Forms, Policies and Guidelines
This page includes information and direct links to curricular forms, policies (including those relating to scheduling courses and exams), and other helpful guidelines.
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Forms
25Live Authorization Request (Google form)
Administrative staff who will be managing special-event space requests for their department/program should use this form to request authorization for 25Live. 25Live is used to request reservations of General Assignment Classrooms for special events: department meetings, midterm exams, reviews, speaker events, extra meetings, video screenings, etc.
Add or Remove a Meets-With Section (Google form)
Curricular reps should complete this form to request a meets-with bond between class sections in SIS, or the removal of a pre-existing bond. A meets-with bond will combine the meeting patterns (including instructors) and enrollment between class sections.
Note: Crosslisted class sections cannot be combined into a meets-with with other crosslisted class sections.
Create New Session Code (Qualtrics form)
Curricular reps should use this form to request the creation of a session code that does not already exist in SIS for a term.
Special Facility Request (Google form)
Curricular reps should use this form to request classroom accommodations that cannot be indicated via standard room characteristics. Examples include instructional materials that cannot be transported outside a building, disability accommodations for an instructor (e.g., mobility issues, chalk allergy), or the instructor’s office is not near the department’s usual home/preferred building(s).
Create a Section-Level Requisite (Qualtrics form)
Curricular reps should use this form to request a new section-level requisite. Section-level requisites generally enforce enrollment controls, for example, limiting enrollment to declared majors, to students with certain academic standing (e.g., seniors), and/or students with program affiliations (e.g., residents of specific residence halls for a section taught in a Housing classroom).
Single-Term Exemption From Catalog Enforcement (Qualtrics form)
Curricular reps should use this form to submit a request to remove a catalog requisite for a single term. Exemptions can be granted only when a department has proposed edits to a catalog requisite via academic governance but that change will not be in effect during enrollment for an upcoming term.
Pending Instructor Petition (Qualtrics form)
Curricular reps should use this form when an employee has a current non-instructional appointment in the campus HR system and an instructional appointment is pending but classes start in four weeks or fewer and the department needs to make the employee available as an instructor in SIS now. An instructional appointment must be in the campus HR system by the fourth week of classes (or earlier if they’re teaching in a shorter modular session). If that deadline is not met, the instructor will be inactivated and removed from their classes.
Final Exam Request (Google form)
Curricular reps should use this form to submit requests to add a final exam, delete an existing final exam, or notify Curricular Services that no general assignment (GA) classroom is needed for an existing final exam date/time.
Policies
Guidelines and Procedures
FAQs
Independent Study
Classes categorized as independent study are one-on-one rather than group instruction. Generally speaking, these are mentored learning experiences wherein students become more self-directed learners while working closely with faculty mentors or other qualified instructors who guide their research, provide feedback, and model scholarly and professional behavior.
Classes scheduled as independent study will have the component type IND recorded in the Student Information System and displayed in Course Search & Enroll and other systems.
Independent-study course titles vary and include “Directed Study,” “Independent Study,” “Independent Reading,” “Research,” “Senior Thesis,” “Thesis,” and other typically similar titles. Catalog numbers for independent study vary as well, but can include 699 and other x98 and x99 numbers; 990 and other 99x numbers; and more. The component type IND is the one consistent indicator that a class is independent study.
By definition, all independent study classes include regular instructional contact between the instructor and the student. However, because instruction is one-on-one, independent-study classes do not have recurring day/time meeting patterns or room assignments scheduled in the Student Information System or displayed in Course Search & Enroll.
UW–Madison schedules non-group instruction sections, including independent-study and field-study classes, with the instruction mode P (Classroom Instruction). Because of the varied nature of independent study instruction, that might mean physically in-person within a laboratory or library at UW–Madison, within the fields and forests of Wisconsin, or observatories on other continents. The student and instructor may physically or remotely be in regular contact. The instructor and enrolled students are expected to agree on how, where, and when they will maintain regular communication throughout the semester.
For each course (e.g., PSYCH 990), each faculty member or other qualified instructor should be listed on one and only one section. If multiple students will conduct independent study with the same instructor, the students enroll in the same class section (e.g., PSYCH 990 section 065), even though they will be engaged in one-on-one instruction.
Learn more about independent study and links with further detail.
Midterm and Final Exams (For Faculty/Instructors)
No. Lectures and discussions/labs often have a one-to-many relationship, where a single lecture is associated with multiple discussion and/or lab sections. For this and other reasons, final exams are scheduled based on the lecture. As a result, the modality of final exams in these cases is limited by the modality of the lecture. If the lecture is online, the final exam may not be administered in person.
