If a student is being released or moving to a different prison just prior to their exam please notify your regional SiSE support team immediately. If we are made aware soon enough we may be able to arrange for them to take their exam at an external venue or the prison they move to.
Exams take place at several times during the year, March, April, June and September depending on the module.
If you have a student who is due to take an exam you will receive an email several weeks in advance of the exam date providing you with the details of the student's name, the module they are studying and the date and time of the exam. You will also be requested to confirm that you can facilitate the exam and that the person supervising the exam is not also studying at the OU (potentially taking the same exam).
The examination papers will be sent out to prisons at least a week before the examination.
The times of the exam can be changed to fit in with the regime of the prison if required but please notify sise-accessibility@open.ac.uk if this is the case.
If you need to change the date of the exam this may also be possible but requires further approval from the exams team, please let your sise-accessibility@open.ac.uk know as soon as possible so they can make this request.
If you have a student who is disabled, and we have been made aware of this, you will also receive forms so they can apply for extra exam arrangements. Medical evidence will be required in support of any request made. There will be a deadline to apply for these to allow sufficient time to put any extra arrangements in place which is normally about 8 weeks prior to the exam, however we will notify you of the specific date. A copy of the exam arrangement forms can be also be downloaded from here.
Please submit in good time, extensions aren't allowed under any circumstances for EMAs or emTMAs.
If a student is struggling to submit by the deadline please speak to your regional SiSE support team for further advice.
For any other questions or issues related to submitting EMAs or emTMAs please contact sise-accessibility@open.ac.uk.
End-of-Module Assessments (EMAs) and End-of-Module Tutor-Marked Assignments (emTMAs) are the final, marked piece of work on some modules.
They may be similar to Tutor-Marked Assignments (TMAs) but will usually be a longer piece of work. They'll usually cover the whole module rather than a part of it. The deadline for EMAs/emTMAs will always be fixed and they must reach the OU by this deadline.
To do this the EMA/emTMA needs to be a single file of up to 10MB in size which has been saved in a file format compatible with Microsoft Word* (a .doc, .docx or .rtf file)
As above, the EMA/emTMA must be a single file of up to 10MB in size which has been saved in a file format compatible with Microsoft Word* (a .doc, .docx or .rtf file)
Assignments can be emailed into the eTMA system by submitting a blank email to eTMA@open.ac.uk with the assignment attached as a single attachment. The subject line of the e-mail must be entered with the student’s Personal Identifier (PI), the module code and the emTMA number in the format: A1234567/A111/06
If you send the EMA in this way, then the ‘TMA’ number must be 30, so will take the format: A1234567/A111/30
You will receive a confirmation e-mail confirming receipt of the assignment, we recommend that you keep hold of this until the assignment has been returned as proof of submission.
Please remember that electronic transmission isn't immediate and network traffic may be particularly heavy on the cut-off date
* This is the general submission rules but some modules apply specific rules to the file submission format.
Please do not send EMAs to the tutor. They should only be sent to Assessment Handling Operations, The Open University, P.O. Box 721 Walton Hall MILTON KEYNES MK7 6ZU
Paper submissions must arrive at the Walton Hall campus by noon on the cut-off date and you should allow at least three working days for delivery. Be sure to obtain proof of posting.
Information for students submitting end-of-module assessments (EMAs) and end-of-module tutor-marked assignments (emTMAs) electronically or on paper (PDF, 117.18 KB)
There is a grace period of 12 hours, so any examinable work received before midnight on the cut-off date will still be accepted.
Work received late but within 24 hours of the midnight grace period will be accepted for assessment but will be subject to a mark penalty.
If your work is received after the 24 hour period it will not be accepted for assessment and will be returned unmarked.
Date | Time | Status |
---|---|---|
Cut-off date | Submission received by 12:00 noon (UK local time) | Received in time – work accepted for marking |
Cut-off date, between 12:00 noon and 23:59 | Submissions received by 23:59 (UK local time) | Grace period – work accepted for marking and no penalty incurred |
Day 1 after cut-off date, between 00:00 and 23:59 | Submissions received by 23:59 (UK local time) | Work accepted for marking – penalty incurred |
Day 2 after cut-off date, 00:00 onwards | Submissions received by 00:00 (UK local time) onwards | Work not marked |
If something happens which negatively affects a student's performance in an exam or EMA/emTMA, they can ask the Module Result Panel to take this into account when the module result is agreed. It must be something that affected the student during the three weeks up to and including the exam date, EMA or emTMA submission cut-off date.
Special circumstances can only be considered if the student sat their exam or oral assessment, or they submitted the EMA or emTMA on time. They can't be considered if the student didn't go to the exam or submit at least a partial EMA or emTMA.
Special circumstances can only be considered in exceptional cases, so please think carefully whether your case merits attention before completing the form. The kinds of special circumstance we may make allowance for include:
The information provided about the students special circumstances will only be used to their benefit. It’s passed to the Module Result Panel for them to consider when they meet to agree the final result. However, the Panel can only give limited weight to any information provided and don't consider events that could have been anticipated.
How to submit special circumstances