation, students should be informed whether the examination session will be recorded.

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How to raise questions before, during and after the examination when students have problems on the question paper or experience other significant problems (e.g. use CHAT/raise hand in Zoom or use mobile to call announced mobile telephone numbers/use other means to communicate with the course teacher/invigilator).

Students who have not got such information before the examination should contact the course teachers concerned directly.

5.

Other Important Information

Please refer to our e-mail communication dated 16 November 2020 for details of examination rules, special circumstances for re-scheduling of examination, and application for absence from examinations.  Please also note that in general the data retention period is one year for all examination data collected/generated during online and face-to-face examinations, except when the data are required for specific purposes (e.g. investigation of disciplinary cases).

With best regards,

Registration and Examinations Section
2 December 2020