INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS SUBMITTING EXAMINABLE WORK ON PAPER

INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS SUBMITTING EXAMINABLE WORK ON PAPER IMPORTANT This booklet contains important information that could affect your module result. Please read it carefully and take note of everything that directly concerns you. Cut-off Date Please see your module materials for the cut-off date. Submission We strongly advise you to post your EMA to the address below at least three working days prior to the cut-off date to allow for delivery and to obtain proof of posting. Questions If you have any questions about submitting your examinable work, please contact us using one of the following options: : 01908 655291 (9.00am 5.00pm, Mon Fri) : assignments@open.ac.uk : Assessment Processing The Open University P.O. Box 721 Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6ZU If you need to receive this booklet in an alternative format, please contact the above office. 2016: Version 7.0 (April 2016) LCN_AG/PROJECTS/Publications

Contents 1. Introduction 2. Examinable work 3. Deadline for submission 3.1 Cut-off date 3.2 Penalty for late submission 3.3 Over 24 hours late 4. Preparing your work for paper submission 5. How to submit your work on paper 5.1 Submitting by post 5.2 Submitting by hand 5.3 Receipt of work 6. Deferral of module completion and postponement of examinable work 6.1 Deferral 6.2 Late submission with a score penalty 6.3 Partial submission 6.4 Discretionary postponement 6.4.1 Evidence 6.4.2 How to apply for a discretionary postponement 6.5 Elective postponement 7. Special circumstances affecting your performance 7.1 Continuous assessment 7.2 Examinable work 7.3 Performance affected by disability, an illness or a medical condition 8. Misconduct 9. Module Results 9.1 Notification of module results 9.2 Resubmission 9.3 Non-receipt of result notification 9.4 Pending results 9.5 Module result queries and appeals 10. Information on your performance in the examinable work 11. Sources of help Appendix A: What constitutes plagiarism or cheating? 2

1. Introduction This booklet explains the University s arrangements for the paper submission of examinable work as the final element of a module. For ease of reference, the term examinable work in this document will cover all work (such as projects, portfolios, essays, End-of-module assessments (EMA s), final project reports, dissertations, posters, etc.) that constitutes either the whole, or a part, of the examinable component. For some modules this may be the final TMA which is not marked by your tutor. You must check your module material to determine how your examinable work must be submitted on paper or electronically. If your module has compulsory electronic submission you should refer to the booklet Information for Students Submitting Examinable Work Electronically. This booklet supplements the information in the Assessment Handbook and your module materials. The Assessment Handbook sets out important information about the assessment of your examinable work, with which you are expected to be familiar and to comply in full. Please note that there may have been changes since you last looked at this document so, even if you have taken a module before that involves the submission of examinable work, you should ensure that you are familiar with all aspects that could affect you. 2. Examinable work Your module material will give you specific instructions on the academic content of your examinable work. It will also tell you if you have to submit your work in a specific format, so please read it carefully. If you are a resubmission or postponed student, you may also have received additional information from the module team. 3. Deadline for submission 3.1 Cut-off date Your module materials will tell you the cut-off date for your examinable work. This is the date by which we must have received your work at the Walton Hall campus. The date is also quoted on the personalised letter and ET3 forms which are mailed to you 4-6 weeks before the submission date for your examinable work. Please note that for modules with a choice of submission method, either electronic or paper, we do not send you ET3 forms; you need to download and print them from the Help Centre. Your work must be sent in time for it to arrive at Walton Hall no later than 12 noon (UK local time) on the cut-off date. There is a grace period of 12 hours, so any examinable work received before midnight will still be accepted. We strongly recommend that you allow at least 3 working days for delivery and that you obtain proof of posting. 3

