Use of Computers on Exams

The Law School faculty have set the policy that the use of computers during an exam period will be within the discretion of the individual faculty member. This includes for writing answers or for the access of information. Even when a computer may be used to compose exam answers, students may hand-write their exams; computers are not required for taking an exam.

The Academic Services and Computing Services teams are working to support the use of computers on exams in a manner that balances the interests of those who prefer to use computers with those who choose to write exams by hand.

Use of computers during exams is limited to typing functions unless a faculty member specifically authorizes other uses in their exam instructions. Each student is bound by the Law School Honor Code in all aspects of the examination process. 

General guidelines and restrictions:

1. Students must use private or Class Room Support Services computers to write in-class examinations. (UW computers in the computer lab may be used only for take-home exams or papers.) The Classroom Support Services computers can be requested online at: http://www.css.washington.edu/STFEquipment.
2. Individual faculty members may choose to prohibit the use of computers for any particular exam, including take home exams.
3. Students opting to write their exams on a computer must turn in either a diskette, CD, or a USB flashdrive at the completion of the examination period. The completed exam needs to be successfully saved to the chosen form within the allowed exam time, not after the exam time has expired.
4. Any electronic form must be readable by a system using Microsoft Windows operating system and the student’s answer file be written preferably in MS  Word 2003 or 2007.  If not able to save in Word format, save in a text (.txt) or rich text (.rtf) file.
   
   Students need to supply their own diskettes, CD’s, or USB flashdrives which must be labeled with the student’s examination number, the course number, and name of the Professor.
   
   Any student failing to hand in either a written or electronic copy of his or her exam at the conclusion of the time allotted will be considered to have failed to complete the examination.
   
   The diskettes, CD’s, and USB flashdrives become the property of the law school and they are not returned.
   
   Students are responsible for any technical problems and need to accept the inherent risk of using electronics: for example, the power goes out at a crucial time, or they have hard disk failure. Failure to turn in an exam on time may be penalized and may result in a grade of "E." Students are advised to take precautions, including, but not limited to frequently saving the document both to the hard drive and a portable storage (diskette or USB) and having bluebooks and pens available should a terminal computer failure occur.
5. Students must create a new document (at the start of the exam time on exam day) for their exam answers. It should include: 1) their exam number; and 2) the course number. 
6. Students must keystroke all entering data into their answers by hand during the examination period. Students may use “cut” or “copy” and “paste” functions within their answer, but they may not copy (“cut and paste”) material into their examination from any other source, even in an “open book” exam.
7. For examinations for which the professor has requested the use of a “secured-platform” for taking the examination, students will use the program SofTest from ExamSoft. Information on the downloading and registration for this program is handled by Academic Services.
8. During an open book examination, except as specified by the instructor, students may access and read material previously saved, but may not copy previously saved material and may not use a search function to located material from any source.
   
   During a closed book examination, students may not access or read any previously saved material and may not open any file other than the file in which the exam answer is being composed.
   
   Under the default policy, students may not open an Internet connection during any exam. 
9. Students may not use grammar-check, but may use spell-check to aid them in writing the exam.
10. In an exam that restricts the length of answers, an exam written on a computer must be printed in type no smaller than 12-point type with one-inch margins and must not exceed the maximum number of lines permitted.
11. Individual faculty members may add further restrictions on the use of computers for examinations, or may amend the restrictions listed above. In that case, the faculty member will communicate his/her policy to the students, and will provide specific, written exam instructions.
12. Failure to follow these guidelines and restrictions will constitute a violation of the Law School Honor Code.

Rev. 04-10-08