Impact of extended lockdown on your academic year
The Independent Institute of Education has planned for further delay in the resumption of contact classes following the President’s 9 April announcement of an extension to the lockdown period. Contact classes are likely only to be permitted sometime after the lock down ends. Your academic progress is important to us so we are planning for several scenarios which we will adapt as the national decision-making requires us to. We are also aware that not all students have equal access to the online opportunities, and we are planning for you too. We will not leave anyone behind.
We have consulted with many other local and international institutions and read their decisions with care so that our quality offering to you is not compromised. The detail for your qualification and modules will be shared with you by your campus and on your portal and on Learn/Moodle – as these vary depending on what you are studying, we are not covering the full detail in this letter.
• Online engagement – for most modules, a structured programme beginning on Wednesday 15 April 2020, will enable you to navigate towards the module outcomes successfully. Your lecturers will support you every step of the way.
• Campus resources – it is very likely that staff will be able to return to campuses before students can return full time for contact classes. As soon as we are permitted to have staff on campus, a closely managed schedule of safe (social distancing and hygiene) access for students to the campus and its resources (particularly computers and WiFi) will be communicated by each campus to supplement your ability to engage with the online offering.
• Contact classes – as soon as permitted, we will resume contact teaching blended with the resources developed for the above for those of you who have not been able to participate in the above or who want additional support AND for those modules we could not teach online. A timetable will be released only when we have dates that we can work around.
• Assessments – a document detailing new, flexible, developmental assessment rules for this semester will be available on your portal within the next ten days along with the details for your module. For now, the principles we are adopting to assist you to succeed are:
o Fewer formative assessments for modules that had several
o No tests – these have been converted to take-home assessments
o Wherever possible, the summative assessment is also being converted to a take-home assessment
o You may submit each assessment twice should you wish to improve your mark – you will get feedback on your first attempt to enable this.
o The average of your summative result plus your top two formative results (where relevant) will be your final module result.
o There are currently two deadlines only – if your assessments are all in by the end of July you will get first semester results in August; if they are in by the end of August you will get first semester results in September. You control the timing. If needed, we will add later dates.
Modules that cannot be taught and/or examined online will be covered when campuses open – you will get enough time. Focus on the others for now.
We remain committed to your learning in 2020 and we will partner with you towards success – your circumstances are being taken into consideration every step of the way. Please speak to your campus if you are feeling at all unsure. Join your virtual classes as soon as, and as much as, you can – it will reduce the anxiety significantly BUT if you are not able to do so, we have a plan of catch up classes and other support for you when we can connect on campus again.
Dr Felicity Coughlan Academic Director