3.2 Penalty for late submission Work received late but within 24 hours of the midnight grace period will be accepted for assessment but will be subject to a mark penalty. The penalty is a 10% points reduction or to a bare-pass level whichever gives the higher score (for example, where 40 is a bare-pass, 59 becomes 49 with the penalty, 45 becomes 40, 35 is unchanged). The University will check the envelope/parcel/box in which any work is received at Walton Hall up to 24 hours late and if the postmark is dated before the cut-off date, it will be accepted as though received on time and no penalty incurred. If the postmark is dated the day of the cut-off, there is no postmark, or it is illegible, the late penalty will be incurred. Therefore it is extremely important to obtain proof of posting in case you are required to demonstrate that your work was posted in time. 3.3 Over 24 hours late If your work is received after the 24 hour period stated in 3.2 above, it will not be accepted for assessment and will be returned to you unmarked unless you are able to prove that it was posted in sufficient time to arrive before the cut-off date (items that are received late and postmarked with the date of the cut-off will not be deemed to have been posted in sufficient time). You will be issued with a Fail: absent result unless you have had formal approval for deferral or postponement from the University (see Section 6). Several hundred students failed to meet their submission deadline last year and so failed their module. 4. Preparing your work for paper submission Mark every page with your name and Personal Identifier. Make sure that you send in the required number of copies of your work. For modules with compulsory paper submission, the letter accompanying the ET3 forms tells you how many copies of your work you should submit. For modules where you can choose how to submit, the email confirming the cut-off date will tell you how many copies are needed if you submit on paper. If you do not submit enough copies, you will be asked to supply one or more extra copies and this may delay the marking. Each copy must be identical and complete. If your module has compulsory paper submission, you should have received one Cover Sheet for End-of-module Assessment (ET3) per copy of work you are required to submit. The acceptance of your work for assessment is conditional on you signing each ET3 to confirm that the work you are submitting is your own and does not contain material copied from other sources without suitable referencing. Attach one of these signed ET3s to the front of each copy of your submitted work. However, if you cannot find your ET3 forms, do not delay submitting your work. The barcode on each ET3 is unique and is used as the basis of a system for tracking the copy of your work to which it is attached. It is therefore important that you use a different ET3 on each copy rather than simply signing one, photocopying it and attaching it to the front of each copy. Similarly, do not use any ET3s that you may have been sent previously. 4

Keep a copy of your examinable work for your own reference and in case your submitted copies get lost in the post. The University will not return any copies of your examinable work after it has been assessed. Submit all copies of your work together in one package, taking care to ensure that each copy has a signed ET3 attached to the front and that the packaging is secure. Stick the pre-addressed label enclosed with your ET3 forms on to your package and enter your module code in the space provided. If you lose the label, send your work to Assessment Handling Operations at the address given on the front cover of this booklet. For modules where you can choose either to submit on paper or electronically, please note that we do not send you personalised ET3 forms or a pre-addressed label. A blank ET3 form (which includes the return address) is available online at http://www2.open.ac.uk/students/help/submitting-an-ema. 5 How to submit your work on paper 5.1 Submitting by post You must obtain independent proof of posting your work in good time. The proof of posting must be issued by a recognised postal or courier service. However, unless absolutely necessary, please do not use recorded delivery post as this will delay its progress within the University and is relatively expensive. If you are sending work from outside of the United Kingdom, you may find recorded delivery or courier services are the only method of carriage that provides proof of posting. However, do check with the carrier that delivery can be made to a PO Box number. If not, simply cross out the PO box number on the address label. You must also ensure that you have paid sufficient postage. A single first class or large letter stamp will probably not be sufficient and work received late because of insufficient postage will be returned unmarked. You should keep your proof of posting until after you receive your module result. 5.2 Submitting by hand You may deliver your work by hand to: Walton Hall up to midnight (including the 24 hour late penalty period) on the cut-off date for your module, or to your local OU centre (excluding any non-uk office) up to 2 days before the cut-off date, in order to ensure that it reaches Walton Hall in time. If you are delivering your work to Walton Hall you should go to the Main Reception during normal working hours (9.00 am to 5.30 pm, Monday to Thursday; 9.00 am to 5.00 pm Friday). Outside these times you can deliver your work to the Security Lodge at Walton Hall, which is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You should obtain a receipt that is either stamped or which gives the name of the person to whom it was handed and the date on which it was handed in. Ensure that all hand-delivered work is in a sealed envelope. We cannot accept your work in any other format than that specified by your module. In particular, we cannot accept faxed copies, or work submitted electronically unless this is a module requirement. 5

