Over the past few weeks the UCSA Executive have been working hard on your behalf as UC has prepared for online delivery over Term 2. Your President, Tori has been part of the Incident Management Team (IMT), and Vice President Katie has sat on the Academic Liaison Group (ALG) and other academic workstreams.  Your Finance and Engagement Officer Jack has been working with the New Zealand Universities Students’ Associations (NZUSA) on a Student Action Plan for the government to advocate for better financial, education and wellbeing support for students impacted by Covid-19 as well as working across UC student Wellbeing workstreams.

On the academic front, Vice President Katie has been able to provide the student voice on academic issues such as the new Assessment Policy and Procedures developed in response to online delivery.  All remaining assessment for Semester 1 – that’s assignments, tests and examinations – will be conducted online.  This means you might find that your assessments may look a little different than originally planned at the beginning of the semester. Rest assured, the university has worked tirelessly to redesign assessment so that even most labs and practical assessments can be delivered online and therefore cause minimal disruption to your course of study. Course coordinators will be communicating to students directly what these changes are via LEARN and email. If you are still uncertain about assessment for term 2 make sure you check your LEARN page for information and follow up with your course coordinator.

The new assessment policy mandates that changes to assessment should not disadvantage students and emphasises flexibility for students facing challenges to studying online. If you feel changes to your assessment disadvantage you – please get in touch with the UCSA. We are here to support you and help you negotiate any challenges!

Other issues covered by the Katie and the Academic Liaison Group are:

• the exam process including options and procedures for students requesting and utilising Reader/Writer support
• invigilated exams and how these could be run
• grading considerations
• the withdrawal process and refunds/repeats
• the streamlining and tailoring of the Special Considerations process
• equity for specific student cohorts such as Māori, Pasifika, International and Postgrad students,  and those learning at home with circumstances such as dependants/children studying online from home, students with inadequate space or resources to learn online.
• scenario planning beyond Alert Level 4 including identifying priority resource and spaces that could be made available.

Key points for students are:

• Your Course Coordinators should have notified you of changes to assessment, including due dates and assessment type. Please keep in touch with UCSA if you feel disadvantaged by assessment changes.
• Your LEARN pages have been updated with your new assessments.
• Always check LEARN site for any course-related questions.  Please ensure you are “subscribed” to the forum updates on your LEARN pages. This will ensure you are getting the most up to date information on your courses. If what you need isn’t there, then contact your course coordinator.
• Timetabling have worked all through Easter to have the timetable for the week starting Monday 20th up by the end of today.
• The Term 2 Examinations timetable will be live mid next week (week starting 20th April).
• Live-streamed lectures will then be available as a lecture recording for students unable to make it at the timetabled time.
• If you have resource issues/are experiencing difficulty in accessing online teaching, please contact UC. This includes hardware, software and internet limitations.
• If you are facing any challenges at all, get in touch with us at the UCSA. We want to hear your feedback and support you through this.

In business as usual, the Exec have been attending their regular meetings by Zoom, and contributing student feedback to the monthly policy reviews and the plethora of programme and new course proposals tracking through the UC system to meet Committee on University Academic Programmes (CUAP) deadlines.

We wish you all the best with your online learning in Term 2. Get in touch with your classmates, start a virtual study group, create a study routine, stay connected and be kind to yourself.

Photos left to right: Tori McNoe, Katie Mills and Jack Whittam.