Every section of English 150 and 250 must meet at the time and place designated by the official university final exam schedule. Any variations from the university final exam schedule must be authorized well in advance by the dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. A tentative final exam schedule is available on the ISU website at the beginning of the semester. Place your sections’ tentative final exam times early on your Course Overview document at the beginning of the semester and call students’ attention to it. Also place it on your Canvas schedule, so your students do not make travel plans that conflict with their final.
Iowa State policy regarding final exams is at http://www.registrar.iastate.edu/students/exams. Please note that as a part of this policy, an instructor may not give a final exam prior to final exam week nor change the time of offering of the final examination as it appears in the final exam schedule. Permission to change the time for which an exam is scheduled may be given only by the dean of the college. If the instructor elects not to give a final exam, the class is required to meet at the scheduled final exam period for other educational activity such as a review of the course or feedback on previous exams.
You are expected to hold a final exam or require an in-class writing assignment during your scheduled exam time. The two-hour final exam essay gives students a level playing field in which to demonstrate their ability to compose at an acceptable level at the end of the course. For their final exam, students write a reflection on their communication growth over the course of the semester and include it in their ISUComm ePortfolios. Prepare students during the final week of class on ways to compose their final exams.
Please keep these details in mind in the final weeks of the semester. As all of us know, the last weeks of the semester are demanding for both instructors and students.