5.3 Receipt of work You can check that your examinable work has been received by logging on to StudentHome (www.open.ac.uk/students). Please note that it may take up to 7 days for StudentHome to be updated. 6. Deferral of module completion and postponement of examinable work Extensions to the submission date for your examinable work are not available. You should also note that not all modules are eligible for deferral or postponement. If you are not able to submit your completed examinable work by the submission cutoff date the following options may be available to you: 6.1 Deferral For the majority of modules offered by the University, you can choose to defer completion of your module. If you want to delay completing your module, including submission of your examinable work, you may be able to deregister and then register on the next available presentation to complete your module. This process is called deferral. If you defer, you may be able to carry the assignment scores you have already completed over to your deferred presentation. If you carry scores forward, you can t then resubmit those TMAs to get a higher score. We refer to this as Assessment Banking. You may apply for deferral at any point up to the last working day before the date of the examinable work submission cut-off for your module. You cannot apply for deferral if you have already been granted a previous deferral or postponement, or if you are completing a resubmission. You can find more information about the University s Deferral and Withdrawal policy and Assessment Banking (including information on modules eligible for assessment banking) at http://www8.open.ac.uk/students/essential-documents/registration-as-astudent. You will need to receive and acknowledge that you have received individual advice before a deferral can be approved, so you must contact your Student Support Team if you are considering deferral. 6.2 Late submission with a score penalty - please see Section 3.2 6.3 Partial submission You should submit what work you have been able to complete before the submission date or within the late submission deadline (Section 3.2). You may also submit special circumstances information if appropriate (see Section 7). If you do not achieve a Pass grade, you may be awarded a resubmission result if you have achieved an overall pass mark in the continuous assessment and satisfied any threshold or residential school requirements which apply to your module (see section 9.2). 6

6.4 Discretionary postponement If you can provide third party documentary evidence to support a case that you are unable to make even a late or partial submission, you may be considered for a discretionary postponement to the next submission opportunity for your module. Discretionary postponement can be approved only in very exceptional circumstances and your application may be refused. Absence of ET3 forms is not grounds for postponing submission. Work that arrives on time without the ET3 forms but accompanied by a declaration of authorship will be accepted. If you do not submit any examinable work and you have not had an application for postponement formally agreed in advance, you must consider the possibility that your application will not be approved. If this happens, you will normally receive a Fail: absent module result and you would then have to retake the whole module in order to obtain credit. If you choose to make a partial submission, your request for discretionary postponement will be cancelled. You must complete your module within 13 months of the original submission date. If you postpone your submission and don t pass, you might not be eligible for a resubmission. You should check with your Student Support Team if you are unsure how this may affect your study. The Policy Exceptions and Academic Conduct Centre will let you know whether or not your request has been approved. If it is approved, your module result letter will say Postponement. If your result letter says Fail: not entitled to resit, yet you have had confirmation of a postponement, you must contact the Policy Exceptions and Academic Conduct Centre as soon as possible. Undergraduate modules Students studying undergraduate modules may apply to postpone submission where there is evidence that they have encountered serious circumstances, to the extent that no submission, even partial or late has been possible. If you are seeking to delay submission on medical grounds, you must provide supporting medical documentation for the relevant period. Postgraduate modules Students studying postgraduate modules may apply to postpone submission only if the following circumstances have affected the preparation of their project in the final three weeks immediately prior to the submission date: (i) (ii) serious illness of student if you are seeking to delay submission on these grounds, you must provide supporting medical documentation for the relevant period of time. death or serious illness of a close relative - this must be supported by a medical certificate or other appropriate supporting documentation. (iii) other serious exceptional circumstances supported by documentary evidence. 7

