Administration of assessment

This page contains information concerning important deadlines to consider when planning assessment. Please refer to the following deadlines when scheduling your assignments, tests, and exams.

DNE (Did Not Enter)

DNE stands for Did Not Enter. It's a shorthand way of saying students dropped the course after classes started, but early enough to avoid any consequences. When students drop a course by the DNE deadline, they will see:

• the course removed from their academic record
• a credit to their account for any tuition fees they already paid

DNE deadline 

The DNE deadline is usually within the first two weeks of the fall and winter terms and within the first week of the summer session. For the exact dates, refer to the Concordia academic calendar. 

What this means for planning assessments

It is not recommended to have any assignments due or hold any in-class assessments during the first two weeks of the term to allow for students registering on or before the DNE time to catch up.

DISC (Discontinued)

DISC is short for discontinued. It means students dropped the course early enough to avoid academic consequences, but they are financially responsible for the payment of all tuition and other fees pertaining to the course. When students drop a course by the DISC deadline, they will see a DISC notation on their student record and official transcript. ADISC notation does not factor into students’ grade point average (GPA).

DISC deadline

The DISC deadline is usually after the ninth week of classes of the term for fall and winter terms and within the first five weeks for the summer session. For the exact dates, refer to  the Concordia academic calendar.

What this means for planning assessments
To ensure informed decision-making, all students must be given the opportunity to receive feedback regarding their progress in a course prior to the DISC date. All students who have completed the coursework required to receive feedback from their instructor must receive feedback that is equivalent to 20 percent of their final grade at least five calendar days prior to the DISC deadline. Cases where students are absent from class or fail to complete the required coursework shall be treated as an exception to this requirement. For courses that are delivered on a compressed schedule, the deadline shall be two calendar days 

For courses where it is difficult to achieve a numeric grade
This may be the case because coursework consists of a single piece of work and/or is based predominantly (or solely) on student presentations (e.g. supervised or independent study, honours thesis, capstone, inquiry, and experiential courses), or where the course is graded as either Pass or Fail. Note that in these cases, clear and formative feedback must be provided five calendar days prior to the DISC date.  For courses that are delivered on a compressed schedule the deadline for feedback shall be two calendar days.

Providing students with feedback on their assignments before the DISC deadline is valuable for several reasons:

• Improved Performance
• Informed Decision-Making
• Enhanced Learning
• Motivation and Engagement
• Reduced Stress

There are two types of assessments that you should plan. 

Formative assessment

Formative assessment, also referred to as informal assessment, is ongoing throughout the semester and is used to provide feedback on student learning. It is typically ungraded and does not make up part of the student’s grade work. However, formative assessment can include low-stakes graded activities in some cases where appropriate.

The goal is to provide formative feedback to students to help them monitor their learning and enhance their performance based on the feedback they receive. It also helps faculty recognize where students may be struggling, identifying their strengths and areas where more support may be needed. Focusing on improving student learning early on and throughout the semester can also help ensure that students are adequately prepared for summative assessments.  

Some examples of formative assessments (ungraded or graded) include:

• Take home practice problems with provided answer keys  
• Reading responses 
• Discussion forum in Moodle  
• Minute papers 
• Student response systems or knowledge checks (ungraded in-class polling or quizzes)
• Informal feedback on projects  
• Self-reflection questions or activities

Summative assessment

Summative assessment, also referred to as formal assessment, takes place at designated times in the semester to measure competence, and usually contributes to a student’s grade.

Refer to the assessment selection tool to plan summative assessment methods appropriate to your course learning outcomes.

In-class assessments refers to tests or exams that take place during the 12 weeks that classes are run. You are responsible for managing all assessments (quizzes, tests, exams) for your course.

No in-class final test or exams are permitted in the final week of classes. (Please refer to specific term dates for the last date to hold in-class exams in summer as they will vary.)

If you have students with accommodations, you must register your in-class assessments with the Access Centre for Students with Disabilities via their portal and provide a copy of the assessment a minimum of 10 days before the assessment date.

If you choose to use the Concordia Online Exams (COLE) platform, please ensure that you submit the required Exam Information Form (EIF) and Exam Upload Form (EUF) by the specified deadline. For more information, you can contact COLE@concordia.ca or visit the Faculty Support Page on COLE. 

