Dear Students

Belgium Campus iTversity has been communicating with you throughout the past three months of lockdown and we trust that you have followed developments. We have been authorised by the Council of Higher Education to change to online classes due to the Covid-19 pandemic and are committed to complete the academic year in December 2020. The mid-year examinations are scheduled to start on Monday, 22 June 2020 and will continue through to Friday, 3 July 2020.

In the upcoming examinations, Belgium Campus (BC) will employ multiple assessment methodologies which will enable BC to adequately assess the performance of each student and will be done either orally, through case studies or through online assessments.

Exam Preparation

On the day of your exam, you need to log into Zoom prior to the exam start time, around 10 – 15 minutes before the scheduled examination time. Once connected, the invigilator will confirm your ID in the Zoom meeting against the list of students authorised to sit for the specific exam. When you log in with your username and password, we accept that the correct students have logged in. You will be required to accept and sign the pop-up terms and conditions before you will be allowed to start. Once you start your exam, BC will continue to monitor certain data points on your computer. For online exams, the same security measures applicable to seated exams as per the BC standard rules and regulations apply.

Your invigilator may communicate a 5 to 10 minutes recorded session with you during your exam via the Zoom/Teams chat boxes in the event that something has changed. You are required to alert the exam invigilator when you have finished your exam and clicked the “Save” button. Your work will be saved on the exam server. Any questions that have been saved after the cut off time of the exam, can be referred to the review process. After the review process, if not saved correctly, the Examinations Commission will consider review requests on a case by case basis. To ensure any technical issues are sorted out before your exam, make sure you have checked your hardware and internet connection beforehand and if you are going to write using a mobile connection ensure you have sufficient data available.

The system has been checked and tested thoroughly and we do not expect any problems, but in the unlikely event of something going wrong during the examination, students will receive a notification online. In the unlikely event of students being unable to continue, students will be requested to continue in Microsoft Teams. In the very unlikely event that the Microsoft Teams platform also fails, students will continue on Belgium Campus back-up servers.

All relevant sections of the current Examinations, Assessment and Moderation Policies remain applicable in the case of students with valid reasons, are unable to either complete their examinations or are unable to write examinations. Belgium Campus understands the unique circumstances due to Covid-19 and the Examinations Commission will evaluate each request on a case by case basis. Fail-over measures have been implemented and will be communicated to students when circumstances beyond the control of the Belgium Campus interfere with its ability to provide any examination.

Exam Preparation

Students are required to agree to the terms and conditions of the exam. The student agrees to the measures taken and methodologies used to ensure students are able to present their knowledge in a fair and equitable manner. The consent provided through agreeing to the terms and conditions is also relevant to the necessary security measures taken to ensure that the examination is a true reflection of the student’s knowledge. This consent is provided by clicking on a pop-up communication during the exam.

For oral examinations students will be provided with a schedule with and a specific timeslot allocated to the student during which they have to connect to perform this type of examinations. This schedule will be posted on the Belgium Campus team on Microsoft Teams.

Please ensure you read the information provided as it will be specific to your online exam, including when the exam will be held and any permitted materials or special instructions. To access your exam online, you will be authenticated, and you will need the following:

• Speakers (usually built into your computer);
• A microphone (often this is built into the webcam);
• A reliable internet connection; and
• A suitable private space where you will not be interrupted.

Before you sit for your exam online, you need to check that your internet connection and computer can sustain an online exam. You will be able to practice a few questions on Teams before the exam in a new designated group for the specific exams. You will be added to a team and there will be an open Zoom session for each exam as well.

You will need to provide ‘exam conditions’ in the space where you choose to sit for your exam. This means similar conditions to what you would expect in an exam lecture hall. The room needs to be brightly lit, with no other people present and no interruptions. We suggest that you let your friends and family know that you are sitting for your exam and require a private, quiet space for the duration. Put a sign on your door asking people to come back later and turn your voicemail on.

Unless your exam is ‘open book’, your workspace should be free of papers, books and sticky notes and your walls should be clear of any documents or materials which may be relevant to the exam. Remove anything on your desk that is not related to your exam. Your mobile phone, smart watch or other devices should be turned off or put away. To ensure your internet connection is not interrupted or slowed, ask other people in your house not to watch Netflix or download large files while you are sitting for your exam.

BC will not be conducting any seated classrooms examinations for semester one following government regulations to avoid large indoor gatherings. Instead, all exams will be provided as online supervised exams, with online exam invigilation provided. While it is expected that students will make every effort to sit for their exams online, BC is considering alternatives for exceptional cases where students can demonstrate that they are unable to access exams in this way.

For your examinations, you will need to use a laptop or desktop computer which meets the technical requirements. In exceptional cases, certain mobile devices, tablets, iPads and phones will be supported.

You will need an internet connection which supports at least

• Minimum Download Speed of around 1 Mbps
• Minimum Upload Speed of around 1 Mbps

Plan to use a wired connection as wireless connections can be less reliable and to ensure your internet connection is not interrupted or slowed.

You will need a microphone and speakers to join Teams or Zoom sessions. BC will ensure that the Academic Invigilator and the Technical Invigilator are available for the duration of the exam. Having audio also makes it easier for your invigilator to communicate with you and assist you during the authentication and login process or in case of any technical issues. Therefore, we recommend a constant connection.

Most exams will be open for 2 hours, but BC will set an open and close date/time for the online exam and this may vary for each module. Since we are writing exams online, we will give you 15 minutes before the start of the exam and 30 minutes after the end of the exam to complete your two hour exam to allow for any technical issues that might occur. The same will apply to 3- or 4-hour exams.

When you are late for an exam and the exam availability window is still open, it may be possible to reschedule your start time at a slightly later time. If you have missed it completely, then it would be viewed in the same way as not attending a seated exam and no marks are awarded. If you have evidence for not being able to attend your exam, you may be eligible to apply for a supplementary exam, subject to the circumstances having been considered by the Examinations Commission.

The exam will only be available for a limited time. The same rules and regulations apply for a seated exam. After one hour, a student will not be allowed into the examinations. No extension after the 30 minutes grace at the end of the exam.

Exam Schedule

The modules will be assessed as indicated below: