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Senate
Subject: Use
of Calculators in Examinations
Origin: Unconfirmed
Minutes of Learning and Teaching Committee on 3 June 2004
The Committee considered proposals from the PDQ Team that
the University should produce a short list of ‘approved calculators’ for use in
University examinations. The proposals
had arisen on discussion of a paper from the Engineering Faculty.
It was RESOLVED to RECOMMEND the proposals to Senate for
implementation in 2004/05. Departments
would be consulted about the ‘approved list’ and an appropriate amendment to
regulations would be required.
It was the view of the Committee that it was inadvisable for departments to take responsibility for providing students with calculators for use in examinations.
Author:
R A Bowyer
Date: June 2004
Copyright
© Loughborough University. All rights reserved
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Learning and Teaching Committee
Subject: Calculators
in Examinations
Origin PDQ Team
The PDQ Team at its meeting on 10 May 2004 considered a paper from Dr Keith Gregory (attached). It agreed that the proposal there be a list of approved calculators was eminently sensible. It was agreed it would be necessary to ask departments what calculators should be on the list, though the list should be kept as short as possible. It was also agreed that where departments were prepared to allow other types of calculator, not on the approved list, to be used in examinations, this information should be published in the relevant module specification as well as on the examination paper. The proposal would need to be built into the revised regulations.
The approval of Learning and Teaching Committee is sought
for the proposal. If agreed,
departments will be consulted further about the ‘approved list’ and an
appropriate amendment made to regulations.
Calculators in exams
The current University policy regarding the use of
calculators in examinations is written in General Regulations:
Regulation VII. REGULATIONS FOR UNIVERSITY EXAMINATIONS
3. RULES FOR CANDIDATES
v. Candidates may use their own slide-rules,
mathematical instruments and such other aids to drawing as the Invigilators
permit.
a. Complete examination papers shall prohibit
calculators or allow those as specified under 3(v)(b).
b. When calculators are permitted they should be
hand-held, quiet, self-powered and portable. Examination papers shall state
whether programmable calculators and/or information storage devices shall be
allowed.
c. No calculator instruction manuals will be
allowed in examination rooms in any circumstances.
d.
Candidates are responsible for the performance of
their own calculators.
It has been common practice for examination paper rubrics to
include the statement that “non-programmable calculators may be used”.
However, this requirement is very difficult to police fully and (possibly to
avoid the problem) rubrics allowing any calculator to be used have become more
widespread. Problems with this policy have been evident for some time. It is
widely known amongst students that they can take advantage of the situation by
using calculators to store relevant information, usually in the form of
pre-defined expressions. It is also a common belief amongst students who do not
or cannot afford to use advanced calculators that this is unfair and should be
classified as cheating. In addition, and more recently, the definition of what
is and isn’t a calculator has become somewhat imprecise, with equipment that
can be described loosely as a calculator being able to store and retrieve large
amounts of text.
Comments from External Examiners and enquiries at other
institutions have generally found that Loughborough is out of step. It is
common for a single type of approved calculator (often marked in some way) or
calculators from a small list of approved types to be allowed with exceptions
where circumstances require them. The basis of most of these choices seems to
lie in the GCSE/A-level definition of what is an allowable calculator[1].
This definition is believed to be equally suitable for use in the majority of
examinations at Loughborough.
It is suggested that General Regulations be amended to include
approved types, with paragraph 3(v)(b) reading:
b. When
calculators are permitted they should be hand-held, quiet, self-powered and
portable of an approved type. Examination papers shall state whether
programmable calculators and/or information storage devices differing from
the approved types shall be allowed.
Ideally this change should be implemented prior to the
2004/2005 academic year.
The list of approved calculators should be publicised in handbooks and on the Web; the suggested list is (currently):
Casio FX83 series
Casio FX85 series
Sharp EL531 series
Texas Instruments TI-30 (series?)
Allowing calculators from such a small list should make the
restriction relatively easy to police and suitable types could be stocked in
the Students Union and (possibly) Departments, priced (preferably) at less than
£10.
It could also be possible, if general opinion deems it
necessary, to introduce an approval procedure whereby calculators not on the
list could be approved and marked in some way prior to their use.
Keith
Gregory, February 23rd 2004