Any university lecturers here?

[candle18]

My ds is in 3rd year at uni and it’s been all online lectures this semester and the normal assessment is 25% assignment and 75% exam. They changes it (I think due to foreign students being home) to an assignment and an essay which they had a 24 hr window to complete. DS feels he does better in exams and I just wondered whether lecturers will be marking a but more generously given the disruption?

By the disruption I take it you mean the pandemic, not the fact that your ds prefers exams (otherwise why wouldn't students who prefer essays be compensated in a normal year?).

Our instructions are to make sure essay topics are still doable in lockdown (e.g. with sources available online), but to to use normal marking criteria. Students who need extensions/special considerations will be directed to the appropriate instances and they have been instructed to be extra understanding.

What I've been seeing so far does not suggest that standards are falling, at least not in my subject. In fact, the assessment I've just been marking had a higher overall standard than I can recollect ever having seen on that particular assessment. Possibly the fact that students are working without distraction is playing a part here. Of course there are some students whose health (mental or physical) has been affected by lockdown- in such cases, we will be informed.

The reason for moving assessments online is not just the international students but the uncertainty around what will be possible at any given time. It takes a long time to set up a new assessment and as we've seen government guidance on lockdown can change from day to day. The only way to guarantee that students will actually be assessed when they need to be is to make sure we've set up online in advance.