Introduction

This document illustrates principles and decisions related to education systems, in addition to a set of mechanisms and rules that govern the activities of education. The recent contemporary shift from “skills-based” education to “competency-based” education, had a direct impact on teaching, learning, and assessment methods.

In addition, cooperation with some international universities, whether through double degree partnerships or mutual scientific cooperation in the field of developing content, teaching, and learning methods for academic programs, has also helped in reconsidering, reviewing, and updating teaching and learning strategies, in addition to rules and techniques applied previously. Consequently, in this updated version of ASU FoE teaching policy, it is no longer sufficient to "evaluate student’s performance”. Now, we are focusing on “optimising student’s performance”. Considering this updated teaching policy, Assessment process is considered as a method of learning in addition to being a method of evaluation. Thus, continuous assessment and the practice of formative assessment become the core of ASU FoE teaching policy.

Teaching Policy Criteria:

The teaching policy at ASU FoE states a set of standards to maintain the quality of the educational process to assure the graduate professionality level. The following points illustrate these standards:

1. Language
   English language should be used for lecturing, discussions, exams, and all verbal and electronic communications.
    
2. Course Syllabus
   Each course syllabus should contain course objectives, textbook, outline, material, assessments, grading policy, and outcome. Outline should contain sections covered every week with reference to chapters/sections in the textbook. Instructor should give the course syllabus to students in the first class. The syllabus serves as a contract between instructor and students.
    
3. Textbook
   Instructor is free to select/recommend a textbook, but it should be published, available, and one of the well-known and trusted reference in the course subject. Textbook information should be provided to student in the first class of the course. It is highly recommended to apply references that are available on the “Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB)”.
    
4. Acive Participation
   Instructor may dedicate not more than 5% of the course total grade for the student’s “Active Participation” considering the student’s participation in teaching and learning activities, in class/on line discussions. In such case, instructor should tell students clearly the criteria on which their active participation would be evaluated.
   In addition, students should not be allowed to enter the class after 5 minutes from the scheduled time. No eating, drinking, or mobile use in the class. If the student wants to leave the class for any reason, he/she will not be allowed to come back to the class. Student's attendance should not be less than 75 % during the course. Otherwise, the student should not be allowed to attend the final exam.
    
5. Assignments
   In each course, staff would give one “Major Summative Assessment” task for the student. This major task will be the student’s end performance assessment tool to indicate his/her learning outcomes and skills level of achievement.
   Student will hand-in, for evaluation, this task according to the final due date as listed in the task TOR. There may be multi review points for this task before the final due date considering that these review points, even if they were graded, will not be considered in the final evaluation of the assessment task. Any evaluation in the intermediate review points would be considered “formatives” and can only be considered as one of the criteria for evaluating the student’s “Active Participation”.
   As an exception, in the cases when it is found to be more convenient and for the sake of students’ better evaluation and fairness, staff may decide to add only one intermediate summative milestone before the major task final due date. in such case, this intermediate summative milestone evaluation would be considered in the major task final evaluation. Also, there should be at least one formative assessment task before each of the intermediate summative milestone and the final submission.
    
6. Quizzes
   Give unannounced quizzes (pop quizzes) in the tutorials to force students to study and be ready all the time. These quizzes should constitute only 5% of the total grade. There should be at least one quiz and not more than four quizzes per course. Staff may drop the least one or two from the grade. Quizzes evaluation should be returned with model answer/evaluation criteria the following tutorial and be discussed with the class.
   In the courses that mainly tackle practical and psychomotor skills rather than cognitive ones, where quizzes are not the most suitable task to evaluate the students’ performance, such as Design-based courses, any other assessment tasks may be applied such as “one-day sketch design.
    
7. Midterm Exam
   Staff will give one midterm exam for students (if it is stated in the official bylaw). This midterm exam would be scheduled officially by administration and its weight would be as listed in the official bylaw. Students’ answer sheets would be turned back for students with the model answer or evaluation criteria to review their evaluation and they may need to discuss it with their staff. Instructor can arrange for a bigger or more suitable room for the midterm exams.
    
