The maximum duration of an assessment is 2.5 hours. To this duration add 15 to 30 min, in the beginning, to allow the students to access/authenticate to the platform where the test will take place and 15 to 30 min at the end to allow the submission of the answers (which can be adjusted to the total duration of the test).

Additional time should be allowed for students with special educational needs. Pay special attention to the assessment time zone for foreign students enrolled in UC.

The rules and procedures for conducting an online assessment must be well defined and published on the UC page in Fenix (at least 10 days before the assessment). It must be included the platform to be used and the necessary resources, namely calculator, webcam, microphone, consultation material, etc.

If a student does not have the conditions to carry out the assessment in accordance with the requirements of the UC, he/she may exceptionally request the test to be carried out at Técnico’s facilities (space and broadband availability), ensuring the appropriate security conditions recommended by the DGS. Técnico services will try to respond as soon as possible in order to confirm the possibility of satisfying the request. For this purpose, the student must send an email with a minimum of 7 days prior to the date of the assessment, fill the form and send to cp.exames@tecnico.ulisboa.pt.

In the event that it is not possible to ensure that the test is carried out at the Técnico’s premises (in particular, as it is not possible to ensure the requirements of the UC) the student should contact the teacher, who should ensure that the evaluation is carried out through an alternative method of evaluation. (for example, an oral assessment).

It is advisable to carry out a formative test (which does not count for evaluation) one to two weeks before to allow the identification of any difficulties that may happen during the assessment (access, submission, etc.), thus allowing to correct and/or minimize these situations.

The possibility of early registration in the assessment can facilitate the planning.

When publishing the classifications, it is advisable to provide the solution for a standard test to the students, or alternatively to explain how the test was corrected.

Procedure

• In courses taught by a teaching team, teachers can divide the class and create separate Zoom sessions (e.g., students from A to L use the L1 link from Zoom, students from M to Z use the L2 link).
• Use Zoom chat to clear up doubts – the chat allows private interactions, i.e., teacher-student (do not choose the “everyone” option). The use of the microphone to clear up doubts during an assessment will distract the other students and should be avoided.
• It is advisable to use the Zoom Whiteboard function to publish the start and end time of the assessment, as well as any additional information that is needed by students during the assessment.
• The teacher, if considers relevant, can ask students to turn on their camera, and for that purpose, students can use their computers or smartphones. The camera can be pointed to the student or workplace, the teacher should decide on this. The maintenance of the connected cameras during the assessment can have implications in the internet connections quality, particularly when a large number of students are involved.

• The recording of the students’ assessment (written or oral) cannot be made, according to the Guidelines on distance assessment in higher education establishments (in Portuguese) of the Portuguese Data Protection Authority which states in point 2: “… if unnecessary, or at least excessive, the recording of images and sound during the assessment (oral and, obviously, written), it is up to the responsible person to adopt the appropriate measures to prevent recording; this is justified to prevent reuse improper use of the recordings.”, it is understood that the responsible person for the treatment to be adopted is the responsible for the UC.

• If the student has technical problems during the assessment, he/she should contact the teacher as soon as possible (Zoom chat, email, mobile phone) identifying the situation, and send proof of the event (photo, image, etc.). Please note that the upload/download speed of the platforms is dependent on the Internet access speed of each user. There are students who live in places where access to the Internet is still via telephone line (ADSL) connections, or through mobile phone networks of older generations. In this sense, we recommend that the content that is made available to students be optimized to reduce its size. This way students will take less time to download the statements, and to load the final files produced.

• In situations where the students fail to connect in Zoom during the assessment, the teacher can later confirm the Zoom report and check the absence time. The relevance of this absence can be analyzed according to the total duration of the assessment.
• Whenever in doubt, the UC teacher can exceptionally request an oral assessment to a student by videoconference (with two teachers). When fraud is verified, the teacher should follow the procedure of the face-to-face assessment and cancel the assessment to the student(s) and report it to the Pedagogical Council (cp@tecnico.ulisboa.pt) with proof of the fraud.