Evaluating Student Performance and Prerequisites

Evaluating Student Performance

Instructors announce the Course Learning Outcomes (CLOs), Student Outcomes (SOs), and grading policies at the beginning of the term and closely monitor the students’ performance in the course during the term. Student performance in the CLOs and SOs is assessed through a variety of assessment tools. Following is a list of such tools and a typical grade distribution:

20%      Midterm Exams

40%      Final Exam

40%      Other course activities such as: Homework, tests, quizzes, projects, presentations, lab reports, technical reports…etc…

Instructors can alter this distribution provided that the contribution of the Final Exam grade to the total course grade does not exceed 70%. The grades corresponding to the final mark obtained by the student in the course are recorded as follows:

IC grade (Incomplete): If a student has not completed all the requirements of a course, the instructor may, with the approval of the Department Council, give the student an IC grade. The student has to complete the course requirements by the end of the following semester (summer term not counted). Failure to do so will automatically change the IC grade to an F grade (Fail).

IP Grade (In Progress): Students taking courses that may require more than one semester to be completed (such as the senior project course) may be assigned a grade of IP if they have not finished all the course requirements. The student may be given up to two extra semesters (excluding summer terms) to complete the course work.

Repeating Courses: Students are permitted to repeat a course in which they earned an “F” grade. The new grade does not cancel the old one. Both old and new grades are kept in the student’s transcript and count toward his GPA.

The Academic Affairs and Training Unit (AATU) provides all necessary information concerning registration (including registration windows) and course add-drop procedure to the academic departments at the beginning of each semester. A web-based Student Information System (ODUS Plus) is used to facilitate and regulate various processes for student registration and academic advising. The application (ODUS Plus) is a customized version of Banner, a Student Information System used by more than 1800 universities and serving more than 10 million students worldwide. All information concerning every student in the Faculty of Engineering is documented, continuously updated, and saved on ODUS Plus. An automated warning is issued to students on probation due to low academic performance (GPA less than 2.75 out of 5 or the student has exceeded 15 semesters in the University without graduating), and limits on the term loads are enforced through ODUS Plus according to the student GPA.

Summer Training Performance Evaluation: Summer training is administered through the AATU in coordination with external agencies in the country. Each student is assigned a faculty member to be his summer supervisor and a representative from the training organization to supervise and mentor him at work. Summer supervisors are assigned between 10 to 20 students from the program. The performance of the student in training is jointly evaluated by the representative of the training organization and the summer supervisor faculty member. The student’s performance is evaluated through the following three ways: Evaluation by the representative of the training organization, regular on-site visits by the summer supervisor faculty member, and an end of training written report and oral presentation to the summer supervisor faculty member.

Prerequisites:

Prior to 2012, student registration was handled by an in-house developed web-based application software, On Demand University Services (ODUS). A more robust system (ODUS Plus) which is based upon the internationally known Banner Student Information System was introduced in 2012. The system is able to handle different plans for the same program and accounts for different equivalent courses in fulfilling the prerequisite conditions. The system is currently being rolled over and the first phase has already been completed and is being in use by the whole university. The following summarizes prerequisite handling during the different registration periods.

During the Preregistration Period (lasts for three weeks during the preceding term): The student chooses the courses and preregisters online. ODUS Plus enforces the prerequisites automatically.

During the Student Add-Drop period (the week immediately before the start of classes): The Student may add and drop courses and ODUS Plus enforces the prerequisites automatically.

During the Departmental Add-Drop period (the first two weeks of the semester): The student may, through the department, register for a course for which the prerequisite handling has not yet been automated. Permission of the Academic Advisor and the Department Head are required and the registration requires privileges assigned only to the Head of the AATU and to the Vice-Dean for Academic Affairs.

During the Vice-Dean Office Add-Drop period (Week 3 and 4 of the semester): The student may, through the Vice-Dean Office, add and drop courses in exceptional circumstances. During this period, academic advisors review the class schedule of their advisees and will request changes if any discrepancies, errors, or prerequisite violations are found.

At the end of the registration period a report is produced through ODUS Plus that details any possible prerequisite violation. If any are found, they are forwarded to the Department Head for review. The Department Head then forwards any corrections to be made to the Office of the Vice-Dean who will drop the courses with prerequisite violations and may add other courses if necessary and as appropriate. The student is then informed of any changes to his schedule and encouraged to discuss them with his academic advisor who will send any final requests to the Department Head who will forward them to the Vice-Dean Office.