8. Final Exam
   Final exam would be weighted as listed in the official bylaw. It should be a comprehensive exam that assesses all the learning outcomes that are planned to be assessed by the final exam as listed in the course specification. The student fails the course if he/she gets less than 30% of the final exam's total grade. Exams may be open- book or closed-book considering the staff plan.
    
9. Cheating Policy
   If a student is caught cheating during midterm exams or quizzes, he/she will get zero in this exam. If the student is caught cheating one more time, he/she will fail the course. Cheating during final exam is strictly prohibited and faculty policy will be strictly applied.
    
10. Office Hours
    For each group, instructor should have two office hours per week. Office hours will be determined in the first class and must be posted on learning management system (LMS) and Microsoft Teams. Also, staff may make not more than half of these office hours via distance by virtual online meetings.
     
11. Electronic Communication
    Students can send e-mails to instructors, using the student’s official email or through Microsoft Teams, to ask questions or request information. Instructor should answer students within 72 hrs considering the staff announced office hours.
     
12. Grading Policy
    Instructor should detail in the syllabus the course grading strategy and provides it to students in the first class. In addition, the major assessment task evaluation criteria and should be published to students within the task TOR from day one. If the task has a model answer, it should be published later after assessment submission.
    Generally, course assessment items, which constitute the 100% of the course grade, would be itemised and weighted as listed in the official bylaw, considering that the item “Student’s Activities” which is listed in the official bylaw would be as described previously in articles 5 & 6 in this teaching policy.
    Staff member must apply multi formative assessments to train students on the summative assessments and to help them to investigate their understandings and skills to discover their points of weakness.
    Staf should design the major summative assessment task to be different in nature than the final written exam. This means if the final written course exam is a sit-in unseen exam, the major task should be a take-home assessment task such as a research, report, term paper, project, model making, experimental task, or any other similar ones that tackle the students’ higher mental abilities, psychomotor, or affective skills.
    In addition, it is highly recommended to make this task personalised for each student to make it different from a student to another. This may be achieved by making the task givens are in relation to the student ID or any similar way to achieve this purpose. This may help to prevent any Academic Misconduct or plagiarism.
    When designing the major task, it should constitute with the final exam a full assessment unit that assess the course Learning outcomes. It is highly recommended to avoid LOs assessment duplication between the two assessments.
     
13. Submission Matrix:
    A submission matrix should be planned and published or students by the end of the semester first week. The aim of this matrix is to coordinate between the different, regularly offered, courses in the same level to ensure that there would not be more than two major assessment tasks final submission in the same week. This is to help students to plan ahead their learning efforts and to be well prepared for the submissions.
     
14. Grades
    The letter grades for the course are as follows:

15. Course Outcome
    Instructor should plan all the teaching and learning activities to achieve the learning outcomes as listed in the official course specification. If the instructor finds a need to make any changes of these LOs considering the contemporary scientific changes or the profession needs, he/she MUST submit a LOs change request to the program administration BEFORE applying these changes. This request will be scientifically discussed with the instructor in addition to other specialists and if the his/her point of view is approved changes would be accepted and officially documented. Then, instructor may apply the new updated LOs in course teaching.
     
16. Course File
    Instructor should submit a course file to the CHEP quality office by the end of the semester. Submission should consider: the due date, method of submission, and requirements checklists officially announced by the beginning of the semester.
     
17. Students' Course Evaluation
    Students will fill in a course evaluation form at the mid and end of the semester. This feedback aims at pointing out the teaching/learning activities points of strength and weaknesses. In addition, these feedbacks would help staff and administration to take correction actions in the same semester (if possible) and to plan others for the following course offering.
     
18. Class Time and Place
    All classes (lecture, tutorial, or labs) should take place in the assigned room and time slot based on the published class schedule. Instructor can arrange for a different room for exams if the assigned room is not suitable for that.
     
19. Cancelled Classes
    If a class is cancelled for emergency or any reasons, students should be notified, and a compensation class should be arranged with them.
     
20. Add, Drop, and Withdraw
    Student can add/drop the course within the first two weeks (first week in summer semester) of classes without any penalty. No add/drop is allowed after the second week (first week in summer semester). Student can withdraw the course no later than the 8th week (4th week in summer semester), where the course fees will not be deducted, but no academic penalties will be imposed.