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The Ordinance of the Rector
of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin
no. 103/2021
of November 29, 2021
on conducting the diploma examinations
with the use of Information Technology tools in the 2021-2022 academic year
Pursuant to Article 23, section 2, item 2 and Article 76a section 2 of the Act of July 20, 2018, Law on Higher Education and Science (Journal of Laws of 2021, item 478 as amended) it is ordered as follows:
General provisions
§ 1
1. The Dean of the Faculty shall decide on conducting a diploma examination with the use of Information Technology tools.
2. The diploma examination pursued with the use of Information Technology tools shall be conducted exclusively in the form of the videoconference with the use of Teams application within the framework of a University license Microsoft Office 365 and with the use of official accounts of the University employees, subject to the provisions of the Article 5 sec. 2. The process of the diploma examination via the Microsoft Teams application may be recorded by the UMCS.
3. The student taking the diploma examination using the tool referred to in sec. 2 shall be obliged to have access to a computer or other device equipped with a microphone and a camera, allowing for real-time two-way audio and video communication, connected to the Internet, and shall have access to the Teams application (or other application, platform, if it was chosen for this purpose) as well as he/she shall have the knowledge of using this tool.
4. The participation in the diploma examination with the use of the tool referred to in sec. 2 shall be tantamount to agreeing to the possible option of recording its process with the participation of the student and all members of the Examination Board.
5. The diploma examination with the use of the tool referred to in sec. 2 shall be conducted in accordance with the procedure specified in Article 2.
The procedure of the diploma examination with the use of the Information Technology ensuring the control of its process and recording
§ 2
1. After fulfilling all the conditions specified in the UMCS Study Regulations, the student preparing for the diploma examination shall submit, in accordance with the diploma principles effective at the Faculty, scans of the necessary statements and, if it is required, a copy of the thesis (in the PDF format) downloaded from the Archive of Diploma Theses System (hereinafter referred to as “APD”) to the relevant Dean’s Office via e-mail, in the version including the control numbers, subject to sec. 2.
2. A designated employee of the Dean’s Office shall verify the correctness of the submitted documents, the status of the thesis in the APD, and the accordance of the control numbers in the submitted PDF file with the numbers indicated in the USOS system if submitting this file was required.
3. The diploma examination may take place providing that the thesis in the Archive of Diploma Theses System is at stage 5 (thesis is ready for defence).
4. The Dean of the Faculty deciding to conduct the diploma examination by using Information Technology, shall set the due date of the diploma examination (i.e. date and time) as well as appoint the Examination Board to conduct the diploma examination in accordance with the procedures applied at the Faculty.
5. The Dean of the Faculty may additionally appoint a faculty employee to perform the function of the technical support for the Chairperson of the Examination Board in the scope of servicing equipment and programs as well as conducting the diploma examination properly.
6. Sign language interpreters as well as assistants of people with mobility impairments and blind people may participate in diploma examinations performed by means of online video conferencing, referred to in § 1, item 2. Persons assisting students with disabilities shall have the consent of the Faculty Dean in order to participate in diploma examinations. The Dean of the Faculty shall have the right to refuse the participation of the assistant during a diploma examination if this person is substantively or professionally related to the subject of the diploma thesis which the student shall defend.
7. After receiving the notification about the date of the examination, the Chairperson of the Examination Board or the person responsible for technical support shall create a meeting in the calendar in the Teams application entitled “Diploma examination [name, surname and (student's album number)]”, and shall invite the student and other members of the Examination Board to take part in it. Participants shall immediately confirm the receipt of the invitation using the Teams application. In the case of using other tools or programs - in accordance with the Dean’s guidelines. It is possible to create a meeting in the Teams application for a group of people, providing that the individual course of examination is guaranteed for each of the students in the group.
8. On the day of the exam, starting 10 minutes before the scheduled start time, the dissertation advisor, reviewer, and the student shall be required to be available in front of the device with the running Teams application or another one.
9. At the scheduled time of the diploma examination, the Chairperson of the Examination Board or the person responsible for technical support shall organise a group conversation (“chat”) through the Teams application and shall call the members of the Examination Board and the student taking the exam to connect. In the case of using other programs - according to the Dean’s guidelines.
10. The Chairperson of the Examination Board shall have the option of recording the process of the diploma examination. Other members of the Examination Board and the student shall be prohibited from recording the process of the diploma examination, both through the Teams application and other technical means.
11. During the diploma examination, cameras and microphones of all persons participating in the examination (the student and members of the Examination Board) must be switched on, except for the person responsible for technical support, if such a person has been appointed by the Dean of the Faculty.
12. After receiving the call, and thereby joining the meeting referred to in item 8 by the student and all members of the Examination Board, its Chairperson verifies the student’s identity. The student taking the diploma examination is obliged to present a student ID.
13. Before taking the substantive part of the exam, the Chairperson of the Examination Board shall explain to the student technical issues related to the process of the diploma examination as well as the consequences of delinking the video conference (the loss of connection) before its ending.
