The Covid-19 outbreak has caused an unprecedented disruption to our education system. 

Many educational institutes around the world have adapted to the situation by modifying their academic assessment to reflect the drop in teaching quality caused by the outbreak. 

Examples

• Virginia Tech modifying Grading Policy
• East Carolina University adopting Emergency Grading accommodation

The NTU President's Office announcement to bring forward Exams to ‘Quizzes’ in week13, offers little notice for students to change their study schedule. This change does not take into account students who are taking Assignment/Coursework/Presentation heavy mods. These mods more often than not share the same weekly deadline with these new ‘Quizzes’ ,forcing students to work on their assignments, while preparing for their examinations. This also unfairly favours students who are taking mods with little to few Assignment/Coursework/Presentation.

Needless to say, it is impossible to achieve the same high standard of ’academic rigour’, during this time of crisis. The quality of standard lectures cannot compare to the quality of recycled outdated recorded lectures. Professors have been unable to give the same level of guidance to students during these online lessons, some even choosing to skirt around the quiz criteria, including more content than they are allowed in the examination. Yet the school wishes to maintain the same level of 'academic rigour' during these trying times.

Students might not be able to cope with the increased hectic workload, breaking down completely. While others will have to make compromises among their numerous modules . Is this what the school views as 'academic rigour'?, students breaking down from stress, or having to choose which mods to fail?

Instead of trying to meet these unrealistic goals, and risking student's health and safety. The school must instead  adapt to the developing Covid-19 situation, and modify their grading policy accordingly.