6.4.1 Evidence In all cases you must provide appropriate supporting third-party documentary evidence. Applications which are not supported by independent documentary evidence confirming that you were unable to submit your examinable work for the reason stated will not be agreed. If you were ill, there must be a medical certificate for the period concerned, signed by a certified medical practitioner. In cases of bereavement an original of a death certificate is not required, a photocopy is acceptable. In circumstances where a death certificate is not available, an obituary notice or funeral service card is acceptable. Supporting evidence can either be submitted electronically or in hardcopy as instructed by the online submission tool. If you do not submit your evidence within the 14 day deadline your application will be considered cancelled 6.4.2 How to apply for a Discretionary postponement If you want to apply for a discretionary postponement you can do this using the online submission tool at: http://www2.open.ac.uk/students/assessment/requests/discretionarypostponement.php To be eligible for a discretionary postponement you must contact the University before midnight (UK local time) on the working day following your examinable work submission cut-off date or provide evidence that you were prevented from meeting this deadline by circumstances outside of your control. Within 14 days of your postponement request you must provide third party documentary evidence confirming the reason for being unable to submit within stipulated deadlines, unless there is a valid reason why this timescale cannot be met. You must apply for a postponed submission as soon as you are aware that you are unable to submit your examinable work. Applications cannot be accepted by telephone. If you require further advice or guidance about making a request for postponement, you should contact your Student Support Team. If you have a disability or additional requirements that mean you are unable to complete the online form yourself, your Student Support Team can provide you with assistance or a hard copy of the form. 6.5 Elective postponement Elective postponement is only available for students who have been offered a resit or resubmission opportunity within twelve to sixteen weeks of their original submission date. It is not available for any student who is granted a discretionary postponement for their original submission. Students who electively postpone will delay their resubmission to the next available submission opportunity. You should note that this could be as much as 9 months away and you are advised to contact your Student Support Team to confirm this. 8

All elective postponement requests must be made before midnight (UK local time) on the working day following the examinable work submission cut-off date. Any requests received outside of this timeframe will not be accepted and you will fail your module. If your module does not offer an early resubmission opportunity within twelve to sixteen weeks of your original assessment or you are not a resubmission student, you cannot apply for elective postponement. Students eligible for an elective postponement must notify the University of their intention to postpone using the online submission tool at: http://www.open.ac.uk/assessment/requests/elective-postponement/ Applications cannot be accepted by telephone. If you require further advice or guidance about making a request for elective postponement, you should contact your Student Support Team. If you have a disability or additional requirements that mean you are unable to complete the online form yourself, your Student Support Team can provide you with assistance or a hard copy of the form. Your results notification will confirm whether your request for elective postponement has been successful. If your notification says Fail: not entitled to resubmit, yet you have applied for elective postponement within the stipulated deadlines and are eligible for it, you must contact the Examinations Office as soon as possible. 7. Special circumstances affecting your performance Module Result Panels can give only limited weight to information about special circumstances. Nevertheless, if you believe that you have studied the module effectively but that special circumstances have had a serious adverse effect on your performance in your continuous assessment or in the production of your examinable work, you may bring information about this to the attention of the Panel for your module. The Assessment Handbook and the notes within the online submission tool give guidance as to the sorts of circumstances that the University considers serious and those that it does not. Your Student Support Team will also be able to offer advice. The Assessment Handbook explains what you have to do in order to report special circumstances. The following is therefore only a brief summary: 7.1 Continuous assessment Special circumstances relating to continuous assessment should be reported to the University using the online submission tool at: http://www.open.ac.uk/assessment/requests/special-circumstances.php You should only inform the University of serious circumstances which have had a significant effect on your continuous assessment performance for a period of four weeks or more. You must complete the online process notifying the University of your special circumstances plus produce relevant third party evidence no later than 14 days after the published cut-off for your final piece of continuous assessment (i.e. the last TMA or CMA, whichever is later). Submissions received outside of these timeframes will not be considered unless you can provide evidence that you were prevented from meeting 9

