Pretoria - Students at Unisa took to social media this week to express their frustration and anger after they were unable to submit their exam scripts online because of what the university termed a “technical challenge”.
Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic the university has held exams online.
This week some students called for the institution to return to the traditional practice of holding exams in physical venues.
One tweeted: “No man, guys @unisa needs to go back to venue-based exams. This load shedding is causing unnecessary stress, honestly.”
Another student expressed frustration that she would have to wait six months to write a module after she failed to submit two of her exam scripts because of technical issues and the limited time allocated.
“Imagine studying so hard, writing an exam for 3 hrs and when you want to submit you are unable to because their portal is not working, you report it through the correct channels and you are told sorry we can’t assist you when it’s their fault @unisa you really need to do better,” another student said.
Unisa has apologised for the technical challenges experienced by students during some online exams on October 24 and 25.
“Students sitting for the affected sessions were granted an extension or grace period to accommodate the inconvenience experienced. The university, through its colleges, is also communicating with affected students via its official communication platforms,” it said.
Unisa said it would investigate cases of students who could not proceed with the exam sessions even after the university had extended the duration of the affected sessions.
It urged students to read the step-by-step guide to the online exams on the Unisa website (www.unisa.ac.za) and to take note of the new permitted submission time. Students experiencing technical challenges should phone the Student Communication Centre at 080 000 1870 or e-mail [email protected]. Additional contact numbers were available on the Get-Help resource on the website, Unisa said.
It reminded students to read the exam announcements published on its platforms.
“These are aimed at assisting students to know where to go should they experience glitches while busy writing exams. In cases of emergency, Unisa posts announcements on the homepage of myUnisa at https://my.unisa.ac.za. Lecturers also post information on the module and exam sites when issues emerge,” it said.
Pretoria News