As stated in the “Course Outlines” section below, General Faculties Council regulations require all Instructors to announce at the beginning of each course the distribution of weight between term work and the final examination (i.e., stated within the course syllabus). In particular, instructors must inform students during the first week of classes of any assignment, examination, or other course activity (e.g. class participation) to which 10% or more of the final term mark will be allotted and provide the course outline indicating such requirements.
Instructors must announce at the beginning of a course the manner in which the official University grading system is to be implemented in that particular course/ section. The Faculty of KSR employs the UofA GFC approved marking and grading process where grades are determined by a combination of both the absolute term total out of 100 achieved by a student in the course on a distribution of scores out of 100 for all students enrolled in the course, and the relative, determined quality of performance judged by the instructor of all of the term weighted scores, on all assessments, by all students, within the given iteration of the course.
Please refer to the UAPPOL Assessment and Grading Policy of the University of Alberta. Upon request, instructors are required to provide the process and method used to translate final marks and, where appropriate, term marks into the university’s official final grades.
Instructors must announce the weight given to each assignment, examination, or other course activity well before these are to be completed by the students.
Instructors should allow students a reasonable time in which to complete an assignment, bearing in mind its overall weighting in the course.
Instructors must mark and return to the students in a timely fashion all term examinations, course projects, papers, essays, etc. provided that the students have submitted them by the published due date. Substantive feedback should be provided prior to the aast day for withdrawal from Fall or Winter Term courses (see the "Major Dates and Deadlines" section of the Academic Schedule provided in the UofA Calendar specific to the academic year of your course).
Normally all term work will be returned on or by the last day of classes in the course, with the exception of a final major assignment (which may be due on the last day of classes), which will be returned by the date of the scheduled final examination or, in Faculty Council approved non-examination courses, by the last day of the examination period. All undergraducate course exceptions must be authorized by KSR Faculty Council. Contact the Associate Dean Undergraduate Programs with any inquiries regarding an exemption from these or any University Academic Regulation.
It is the standard of the Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation that our instructors prepare detailed course outlines as these serve as the contractual agreement between students and the instructor as to how the course will be delivered and will be referred to as the standard in any dispute over final grades or expectations for the course. You must adhere to due dates, weight of marks, and marking procedures once stated in the course outline and relesead to students. These cannot be changed in most instances, and in rare cases only when the change makes sense to all concerned. Such changes shall only occur with fair warning or general class consent.
The Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation has moved to an online system for the construction and reporting of course outlines. This digital outline tool enables you to develop and download your outline within eClass through the Syllabus Creation Tool (SCT), it ensures that up to date university regulations, policy, and KSR deferred final exam dates are automatically included within your syllabi, and it no longer requires you to forward copies of your course outline/s to the Student Service Office.
A short video has been created demonstrating how to access and use the course outline tool in eClass. Please access the video HERE.
It is the responsibility of the instructor to ensure the accessibility of the course outline to every student enrolled in the course (i.e., post to the eClass course home page once downloaded and edited from the SCT).
Course Requirements, Evaluation Procedures and Grading: The policies set out below are intended to provide instructors and their students with general course information. GFC, in approving these guidelines, expected that there would be a common sense approach to their application and understood that circumstances might develop, during a term, where a change to the course outline, as set out in Course Requirements, Evaluation Procedures and Grading, made sense to all concerned. Such changes shall only occur with fair warning or general class consent.
Students concerned about the application of these guidelines should consult, in turn, the instructor, the chair of the department by which the course is offered, and the dean of the faculty in which the course is offered.
At the beginning of each course, instructors are required by GFC to provide a course outline to students and their Department (or Faculty in non-Departmentalized Faculties) that includes the following:
a statement of the course objectives and general content
a list of the required textbooks and other major course materials
a list of any other course fees as described in the 'Student Instructional Support Fees Policy' and their associated costs
an indication of how and when students have access to the instructor
the distribution of weight between term work and final examination
the relative weight of all term work contributing to the course grade
whether marks are given for class participation and other in-class activities as well as the weight of such participation
PLEASE NOTE: Attendance is a natural consequence and requirement for the purposes of fullfilling class participation expectations and instructors are recommended to make clear and inform students of these requirements (i.e., assessment criteria for participation) in the course, as well as the term weighted value of such participation. However, unless marks are allocated in the course outline towards participation requirements, a mark simply for attendance should not be directly factored into grading.
dates of any examination and course assignments with a weight of 10% or more of the overall course grade
the process by which the term marks will be translated into a final letter grade for the course. The process must be consistent with the University of Alberta Assessment Policy and accompanying Grading Procedure, found at the University of Alberta Policies and Principles Online (UAPPOL) website at https://www.ualberta.ca/en/policies-procedures/index.html#sort=relevancy.
an indication of how students will be given access to past or representative evaluative course material, consistent with the Access to Evaluative Material Procedure of the Assessment Policy, found at the University of Alberta Policies and Procedures Online (UAPPOL) website at https://policiesonline.ualberta.ca.
the statement: "Policy about course outlines can be found in Course Requirements, Evaluation Procedures and Grading of the University Calendar".
the statement: "The University of Alberta is committed to the highest standards of academic integrity and honesty. Students are expected to be familiar with these standards regarding academic honesty and to uphold the policies of the University in this respect. Students are particularly urged to familiarize themselves with the provisions of the Code of Student Behaviour (online at www.governance.ualberta.ca) and avoid any behaviour which could potentially result in suspicions of cheating, plagiarism, misrepresentation of facts and/or participation in an offence. Academic dishonesty is a serious offence and can result in suspension or expulsion from the University."
Announcement Regarding Plagiarism and Cheating
Instructors should discuss and review with the class their expectations with respect to academic honesty issues and outline both permitted and prohibited behavior.
Further information on academic integrity can be found at :
Student Conduct and Accountability – This resource provides comprehensive information regarding academic integrity for students, instructors and TA’s
Though not required by GFC policy, Instructors are also encouraged to ...
Include information, policy and procedure, and expectations of students regarding missed and late term work and how this will be handled in the course
The course schedule of topic, content, due dates for assignments, and when lab and/or seminar session arrangements will take place
What is Bear Tracks?
You can connect to Bear Tracks from most UAlberta web pages through the link at the top of the UofA home web page. It will take you to Bear Tracks.