the deadline by circumstances outside of your control. Supporting evidence can either be submitted electronically or in hardcopy as instructed by the online submission tool. If you want to submit special circumstances relating to continuous assessment, you must ensure that you meet the above deadline, even if you are applying for deferral with assessment banking or postponement of your examinable work. If you need further advice about submitting special circumstances, please contact your Student Support Team for further advice. If you have a disability or additional requirements that mean you are unable to complete the online form yourself, your Student Support Team can provide you with assistance or a hard copy of form PT39. 7.2 Examinable work Special circumstances relating to your examinable work submission should be reported to the University using the online submission tool at: http://www.open.ac.uk/assessment/requests/special-circumstances.php You should only inform the University of serious circumstances which have had a significant adverse effect on your examinable work preparation occurring in the three weeks leading up to and including your submission cut-off date. You must complete the online process notifying the University of your special circumstances before midnight (UK local time) on the day following your examinable work submission cut-off date. Supporting evidence must then be submitted to the University within 14 days of your cut-off date. Submissions received outside of these timeframes will not be considered unless you can provide evidence that you were prevented from meeting the deadline by circumstances outside of your control. Supporting evidence can either be submitted electronically or in hardcopy as instructed by the online submission tool. You should be aware that in some cases, especially if your circumstances relate to a resubmission within twelve to sixteen weeks of the original submission, your result may need to be pended or delayed whilst your special circumstances information is received and considered. If you need further advice about submitting special circumstances, please contact your Student Support Team for further advice. If you have a disability or additional requirements that mean you are unable to complete the online form yourself, your Student Support Team can provide you with assistance or a hard copy of form E39/E39P. 7.3 Performance affected by a disability, an illness or a medical condition When determining module results, Module Result Panels are provided with very little information on students apart from how they have performed in the assessed tasks during the module. More specifically, they are given no information automatically about students disabilities, illnesses or medical conditions. You are strongly urged to submit special circumstances (as detailed above) if you think your disability or health has had a serious adverse effect on your performance in your continuous assessment or your examinable work. 10

Information about your disability that you have given the University for other purposes will not be brought to the attention of the Module Result Panels. 8. Misconduct The University insists on a very high standard of conduct from students in submitting work for assessment. Any misconduct is regarded as a serious matter that may warrant disciplinary action. Examples of misconduct in the submission of examinable work include: attempting to influence a marker or other University official (for example, by including notes in your examinable work that are, or could be construed to be, intended to influence the reader); plagiarism (see the University s statement What constitutes plagiarism or cheating? in Appendix A of this booklet); and collusion excessive collaboration with others that results in the same (or very similar) text being reproduced in each collaborator s examinable work. You should be aware that the University reserves the right to check your examinable work for possible plagiarism or collusion. 9. Module results 9.1 Notification of module results StudentHome will provide an indicative date of when you can expect your result. When your module result is ready to be released, an email message will be sent to tell you that your result will shortly be available to view on StudentHome. You will also be able to download a result letter should you need it as evidence for employers, sponsors, etc. A hard copy letter will only be sent to you if the University does not have a recorded email address. Information about results cannot be given over the telephone. Please do not ask your Student Support Team, tutor or module team members about your results. On most modules, students are issued with a score for their examinable work. However, some modules provide only the result. 9.2 Resubmission If you submit and fail the examinable component but have achieved an overall pass mark on continuous assessment and satisfied any threshold or residential school requirements which apply to your module, you may be entitled to resubmit your examinable work. You will automatically be registered for your resubmission and no additional fee is payable if you are studying an undergraduate module. On most postgraduate modules you will incur a resubmission fee and be required to register for the resubmission. 11

