As a precautionary measure against Covid-19, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) announced on March 14 that most semester exams will be converted into continual assessments.

This may be in the form of tests, quizzes, terms papers, projects or other assignments.

For some, this may seem to be a rather innocuous change, meant to combat the spread of Covid-19 within the campus by employing social-distancing measures.

However, the sudden announcement was a rude shock to many affected students, as the change in assessment format meant that multiple new deadlines have sprung up, mere weeks before the end of the semester.

Many students have spoken up on the anonymous platform NTU Confessions, detailing their difficulties in adapting to these abrupt changes.

Mothership spoke to several NTU students regarding the announcement, and how they affected students from various faculties.

New deadlines were imposed at a short notice

Normally, semester examinations in NTU are conducted after the end of the teaching semester, with a study break of between one to two weeks before examinations are held.

However, with most exams being converted to other forms of assessments, students have reported that their deadlines have been brought forward to the end of Week 13, rather than the traditional exam period, typically taking place after Week 13.

With the announcement made four weeks before the end of of the teaching semester, students are understandably upset about the situation.

"My workload is already quite heavy because of FYP (Final Year Project), and the other electives that I'm taking that are purely continual assessments. Now, the exam is pushed forward a week so it's two days after my FYP presentation, and also during the same week that a lot of my assignments are due. So it's going to be a challenge to balance everything," said a fourth-year Communications student.

This sentiment was echoed by another student, who is a third-year Literature student.

"Before this change, I had four essays, one in-class test, and three final examinations. All assignments were equally spaced out and a study break was included before finals. Now, I still have the essays due during the semester, and three in-class tests and one take-home test all happening during the last week of university, sans study break. Safe to say there won't be any time to study or prepare for the essays."

Many NTU students also said that shortly after the announcement was made, their professors informed them of the new assessment deadlines via email, with many of them stating that "academic rigour would be maintained", despite the changes.

Professors provided swift updates, but did not explain the changes clearly

While the students generally appreciated the quick updates provided by their professors, they were less pleased with the way that the information was conveyed to them.

"It was first made known to me through email. I received different emails from different professors for the respective modules. The content is more or less the same saying that the decision of the Provost is the reason for the change and that's pretty much it," said a fourth-year Physics student.

Students were also concerned that the new forms of assessments would be of equal difficulty to the original examinations, only brought forward.

"There was no explanation on the scope of the new test papers that were brought forward, so I assume academic rigour being maintained means papers of equal standards, merely brought forward," said a fourth-year Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) student.

The same student remarked that while he understood that the Covid-19 situation is constantly changing, the school and the teaching staff could have explained the changes in a more coherent manner.

"I think they could have done better by at least explaining the scope of the new papers or how our learning schedule can be adjusted for us to be prepared for the upcoming quizzes and assignments. None of us really had the time to react, but it doesn't seem like we have a choice, or that it would make a difference," he said.

Many of the students that Mothership spoke to were also not content to simply observe the situation from the sidelines.

Some students have already emailed their professors to discuss a possibility of pushing back the deadlines, but they have not received replies as of yet.

A third-year Literature student also shared that her faculty has created a Google Sheet document to share their views with their professors.

At least one student, a fourth-year Mathematics student, said that it was difficult to negotiate with the professors regarding the new assessments.

He said that although several students tried to work out alternative arrangements with their professors due to multiple clashing assignments and tests, they were not open to letting the students discuss alternative solutions.

NTU previously told students to keep their schedule open until the end of May

According to NTU's previous announcement, 25 per cent of examinations will continue, although they may be postponed up to the end of May, pending new developments with the Covid-19 situation.

NTU has advised students to keep their schedule open and available until the end of May, in case there are any changes to final examination dates or continual assessment schedules.

It is unclear whether professors are given the discretion to push back assessment deadlines in a similar fashion as well.

Mothership has reached out to NTU for comment.

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Top image from NTU.