Please notify your departmental curricular representative if you are teaching an in-person or hybrid class but will be administering your scheduled final exam online. The curricular representative can inform our office that your final exam does not need a classroom assignment to help ensure that classrooms are available for in-person final exams.
You may provide an extended timeframe to students for completing an asynchronous exam. Please ensure that your original exam date/time falls within the larger time frame — the asynchronous exam should not be due any earlier than the end of your scheduled final exam block. Communicate the details to your students, including updating your syllabus. If you do not have an exam date officially scheduled in the Student Information System (SIS), please request the change first before notifying students; contact the curricular representative for your department who can submit a request on your behalf to our office, which starts the dean’s review process to schedule a final exam.
No. Take-home final exams should be due during your scheduled final exam block. The same applies to final projects or papers that will be due during finals week. If you do not have an exam date officially scheduled in the Student Information System (SIS), contact the curricular representative for your department who can submit a request on your behalf to our office.
Please notify your departmental curricular representative if you are using your assigned final exam date/time solely as a due date. The curricular representative can inform our office that your final exam does not need a classroom assignment to help ensure that classrooms are available for in-person final exams.
If you will no longer be using an assigned final exam date/time, communicate the change to your students, including updating your syllabus. You may also notify the curricular representative for your department, who can relay the message to our office.
Per faculty policy, changes to the final exam schedule after students are enrolled require review and approval of the school/college dean’s office. Our office facilitates obtaining these approvals, working with dean’s offices.
Contact the curricular representative for your department who can submit a request on your behalf to our office, which starts the dean’s review process to schedule a final exam.
After approval is obtained, communicate the change to your students, including updating your syllabus. You must also accommodate alternate exam times for students that inform you of an exam conflict. Final-exam assignments are designed to minimize student exam conflicts, but changes in the schedule increase the likelihood of conflicts.
Per campus policy, asynchronous course sections will generally have asynchronous exams that can be completed by students within a certain timeframe. An asynchronous course section may have a synchronous final exam only if accommodations or flexibilities are made for students unable to attend synchronous exam times.
Per faculty policy, changes to the final exam schedule after students are enrolled require review and approval of the school/college dean’s office. Our office facilitates obtaining these approvals.
If your asynchronous class does not have a final-exam scheduled and you plan to administer one, contact the curricular representative for your department who can submit a request on your behalf to our office, which starts the dean’s review process to schedule a final exam.
After approval is obtained, communicate the change to your students, including updating your syllabus. You must also accommodate alternate exam times for students that inform you of an exam conflict. Final exam assignments are designed to minimize student exam conflicts, but changes in the schedule increase the likelihood of conflicts.
Per faculty policy, you may offer an alternate exam time for students with three or more final exams in 24 hours, provided that you follow school/college guidelines and the exam is “of the same general nature and quality.” Similarly, you may exercise your judgment and offer alternate exam dates/times to other students. However, except for McBurney accommodations (see below FAQ) and accommodating exam conflicts resulting from changes in the exam schedule after students are enrolled, you are not mandated to provide alternate exams and can require students to complete the exam at the officially scheduled date/time. Decisions about requiring synchronous completion or offering an alternate exam date/time should balance concerns about fairness and academic integrity with flexibilities that may support student success.
Student accommodations should be reviewed and may need to be adapted or adjusted for an online environment, and will depend on your course content and assessments. Please be in touch with students to discuss updated accommodation plans for your course. For questions, contact a student’s access consultant at the McBurney Disability Resource Center.
Most final exams are scheduled based on the day/time meeting patterns of classes – this helps to minimize exam conflicts, though a small number of conflicts are still possible. In addition, a number of courses have been approved to give group exams, where all sections of the course are assigned a common final exam date/time regardless of when individual class sections meet. The algorithm used to assign group exams minimizes, but cannot eliminate, student exam conflicts.
Instructors with students who have direct conflicts must provide an alternate exam time. Decisions about when to schedule an alternate exam date/time should balance concerns about fairness and academic integrity with flexibilities that may support student success.
Summer mid-session exams are typically held during the scheduled class period. Final exams are held at the last class meeting unless otherwise announced by the instructor.
Per faculty policy, all course grades must be completed by each instructor and submitted to the Office of the Registrar three days (72 hours) after the last final exam day, regardless of whether or not a two-hour summary block exam was held. See the Final and Midterm Grading page for additional details and FAQs, including how eligible instructors may request an extension of the deadline to submit grades.
Contact the final exam lead in Curricular Services with additional questions.