The rules regarding resubmissions vary from module to module. Some modules do not allow resubmissions at all. Please refer to the Assessment Handbook and your module materials for further information. If you are offered a resubmission your module result for that resubmission will normally be capped. This means that you will normally only be awarded a Pass or Grade 4 Pass result. If you submit relevant special circumstances supported by evidence at the time of your first attempt at the examinable work, the Module Result Panel may decide to award you a non-capped resubmission. If this applies to you, you will be informed about this when your resubmission result is issued. 9.3 Non-receipt of result notification If you have not received your module result notification within 12 weeks from the date of your module formally ending, or within a period specified by the module team, please write to: Examinations Office The Open University P.O. Box 720 Walton Hall Milton Keynes MK7 6ZQ 9.4 Pending results For a few students each year Module Result Panels are unable to come to a decision about the module result to be awarded. If this happens to you, your result will be kept at pending status. There are various reasons for this. A TMA score or information delayed by script marking might be missing from your assessment record, or the Panel may want to offer you a viva voce examination you would be told about this separately. Urgent action is always taken to provide the Panel with the information it needs so that a final result can be sent to you as soon as possible. 9.5 Module result checks The Assessment Handbook and Help Centre explain how module results are awarded, and how result check requests or formal appeals can be made. There are also detailed questions and answers on StudentHome below your module result. If, after reading these explanations carefully, you think you have evidence that your module result is incorrect, you can ask us to check your records no later than 4 weeks of the date of your result notification. You may request a module result check using the online submission tool at; http://www2.open.ac.uk/students/help/can-iappeal-against-my-result. Your SST can help you if you can t access the internet or need assistance completing this. The University is confident that the results issued are appropriate, and therefore individual submissions or assignments will not be re-marked. 12

A module result will only be checked if there is supporting evidence of clerical, administrative or system error in determining that result. Students have no right of appeal against the academic judgement of an Module Result Panel. You should not await receipt of any feedback comments (see section below) before asking us to check your result if this is the action you feel is appropriate. The University will not engage in any discussions about feedback comments and will not accept students disagreement over particular comments as grounds for reviewing module results. We will not disclose or discuss module results over the telephone or to a third person. 10. Information on your performance in the examinable work Your module materials will tell you whether you will be issued with information on your performance in the examinable work. Any information provided will have been sanctioned by the Module Result Panel and represents an academic appraisal of your work. On most modules this information is only available via a link on your module results page in StudentHome. On some modules, this information is handwritten and will be sent out by post only after the results have been issued. You should receive this within 3 weeks of the notification of your module result. 11. Sources of help Source Type of problem Opening hours (UK local times) Assessment Processing Policy and information Mon Fri 9.00 17.00 Telephone E-mail 01908 655291 assignments@open. ac.uk 13

OU Computing Helpdesk Technical i.e. accessing the electronic system Mon Fri 9.00 21.30 Sat & Sun 9.00 17.00 01908 653972 OU-computinghelpdesk@open.ac. uk Examinations Office Elective postponement request not processed Bank Holiday 10.00 16.00 Mon Fri 9.00 17.00 01908 858312 examinations@open.ac.uk 14

APPENDIX A What constitutes plagiarism or cheating? The following is extracted from the University s formal statement on plagiarism as quoted in all Assessment Handbooks. References to assignments should be taken to include any piece of work submitted for assessment, not just tutor-marked assignments. If you submit an assignment that contains work that is not your own, without indicating this to the marker (acknowledging your sources) you are committing plagiarism. This might occur in an assignment when using a choice phrase or sentence that you have come across, copying word-for-word directly from a text, paraphrasing the words from a text very closely, using text downloaded from the internet, borrowing statistics or assembled facts from another person or source, copying or downloading figures, photographs, pictures or diagrams without acknowledging your sources, copying from the notes or essays of a fellow student, or copying from your own notes, on a text, tutorial, video or lecture, that contain direct quotations. Plagiarism may occur inadvertently due to inexperience. So read carefully all the module specific study advice that you receive in your mailings, especially statements concerning plagiarism and how to reference your sources. Although you are encouraged to show the results of your reading by referring to and quoting from works on your subject, copying from such sources without acknowledgement is deemed to be plagiarism and will not be accepted by the University. You are encouraged to collaborate with others in studying, but submitted work copied from or written jointly with others is not acceptable, unless collaboration is required in the particular assignment. Therefore, when submitting your EMA you are asked to confirm that all assessment work you have submitted is your own. Submitting work that has been done by someone else and persistent borrowing of other people s work without citation are obvious instances of plagiarism and are regarded as cheating. Paying for work from other sources and submitting it as your own is also cheating. It is intellectually dishonest to cheat and thus give one student an unfair advantage over others. If a case of plagiarism is proven, this is a serious offence and the Open University disciplinary procedures will be followed, as described under the Student Regulations SA 1.6 and SD 4.3. 15