During the final examination period, assessments are organized for undergraduate students, graduate students, and cross-listed courses. Below is an overview of how assessments are handled for each group:

Undergraduate students  

The Exams Office manages all final exams for undergraduate students. You will need to submit the exam details via the Online Exam Questionnaire form before the deadline (which typically is around the end of the previous semester). You can access the Online Exam Questionnaire form through the Student Information System (SIS). For more information on how to access it, please contact the Exams Office at examsoffice@concordia.ca. 
 
If a course does not have a final exam or instead has an assignment or take-home exam (lasting longer than 3 hours), please do not submit the questionnaire form.  
 
Any scheduled exams will be visible to both students and faculty in the SIS. Once the final exam schedule is posted, no further changes can be made.  
This questionnaire collects essential information, including:

• Exam Offered: Specifies the course.

• Course Sections: Indicates which course sections will have the exam.

• Exam Duration: Specifies the duration of the exam.

• Exam Method: Describes how the exam will be administered (see the methods below):

Graduate students 

You are responsible for managing all term assessments (quizzes, tests, exams) for graduate students in your course. The assessment method outlines how the exam (mid-term or final) may be administered:

Cross-listed courses

Cross-listed courses (for both undergraduate and graduate students) follow the same assessment structure as undergraduate courses and are managed by the Exams Office.

Instructors, students and administrators are expected to be honest and responsible in their academic conduct and fair in their assessment of academic matters.

Code Administrators   

The faculty appoints a code administrator to oversee academic integrity and academic misconduct to ensure that the rules and regulations of the Academic Code of Conduct are being followed. 

• Academic Code Administrator (updated February 2025)  
  Faculty of Arts and Science: Dr. Anthony Noce (Anthony.noce@concordia.ca). Although, incident reports are usually sent to Rania Attir (rania.attir@concordia.ca)

• Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science: Dr. Ali Akgunduz (ali.akgunduz@concordia.ca) 

• John Molson School of Business: Dr. Saif Ullah (saif.ullah@concordia.ca) 

• Faculty of Fine Arts: Dr. Elaine Cheasley Patterson (elaine.paterson@concordia.ca) 

• School of Graduate Studies: Dr. Charalambos Poullis (Charalambos.poullis@concordia.ca)

Turnitin

Turnitin Similarity is a Moodle plugin available to instructors that acts as a text matching tool used to identify similarities between documents. It works with Moodle Assignments, Quizzes, and Workshops to help ensure that students comply with the Academic Code of Conduct when producing and submitting their work. It is advised that you include a statement in your course syllabus so that students are aware their work will be subject to an authenticity check.

Turnitin Similarity - Concordia University (Centre for Teaching and Learning) 
Turnitin - Concordia University (School of Graduate Studies)

Proctorio

Proctorio is an online proctoring service that mimics the live proctoring (invigilation) that takes place during an in-person exam. It is available for use when delivering online exams (remote learning) and mixed-mode exams (held on campus).

Note: If you choose to use Proctorio, please ensure that this information is included in the course syllabus, along with the specified level of Proctorio monitoring. For more information, visit the Proctorio basics page (sign-in needed).

Proctored exams - Concordia University (Concordia OnLine Exams, COLE)

Proctorio - Concordia University (Centre for Teaching and Learning)

Generative AI (GenAI)

Generative AI uses machine learning and other advanced algorithms to create new content including text, images, code, audio, and video through prompts or other inputs. In order to encourage ethical and transparent use of GenAI tools with students, we encourage the use of educator and learner transparency statements in the classroom.

Bridging the gap between pedagogy and ethics (Centre for Teaching and Learning).

References 

• Concordia University. (December 6, 2024). Senate Notice of Meeting. DISC Deadline regulation https://www.concordia.ca/content/dam/concordia/offices/vpdersg/docs/board-senate/Senate-December-13-2024_OpenSessionPublic.pdf
  

• Concordia University. (n.d.). Deadline to drop a course. https://www.concordia.ca/students/registration/advising/dne-disc.html
  

• Concordia University. (n.d.). Academic calendar dates. https://www.concordia.ca/academics/graduate/calendar/current/academic-calendar/current-academic-calendar-dates.html