Policies

Assessment and Evaluation

In education, assessment includes events, tools, processes, and decisions used to gather information about learning. Well-designed assessment practices allow teachers to identify learning patterns, to modify instruction and to meet the needs of learners.

Progress Updates

While instructors will assess you on an ongoing basis throughout the course, you will receive written feedback on your overall progress at four check-in points during the course. The first three are called Progress Updates, and the last is the Final Report.

Each Progress Update and the Final Report include:

• Candidate self-reflection forms
• Rubric of Professional Learning
• Feedback from the instructor

After each Progress Update, as well as for the Final Report, instructors will provide you with a Rubric of Professional Learning using the feedback feature in the corresponding Dropbox folder. They may also provide you with additional ongoing written feedback as you progress through the course.

*Note that given the timing of the first Progress Update, it is expected that not all criteria will be highlighted.

The Rubric of Professional Learning addresses the following four categories: knowledge and understanding, thinking, communication and application.

These are the same assessment areas for student learning at Elementary and Secondary levels across all subject areas and disciplines in Ontario. They are defined in the table below.

Explaining Rubric Categories

Knowledge and Understanding

Candidates demonstrate their knowledge and understanding when they:

• provide evidence of course-specific content in their work
• identify facts, terms, definitions, techniques, elements and/or principles through the various tasks and assignments
• make sense of concepts, ideas, and practices through description, opinion, elaboration, and reference to other resources found in or outside of the course

Thinking

Analyzing, inferring, evaluating, and synthesizing are central to critical and creative thinking. Thinking is evident when candidates:

• go beyond summarizing course content and demonstrate critical and creative thinking skills and/or processes
• explain opinions, link them to course content, and analyze them for implications in practice
• note consistencies and inconsistencies in field of study by drawing on ideas from other candidates or related resources

Communication

The goal of communication is to foster a collaborative community of learners. Candidates accomplish this when they:

• communicate ideas with audience and purpose in mind
• convey meaning and ideas clearly and in an organized fashion
• actively engage in discussions by posting and responding to others in a thoughtful and timely manner

Application

Application refers to candidates' ability to use knowledge by putting ideas into action. Candidates accomplish this when they:

• make connections to personal experiences and to others' ideas
• refer to additional resources, such as scholarly articles, book titles, and related websites, as supporting evidence for an idea
• report, relate, and adapt ideas by providing commentary or links to sources that facilitate collaborative learning

Assigning a Grade

The Rubric of Professional Learning is converted into a final grade using the grid below.

Rubric of Professional Learning
A+	All criteria at the excellent level.
A	7 or more criteria achieved at the excellent level with 3 or fewer at the competent level. No criteria can be at the beginning or developing level.
B+	7 or more criteria achieved at the competent level or above with 3 or fewer at the developing level. No criteria can be at the beginning level.
Fail	Any criteria achieved that do not meet the requirements for A or B+.

Late assignments

Additional Qualification Courses are designed so that candidates work through the same modules at the same time. All assignments will be accepted up to the due dates identified in the course outline. Although assignment submissions to instructors need to be uploaded by the module's due date, Discussion Board tasks must be completed within the time frame of the specific module, allowing candidates enough time to read and respond to each other's posts.

Candidates who are unable to meet the due dates for any assignment due to extenuating circumstances, must request additional time from the instructor. Extensions are given at the discretion of the instructor. Candidates who do not request extensions and who make more than one late posting on the Discussion Board or submit more than one late assignment cannot be considered for an A+ grade in the course.

Please note that a candidate who has completed 75% of the required work by the end of the course will not be eligible for an extension and will receive an automatic Fail.

Resubmissions of assignments

Candidates who receive a Beginning level in any Progress Update must communicate with the instructor for further instruction on improving their level in the course. This process will usually involve resubmission of the assignment(s).

Candidates who receive a Fail grade at the end the course may appeal by following CTE's Appeal Process.

Course Accommodations

Applicants who require special accommodations are asked to follow these steps:

1. Contact the Staffing Coordinator at cedmail@queensu.ca at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the course to allow enough time for appropriate accommodations to be made.
2. Provide necessary documentation upon request.
3. Develop an accommodation plan with the Coordinator of Academic Personnel that will be implemented and communicated with your course instructor.

Failed Grade Appeal

1. Course participants have the right to appeal a failed grade assigned in a course subject to the marking scheme set out by the course instructor(s).
2. As a first step, the course participant should email their instructor and request an informal review of the grade. Instructors are strongly encouraged to consent to this review. This request should be made within 10 working days of the grade being received. Normally the instructor will provide a reconsidered grade and notify the candidate by email within a further 10 working days of receipt of the request and any further information being submitted by the course participant.
3. If the request for an informal review by the instructor is denied or if the course participant is not satisfied with the decision, a formal appeal may be submitted to the Staffing Coordinator at cedmail@queensu.ca. The appeal must be submitted in writing with copies of all relevant documents not later than 10 working days after the reconsidered grade being received. The appeal will be reviewed by a third party within 10 business days of receiving the appeal.

OCT Recommendations

The Office of Continuing Teacher Education reports course completion to the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) after receiving final grades from your instructor, which is generally within two weeks of the end date of the course. The OCT then requires four to six weeks to send an acknowledgment to candidates and update certificates of qualification.

You may view your Certificate of Qualifications, including Additional Qualifications, on the OCT Website.

Notifying Teachers' Federations

It is the candidate's responsibility to send transcripts to a teachers' federation and to ensure that the Additional Qualification course they select meets their federation's requirements. Candidates who are completing an Additional Qualification course for a purpose of a salary category change may wish to have the course pre-approved by their federation.

Official Queen's transcripts may be ordered through SOLUS.

Registration for Non-OCT Members

If you are not a member of the Ontario College of Teachers, the Office of Continuing Teacher Education at Queen's University will allow you to take an online AQ/ABQ.

Under this condition, the Office of Continuing Teacher Education will not report successful completion of your course to the Ontario College of Teachers now, or at any time in the future.

If you wish to receive recognition from the Ontario College of Teachers for a course you have taken under this waiver form, you will be required to register in and complete the above course again, in accordance with the policies and fees in effect at that time.