Student Lists for Instructors on A.O.

Instructors are able to access a list of students’ time-based exam accommodations through A.O. to facilitate access to online quizzes, tests and exams. We have also recently added accommodations that apply to the classroom or independent learning.

What if my course is not listed?

Scenario 1: Do you see "Instructor Dashboard" below your name? If no, email sas.assist@uoguelph.ca and we'll set you up as an instructor. This typically happens with new sessionals who were assigned to a course just before the semester began.

Scenario 2: You can see "Instructor Dashboard", but under "fall 2022 courses" there is nothing listed. In this case, follow the instructions in the blue box that says "looking for a course that is not listed below."

What is excluded from lists?

Many students have additional accommodations. Frequently these things require additional explanation, or only apply in certain circumstances. If a student asks for an accommodation that is not reflected on A.O., please ask to speak with their SAS advisor.

Students whose accommodations have not been renewed or approved. This could be because:

• The student has not initiated the process for the current semester,
• The student has not provided adequate evidence of a disability to SAS, or
• More discussion is needed with the student.

SAS has numerous ways of guarding against undue delays. The issues above are not necessarily indicators of a flawed system.

How often should I check A.O.?

If you are manually administering accommodations for online quizzes, tests and exams, we recommend checking A.O. within a week of the assessment. If you are looking at classrooms and independent learning, as needed.

Note that SAS meets with students and updates accommodations daily. If there is less than a week before a quiz, test or exam, the student is responsible for letting us know and we may reach out to you by email. These are exceptional cases as accommodations must ordinarily be approved a week ahead of time.

If you are using the “Quizzes” tool on CourseLink, you can enable the automated quiz extension tool, and this alleviates the need to check A.O.

Why can’t I easily download a list?

This data changes frequently. We want to encourage instructors to access the data on A.O. when it is needed, rather than working from an out-of-date list they downloaded earlier in the semester.

Why does a student have more than one time-based accommodation?

Sometimes students only require the maximum amount of time when they are having a flare-up of a medical condition. When booking to write in the SAS Exam Centre on campus, we allow these students to “downgrade” their accommodations if they do not need the full amount.

In other cases, students only get the larger amount of time when the exam has a specific format. For example, they might have time and a half for most tests and exams, but double time if the exam has a math component. This is determined based on the type of disability the student experiences.

For online quizzes, tests and exams our default position is to offer the larger amount of time.

Who can I contact with questions?

If a student is registered with SAS, it is appropriate for an instructor to ask to speak with their SAS advisor. We encourage you to do so to confirm or clarify accommodations.

For general questions about accommodations for quizzes, tests and exams, please email sasexams@uoguelph.ca. For all other matters relating to SAS, please mail sas@uoguelph.ca. 

Future Development

The faculty section of A.O. is a new feature that was launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to deal with our most pressing accommodation issues. We have been learning from this experience and making improvements. Over time, we hope to make additional data available.

The decision about what information to make available to instructors is governed by a balance between protecting students' privacy, and providing the details instructors need to assist with the accommodation process.