Please consider proctoring your final exams, whether offered virtually or in person. Without proctoring, students sometimes worry others are cheating and then decide to participate in this practice to “keep things fair.”  Let students know that you are proctoring the exam in part to alleviate their concerns.

Online proctoring can be difficult but if students practice during class with the system you plan to use at least a week or more before the final exam, solutions can still be found. Giving students a practice quiz during class to help prepare for the final can also lessen students’ anxiety.

Please remember to be available on Zoom or in-person during your final exam in case student concerns or technical problems arise.

These two virtual proctoring options are available to all CLAS instructors:

• Respondus: https://teach.uiowa.edu/respondus-lockdown-browser-getting-started or https://web.respondus.com/he/lockdownbrowser/resources/#student
• Proctorio: https://distance.uiowa.edu/courses/exams/proctorio-demand-proctoring

Some faculty prefer Zoom as a proctoring tool, keeping the audio and cameras on and with faculty or teaching assistants available in real-time to keep track of the class and to answer students’ questions during the exam.

We recognize that there are many valid concerns around video proctoring and privacy for students and that there are other ways to assess student learning while reducing opportunities for academic misconduct. Support for these alternative assessment strategies may be found here: https://teach.uiowa.edu/preparing-your-virtual-course#Plan%20Learning%20Activities%20and%20Assignments.

Thank you for your help on these issues; I very much appreciate all that you do to support our students.

Below are related longstanding CLAS undergraduate policies and procedures about final exams for semester-length courses, regardless of modality, in case you need to review them.

• No graded exams or quizzes may be given in semester-length courses the week before the final examination week without permission from CLAS. (Labs as well as world languages and ESL have such permission.)
• Final examinations for semester-length courses must be given during the one-week period set aside by the University for this purpose and at the day and time fixed by the Registrar so that fewer exam conflicts occur.
• Please see this page for how to manage students’ final exam conflicts: https://registrar.uiowa.edu/makeup-final-examination-policies.
• If you give a take-home final, you may use the scheduled final exam period as the deadline; the class may receive the take-home questions whenever you choose.
• In courses where papers or projects rather than a final examination constitute the last evaluation activity, you may use the scheduled final exam period as the due date for the project/paper and for presentations. 
• A final assessment that is a paper or project rather than an exam may be due earlier in the semester, including during the week before final exams, or may be due during the exam week.

Please review these pages for additional policies and procedures:
Off-cycle Courses: Special Instructions
Changes in the final examination schedule
Scheduling adjustments for individual students
Absence from final examinations
Disruptions of final examinations
Make-up examinations policy
Test modifications for students with disabilities