Exams, Homework, & Materials Distribution

The availability of CULearn and other course management tools as well as ubiquitous use of e-mail, listserves, and other electronic capabilities, have enabled instructors to have control over distribution and make delivery of materials to distance learning students and their education officers (EOs) almost instantaneous. Instructors should use these tools to distribute materials directly to distance students and quizzes/exams directly to EOs.

Remember to provide CAETE Student and Faculty Services with an electronic copy of any material that you distribute to your students. This will ensure that CAETE has complete information for your course should we need to provide this for your students, and when (or if) it is added to the Course Library.

CAETE will provide you with a list of your distance students and their EOs (with contact information) during the first week of class each semester. If you have a new student whom you do not have the EO information, contact caete@colorado.edu.

CAETE Materials Distribution

If you have hard copy materials that you are unable to post to CULearn or other course management tool, please contact us at caete@colorado.edu. We will make arrangements to digitize the materials for you so you can send them directly to your distance learning students via e-mail or post to your course management tool.

If you are not able to send the quizzes/exams directly to the EOs, as always, you may give them to us. However, we ask that you e-mail (as an attachment in Word, pdf, etc.) the quizzes/exams to us at caete@colorado.edu. Unless specifically requested, please do not e-mail your quizzes/exams to any particular individual at CAETE. This ensures that any CAETE staff member will be able to access the exam information and send it out to the EO in a timely manner. In addition, if you have any questions, please send your inquiry to the e-mail account above. This will ensure that someone at CAETE will respond to your inquiry as soon as possible.

We will return graded homework, quizzes, and exams to your distance learning students for you. Materials should be delivered to CAETE Student/Faculty Services and given to a staff member. Be sure the student's name and course number are on the top page. Please note that CAETE does not record when graded materials are sent to distance learning students. Keep in mind the mail lag time for distance students (approximately 1 week). Solutions should not be distributed until all students have taken the quiz/exam.

Materials Sent by Department

Any bound notes or collected readings which students must purchase directly from your department should be handled by your department. Be sure to include your department's handling and mailing costs in the price of your notes or readings.

Materials Supplied by the CU Book Store, Campus Copies, Etc.

The Book Store and other agencies will clear copyrights and make copies of your course materials for your students. They charge students a reasonable price and will mail the materials directly to the students. If you use this service, please provide one electronic copy to CAETE for your course file.

Excerpts from Books

Instructors are expected to obtain copyright permission as necessary whenever copying and distributing excerpts from books or other sources. When you distribute materials to your distance learning students, please observe copyright laws.

Copying tip: When copying a piece that is smaller than the standard 81/2 x 11 paper size, place a white sheet of paper behind the book you are copying. This will prevent the thick black borders from appearing on your photocopy and keep the extra ink from clogging the copy machine.

Shipping Lag Time and Setting Deadlines

CAETE's primary course delivery method is the Internet (streaming and/or downloading). CD-ROMs will only be available to students on an exception basis. Refer to the Course Delivery page for more details.

Shipments of media are typically sent once or twice weekly via two-day FedEx or UPS. If you want to know the shipping schedule for your class, contact help@caete.colorado.edu. Share this information with your TA to ensure timely delivery of materials to CAETE.

Domestic distance learning students should have media within one week of the class session (international or hard to reach areas will require a longer lag time). Take this lag time into consideration when setting deadlines for assignments, quizzes, and exams. To help ensure that distance learning students will receive materials when needed, e-mail the materials directly to them or post to your course management tool. If you only have hard copy materials, deliver them to CAETE Student Services at least one week before you wish students to receive the material.

One effective way of handling deadlines is to establish a date suitable for assignment submission and insist that they be postmarked on or before that date. Late submissions should carry a grading penalty. This system allows you to share solutions to the assignment on the day following the postmark deadline date and keep your class on schedule. Whatever policy you set for submitting required work should be communicated as early as possible in the semester to all your students and then adhered to throughout the semester. This is not to say that you should not be flexible to individual student needs as the semester progresses.

One of the consistent concerns raised in course evaluation forms is that students do not receive graded homework and quizzes/exams in time to be of value in studying for upcoming tests. Graded homework and corrected tests should be returned promptly so that students can effectively assess their progress and seek timely help should they need it. As a guide, tests and homework should be graded and returned to students within two weeks of their submission.

Quizzes and Exams

Instructors control the manner in which quizzes and exams are administered. Each distance learning student has an educational officer (EO) who is responsible for administering quizzes/exams. The EO is required to be a person in a responsible position such as an officer in the company's personnel or training department, the student's supervisor, a local librarian, or a representative from an academic institution. When you wish to give a quiz or exam, complete and attach an Exam Certification Cover Sheet which specifies the following:

• Exam date: Some instructors indicate the lecture number(s) that should be viewed before taking the exam. Others indicate a first date or a range of dates when the exam should be taken. Remember that EOs at remote sites cannot administer quizzes/exams other than during normal workday hours. However, they are instructed to observe the scheduled date and time as closely as possible.
• Deadline for the exam to be returned: Most of the time, quizzes and exams can be faxed or scanned and e-mailed back to you. If you require the return of the original quiz/exam, consider the mailing time necessary for material to be sent to and from the EO. Indicate if the returned quiz/exam must be postmarked or received by the due date.
• Format: Open/closed book, take-home, etc
• Address or fax number of exam grader or instructor: Quizzes/exams, as well as any other assignments to be graded, should be returned directly to the grader, T.A., or instructor./li>
• Indicate return fax number if you will accept exam returned by fax. This facilitates exam return for distance/international students.

We encourage you to submit quizzes/exams along with the Exam Certification Cover Sheet directly to the students' EOs via e-mail. If hard copy quizzes/exams are submitted to the CAETE office, we will do our best to send them to the EOs by first class mail the same day we receive them from the instructor. Allow one week for delivery.

Hard copy quizzes/exams should be given directly to a CAETE staff member with the completed Exam Certification Cover Sheet.

Upon administering the quiz/exam, the EO will complete the certification section, which verifies that the exam was administered as the instructor directed, and then return the exam to the instructor or TA as indicated on the Exam Certification cover sheet.

Please notify the studio staff in advance when a quiz/exam is scheduled for your course and if recording is not necessary that day.

Final Exam Recording

If you are giving an in-class final exam, you have the option of recording all, part, or none of the class session. CAETE Student and Faculty Services will contact you and make arrangements for your final exam before its scheduled date.