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University academic appeal

Hope you are able to help.

I did not pass a resit which involved taking an online assessment. On the day of the exam and during the assessment time, moodle was down due to university system issues. This caused a lot of stress waiting for the system to be back up so the exam can be completed.

Due to all the distractions, my performance was impacted. Do you think my case will be upheld?
Reply 1
Original post by summer_sadness
Hope you are able to help.

I did not pass a resit which involved taking an online assessment. On the day of the exam and during the assessment time, moodle was down due to university system issues. This caused a lot of stress waiting for the system to be back up so the exam can be completed.

Due to all the distractions, my performance was impacted. Do you think my case will be upheld?


If a significant number of other affected students passed, then no. If you were the only one affected, then there may be a slim chance. However, there are very few circumstances under which a uni will grant a resit of a resit, so don't get your hopes up.

Ask your Student Union if they're not already involved. It is their job to represent you in this kind of situation; they will know their way around your uni's rules and regulations and are best placed to offer useful advice.
I know one other student who hasn't passed. The only way the assessment could have been completed was through Moodle. So it is not fair to offer me another chance to do the assessment? I took the Student Union's support to fill the appeal forms. Hope the appeal is in my favour.
Original post by summer_sadness
I know one other student who hasn't passed. The only way the assessment could have been completed was through Moodle. So it is not fair to offer me another chance to do the assessment? I took the Student Union's support to fill the appeal forms. Hope the appeal is in my favour.


Did you speak to the university on the day when it wasn't working??
Yes. I even got 2 emails from course office about the issue which has been submitted along with the appeal form as evidence.
Original post by summer_sadness
Yes. I even got 2 emails from course office about the issue which has been submitted along with the appeal form as evidence.


Mmm, not really sure how well it'll go then, because it's not like you were left in the dark about it. You were told about the issues, and if it's just the one other who didn't pass, that could easily have been because they didn't do well due to lack of knowledge rather than anything else...
Agree. It was for over 90 minutes that we had to wait which did cause stress to be honest. I still hope they see this issue in student's perspective than just running a business.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by summer_sadness
Agree. It was for over 90 minutes that we had to wait which did cause stress to be honest. I still hope you see this issue in student's perspective than just running a business.


I don't work for a uni, or for TSR, and am actually a student... I do see where you're coming from as a student, just that I think it's a difficult one because you were told about the issues, and it was for over 90 minutes... not exactly 10 hours.. In fact, you technically had even more time to revise whilst waiting for it to come back online...
It will depend on how much you failed by. I would rank it as a minor inconvenience, its certainly not akin to a bereavement.
If you were close they might give you a condoned pass i.e within 5%, but you would need to look at your uni rules.
They may be more sympathetic if you passed the non online portion, easily.

The condoned pass is better imo becayse if you just win the appeal they could just ask you to resit again.
(edited 7 years ago)
The marks is not given on this module, its just a pass/ fail that is told. The entire test was online.
Original post by summer_sadness
The marks is not given on this module, its just a pass/ fail that is told. The entire test was online.


They might not be given to you, but obviously they will know.
The logic of that if they dont know is that they will only be able to let you resit unless you expect them to let you pass solely on the basis you were delayed for 90 mins. It wouldnt make sense.
(edited 7 years ago)
They surely will know the marks but is not told to us. I do not expect them to pass me because there was a delay, I am requesting a re-assessment because I was well prepared and the whole IT issue was not in my control (material error/ irregularity). Only time will now tell on how it concludes.
Original post by summer_sadness
They surely will know the marks but is not told to us. I do not expect them to pass me because there was a delay, I am requesting a re-assessment because I was well prepared and the whole IT issue was not in my control (material error/ irregularity). Only time will now tell on how it concludes.


I got the first point. My point was they know the actual mark and can therefore take that into account when deciding whether to give you a condoned pass or not. Lets say you were close between 57-89%, then you would have a chance.

If you only scored 25% then they arent going to say a delay of 90 minutes made a difference of 15%, imo. I hope for your sake you were close. Not sure whether they would do another exam just for that, but fingers crossed.
Reply 13
Original post by summer_sadness
They surely will know the marks but is not told to us. I do not expect them to pass me because there was a delay, I am requesting a re-assessment because I was well prepared and the whole IT issue was not in my control (material error/ irregularity). Only time will now tell on how it concludes.


Depends on the uni. At my uni, they would only let you retake it if you were at uni at the time and it failed. If you were at home, too bad.. the issue has to be on the uni side and you would have to be logged in to the system from the uni network.
I was in the university at the time taking the exam on the university computer. The IT system issue affected the entire university network, so its the university fault.
999tiger - I am unable to see my marks but have requested for it.
Fingers crossed its all in my favour.
I doubt it. Things go wrong sometimes but if everyone is in the same position they won't do much and to be honest it's annoying but shouldn't generate the sort of anxiety to push you from pass to fail.
Original post by summer_sadness
I was in the university at the time taking the exam on the university computer. The IT system issue affected the entire university network, so its the university fault.
999tiger - I am unable to see my marks but have requested for it.
Fingers crossed its all in my favour.


You misunderstand my point. it was in response to you saying it was pass and fail. From a students perspective that will be the case, but ofc they will know how many marks you scored. Its completely at their dsicretion whether to give you the mark and whether you were close or far away, they will take that into consideration in any event.

It might be the Unis fault for the IT system going down for 90 minutes, but its a big jump to say that was responsible for you scoring less than 40 in an exam, rather than your level of preparation. Its not on the same level as losing a close family member or being seriously ill.

Nothing to lose by appealing, but it isnt the strongest case.
Original post by summer_sadness
Hope you are able to help.

I did not pass a resit which involved taking an online assessment. On the day of the exam and during the assessment time, moodle was down due to university system issues. This caused a lot of stress waiting for the system to be back up so the exam can be completed.

Due to all the distractions, my performance was impacted. Do you think my case will be upheld?


"A lot of stress"? Why would waiting around for something to work cause stress? If anything, it's an opportunity to think about the questions at hand. Just my opinion

Regardless, whether or not it does impact performance, if you weren't close to the pass boundary, your case won't be accepted. If you were, then it still probably won't, since it's extremely subjective on how waiting a minute for a system to work impacts performance.


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