14. At the request of the Chairperson of the Examination Board, the student taking the examination shall be obliged to facilitate, by using a camera in his/her device, the room where he/she shall be during the diploma examination.
15. In the event that the thesis presentation is required during the diploma examination, the student who is taking the exam shall make accessible the entire desktop of his/her device referred to in § 1 item 2 to the members of the Examination Board. The shared desktop shall contain only a presentation of the thesis or a file with the thesis. During the entire examination, only a file with the thesis or the presentation of the thesis and possibly related applications may be on the student’s desktop, provided that the student's face must be visible. It is unacceptable for the student to use applications that may help to answer questions during the examination. The desktop presented during the presentation shall be the only screen available for the student during the examination.
16. The student taking the exam shall be facing the camera so that his/her face shall occupy at least 40% of the area covered by the camera. The student shall also look at the screen throughout the exam. The image from the student’s camera shall be unmodified. It is forbidden to use additional image modification software, including tools used to modify the background or to add effects.
17. The student’s non-adherence to the rules referred to in items 11-16 may be a basis for breaking and cancelling the diploma examination by the Chairperson of the Examination Board.
18. If the student’s answer during the exam requires a written form, it shall be written by the student on a piece of paper and presented to the camera.
19. The diploma examination shall be conducted in compliance with the diploma principles applied at the Faculty. The Chairperson of the Examination Board shall be required to compile a diploma examination report. The report shall include the video conferencing form of conducting the examination.
20. It is recommended to prepare the review of diploma theses and the protocol of the diploma examination digitally in the APD system; and to substitute the signatures of the Examination Board members, including the thesis supervisor and the reviewer, with the authentication of these persons in the system. At the completion of the examination, the prepared protocol of the diploma examination process is sent automatically to the other members of the Examination Board in order for them to authenticate it in the system. Reviews of diploma theses and exam protocols are printed out by the persons designated by the Dean of the Faculty to be stored in student files.
21. After reconnecting with the student, the Chairperson of the Examination Board shall announce the grade for the diploma thesis and the result of the diploma examination determined by the Examination Board. In the case of a positive result of the diploma examination, the Chairperson of the Examination Board shall announce the result of studies and the decision to obtain the appropriate professional title.
§ 3
1. If during the examination the connection with a student, dissertation advisor or reviewer is interrupted, the Chairperson of the Examination Board or the person responsible for technical support shall attempt to reconnect it, whereby such an attempt shall be made up to three times in a 15-minute period.
2. If it is not possible to reconnect with all participants of the diploma examination, the Chairperson of the Examination Board shall make the decision about the necessity of retaking the examination at another time. In such a situation, if the student has already managed to answer part of the questions, the Chairperson may consider that the retaken diploma examination shall be a resumption of the previous examination which was interrupted. All participants of the examination shall be informed about this fact by the Chairperson of the Examination Board via e-mail. The resumption of the diploma examination shall mean determining the content of only those examination questions that were not answered by the student due to the loss of the connection.
3. The loss of the connection, the interruption of the exam, and the decision about retaking it shall be recorded in the examination report.
Proceedings after completing the diploma examination
§ 4
1. In the case of a positive result of the diploma examination, a designated Dean’s office employee shall prepare a University diploma and then via e-mail call on the student to complete the required documents.
2. The student who has taken the diploma examination by using Information Technology shall immediately send to the relevant Dean’s office the following documents: necessary statements, photos for the graduate degree diploma as well as other documents in compliance with the diploma principles applied at the Faculty. If the Board of the Deans determines so, the student shall also submit one copy of the thesis printed from the Diploma Theses System including the control numbers with the version submitted for the diploma examination.
3. If the paper version of the thesis is not required, the information that a copy of the thesis is stored in the APD should be added to the student’s files subject to sec. 4.
4. An employee of the Dean’s Office shall note the fact that the digital version of the diploma thesis is stored in the APD in the exam protocol.
5. After submitting the documents referred to in item 2, the student shall receive the graduate degree diploma in person, at the relevant Dean’s Office in the allotted time. The Dean of the Faculty may, in particularly justified cases, consent to sending the graduate degree diploma by registered letter with the return receipt to the correspondence address provided by the student.
Final provisions
§ 5
1. If the student obtains a negative grade at the diploma examination conducted by using Information Technology, a retake diploma examination shall take place at the University or in its branch, after agreeing with the Dean of the Faculty under conditions specified in the aforementioned item 1 or after resuming direct education. At the student’s justified request, a retake diploma examination may be conducted by using Information Technology, subject to § 6 of this ordinance.
2. The diploma exam can be conducted by means of Virtual Campus. In this case, the present ordinance shall be applied accordingly.
§ 6
The ordinance shall become effective on the day of signature.
RECTOR
prof. dr hab. Radosław Dobrowolski
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