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Information for Staff

Information for Staff

UCD Access & Lifelong Learning provides support and training to staff as well as students.

We are here to advise staff and encourage you to contact us if you have any questions or concerns in relation to supporting a student with a disability or supporting students applying for temporary exam support. 

FAQs for Supporting Students Learning 

  • How do I provide additional time for students with disabilities in Brightspace Exams?
    Instructions for providing additional time in Brightspace Exams can be found (opens in a new window)in this guide.
  • Can students use grading guidelines for online exams?
    Yes, students who are entitled to the accommodation of 'Refer to Grading Guidelines' can use this support for online timed exams. Students entitled to this support will be sent a piece of text to insert at the beginning of the exam script. Module Coordinators are encouraged to confirm that students are entitled to this support by checking the Module Class List on Infohub.
  • How do I provide Readers for students for online exams?
    Students currently using the Read and Write Gold extension will be able to continue to use this for any online exams. If a student does not currently use a text to speech tool and has the Reader accommodation, we recommend that they (opens in a new window)install the Read and Write Gold extension for Chrome. They just need to ensure that they access Brightspace from the Chrome browser and use the 'hover speech' function which will read aloud the text wherever they place the mouse pointer. We recommend that the student tests this out before exam time. If you or the student require any further information, please contact (opens in a new window)disability@ucd.ie
  • A student has requested temporary exam supports. How can this be provided?
    Students with a temporary illness or injury have been advised to contact the relevant module coordinator to request temporary exam supports. Most requests will be for additional time which is granted at 10 minutes of extra time per hour. If module coordinators have queries on how to provide exam supports which are not answered here, please contact (opens in a new window)disability@ucd.ie(opens in a new window).
  • A student has requested additional time for an open book exam which they have already been allocated several days to complete. Do I need to provide additional time in this instance? 

    Additional time is allocated for timed exams only. Online exams can take place in many different formats and with different timing procedures. Two examples of different timing procedures are illustrated below:

    An exam which is set as 2 hours in length and the student can complete it at a time which suits them across a week. Once the student begins the exam it must be completed in 2 hours. This exam should include extra time for students with the reasonable accommodation of extra time.

    An exam which is available over a 48 hour period, and students are not expected to spend more than 2 hours on the exam but they can if they wish. Extra time should not be applied to this exam.

    Some students with disabilities may have challenges with meeting deadlines for assignments and we would encourage leniency to be applied where possible. Guidance can be sought from Access & Lifelong Learning staff at (opens in a new window)disability@ucd.ie

  • How can I ensure that students have access to Virtual Classes?
    When recording virtual classes, please ensure to enable to download option before you start recording the session. This ensures that students with poor internet connections or other accessibility issues will be able to access the material. This option is available in the session settings as demonstrated in this very (opens in a new window)brief video. 

Further Guides for Staff

Tips for Brightspace Accessibility

There are more video tips available on (opens in a new window)our YouTube Channel