Instructions for providing additional time in (opens in a new window)Brightspace Exams
We are here to advise staff and encourage you to contact us with queries in relation to supporting students with a disability, temporary exam support or accessibility of learning materials. We provide training to both staff and students.
Yes, students who are entitled to the accommodation of 'Spelling and Grammar Consideration’ can use this support for online timed exams. Students entitled to this support will be sent a piece of text to insert at the beginning of the exam script. Module coordinators/lecturers are encouraged to confirm that students are entitled to this support by checking the Module Class List on Infohub.
Students with a disability can use their exam support for any timed exams. For the official end-of-trimester exams this support is arranged by UCD Exam Assessment. However, it is the responsibility of the module coordinator/lecturer to arrange exam support for local exams outside the end-of-trimester exams. Students are instructed to request their support as far in advance as possible to allow time for module coordinators/lectures to organise these.
If a student has been approved to use Assistive Technology (AT) such as a laptop, electronic pen or similar tools, and they wish to avail of it, it is the responsibility of the module coordinator to ensure the necessary arrangements are made. For Assistive Technology related requests, please contact us at (opens in a new window)disability@ucd.ie.
Students currently using the Read and Write extension will be able to continue to use this for any online exams. If a student does not currently use a text to speech tool and has the Reader accommodation, we recommend that they (opens in a new window)install the Read and Write extension for Chrome.
They just need to ensure that they access Brightspace from the Chrome browser and use the 'hover speech' function which will read aloud the text wherever they place the mouse pointer. We recommend that the student tests this out before exam time. If you or the student require any further information, please contact (opens in a new window)disability@ucd.ie.
Students with a temporary illness or injury (e.g. broken arm) can apply for Temporary Exam Support online or contact (opens in a new window)temporarysupport@ucd.ie. Most requests will be Alternative Location and additional time which is granted at 10 minutes of extra time per hour. Please contact (opens in a new window)disability@ucd.ie with any queries not answered in this website.
Additional time is allocated for timed exams only. Online exams can take place in many different formats and with different timing procedures. Two examples of different timing procedures are illustrated below:
An exam which is set as 2 hours in length and the student can complete it at a time which suits them across a week. Once the student begins the exam it must be completed in 2 hours. This exam should include extra time for students with the reasonable accommodation of extra time.
An exam which is available over a 48 hour period, and students are not expected to spend more than 2 hours on the exam but they can if they wish. Extra time should not be applied to this exam. Some students with disabilities may have challenges with meeting deadlines for assignments and we would encourage leniency to be applied where possible. Guidance can be sought from Access & Lifelong Learning staff at (opens in a new window)disability@ucd.ie.
When recording virtual classes, please ensure to enable the download option before you start recording the session. This ensures that students with poor internet connections or other accessibility issues will be able to access the material. This option is available in the (opens in a new window)Enable Downloading of Collaborate Virtual Class Recordings video.