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Faculty of Engineering students back onsite for F2F examinations return
WRITTEN BY : Lance Andrei Campano and Mark Rafael Santos
After two years of pure online assessments, Thomasian engineering students returned onsite to take their preliminary and final examinations for the first semester of Academic Year 2022 - 2023 in-person.
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During the first week of October, first-year engineering students attended their onsite ENG203 (Calculus 1) and ENG201 (Chemical Applications in Engineering) preliminary exams while only selected engineering departments of second-year to fourthyear students sat for their respective exams in specified courses.
The limited onsite examinations aimed to bring back the integrity of the assessments taken, which the UST Faculty of Engineering Dean, Prof. Angelo R. dela Cruz, Ph.D., PECE, believed was effective. Dean Dela Cruz cited that the test scores online reflected a significant discrepancy compared to the test scores on the limited face-to-face examinations.
According to the Engineering Pre-Major Year Collaborative (EPYC) and Student Academic Advising and Services (SAAS), the implementation of in-person examinations prepares students for board exams and helps address connection and concentration issues during tests.
Moreover, students and university staff, who were involved in the onsite assessments, were required to comply with the health and safety protocols set forth by the University.
Final examinations for the first academic term also followed the same guidelines and only the tests in major courses were administered onsite from December 12-17 for all the departments except the Electrical Engineering department, after the Civil Engineering department followed other departments’ setup.
When asked about the possibility of expanding the faceto-face policy to examinations and quizzes in general education courses next term, Dean Dela Cruz replied that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) Memorandum Order (CMO) 16 Series of 2022 prioritizes the transition of technical courses and that no plan is still in place about the general education subjects when it comes to assessments.
