Students FAQ

All homework for Engineering Online courses is submitted electronically. Your professor may provide instructions on how to properly submit homework for his or her course. If so, please follow those instructions. Otherwise, you can e-mail your homework to homework_eol@ncsu.edu or fax it to 919-515-8415. Unless otherwise instructed, never send your homework submissions to individual staff or faculty e-mail accounts. Be sure to include the EOL coversheet with ALL your homework submissions.

Homework should be numbered using both the individual page number and the total number of pages, beginning with the cover sheet. For example, the cover sheet used to submit four pages of homework should be labeled 1/5. Your name should be on every page you submit.

Once the Engineering Online office receives your homework assignment, a confirmation e-mail will be sent to your NC State University e-mail account. If you submit your homework assignment before noon EST, you should receive the confirmation by the end of the same business day. If you submit your assignment after noon, you should receive your confirmation by the end of the next business day.

If you do not receive a confirmation e-mail in your NCSU account within these time frames, you can contact the homework coordinator to verify that your assignment was received. Please do not contact the Engineering Online office immediately after sending your assignment. EOL staff will process your homework as soon as possible after you submit it.

If there is a problem with the number of pages or legibility of your assignment, EOL staff will contact you by phone or e-mail to resolve the issue.

Students should be aware that not all professors return graded assignments. If your professor chooses to return graded homework, you will receive it as a scanned e-mail attachment sent to your NC State University e-mail account.

If you need help with Engineering Online’s examination procedures or the proctor selection process, please contact EOL’s exam coordinator 919-515-3693 or email at lisa_jessick@ncsu.edu.

You do not need to choose your proctor at the time you enroll in classes. Since some instructors may give only take-home exams, or there may be no exams or quizzes for the class, it is generally better to learn the specific testing requirements of the course before going through the proctor selection process.

Anyone serving as a proctor must be able to fulfill that role objectively. For this reason, Engineering Online prohibits potential conflicts of interest between a proctor’s personal or professional relationship to a student, and the proctor’s role as an NC State University testing official.

The following individuals or organizations may serve as proctors:

1. NC State University’s Distance Education Testing Service
2. Another university, college or private testing center
3. Military training or education officer
4. Manager or supervisor
5. School principal, vice principal, librarian, teacher, or school counselor
6. Human resources manager or training officer
7. College professor or administrative official
8. Others in a position of authority with a demonstrably impartial relationship to the student

Anyone serving as proctor must be able to fulfill that role objectively. For this reason, Engineering Online prohibits potential conflicts of interest between a proctor’s personal or professional relationship to a student, and the proctor’s role as an NC State University testing official.

The following individuals are not acceptable proctors:

• Relatives, roommates, neighbors, and friends
• Co-workers and subordinate employees
• Receptionists and security guards
• Tutors
• Fellow students
• Anyone with a perceived or real conflict of interest

Anyone serving as proctor must be able to fulfill that role objectively. For this reason, Engineering Online prohibits potential conflicts of interest between a proctor’s personal or professional relationship to a student, and the proctor’s role as an NC State University testing official.

To prevent the appearance of impropriety, Engineering Online automatically excludes as proctors some individuals with specific relationships to students. This is not a judgment about the honesty of the student or the proposed proctor. The integrity of the examination, class, Engineering Online department, and the validity of the degree you receive depends on all students having a fair and equal chance to demonstrate their mastery of course material. Ensuring that examinations are properly supervised is critical to preserving the quality of Engineering Online’s programs.

The exam coordinator will review your prospective proctor to ensure your choice meets Engineering Online’s requirements. If the proctor appears to be a satisfactory choice, the exam coordinator will then contact him or her to obtain additional information regarding how your examinations will be administered. During this process, your proctor information status will show Pending Proctor Information.

Students need to identify a proctor each semester. If you are using the same proctor you have used before, you can re-access and update your original electronic proctor form. Change the semester, year, and class information, then resubmit.

Students who already have an approved proctor for distance education courses not offered through Engineering Online must still go through EOL’s proctor approval process. NC State University’s distance education testing service is not connected to the Engineering Online office. While you may choose to use the same proctor for all your distance education courses, you must communicate your choice to the Engineering Online office so that we can provide critical information about EOL’s testing procedures to your proctor.

After exams are sent to proctors, the exam coordinator sends an e-mail notification to all testing students. This e-mail confirms that the exam has been forwarded to the proctors and contains specific information about the exam. Once you receive that e-mail, check with your proctor to verify that he or she received the exam.

Engineering Online exams are sent to proctors as email attachments.

Technically, there is no deadline for you to identify your proctor. However, Engineering Online strongly encourages students to identify a proctor within the first two weeks of class. In most instances, approval of your proctor is not immediate. Our exam coordinator is not able to approve a proctor until he or she provides additional information. Consequently, the timetable for proctor approval is not solely under the control of the exam coordinator. If you wait too long to complete the proctor information form, you run the risk of missing an examination window defined by your instructor. The instructor may refuse to accept an exam completed outside of the examination window.

Generally, there is some flexibility in scheduling proctored exams. Because distance education students often must work their exams around family obligations, full-time jobs, and proctor availability, distance education instructors usually allow some leeway in exam scheduling. Instructors establish a time-frame during which the exam must be completed and submitted to the Engineering Online office. The minimum window for an exam is 24 hours. Many instructors allow a multi-day window in which students may schedule their exam. Instructors never require an exam to be completed at a specific time of day.

Your proctor is required to immediately fax or scan your completed examination to our exam coordinator. When it is received, the exam coordinator will check to make sure it is legible and complete. The exam coordinator will notify both the proctor and the student via e-mail that the electronic version of the exam has been received. If the exam coordinator has questions about legibility or completeness, (s)he will contact both the student and the proctor to resolve the issue.

If your chosen proctor is not available to administer an exam, you must identify an additional proctor using the proctor identification form. This must be done far enough in advance of the exam for the exam coordinator to review your choice and inform the proctor of the requirements of his or her new role. Students with more than one approved proctor on file must tell Engineering Online’s exam coordinator which proctor they will be using prior to the examination.

If your proctor status has not been updated, and you feel the Engineering Online office has had sufficient time to review your request, check to make sure that the e-mail address you used on the proctor identification form is correct. If the e-mail address is not correct, return to the proctor information form, correct the e-mail address, and resubmit the form. If the e-mail address is correct, contact Engineering Online’s exam coordinator. The exam coordinator will follow up with your identified proctor to make sure the request for additional information was received. You should also follow up with your proctor to make sure he/she looks for the request for additional information.

If your proctor did not receive the e-mail containing your exam, contact the exam coordinator immediately. You should also ask your proctor to check the spam filter on his/her e-mail account. The e-mail will come from the ncsu.edu e-mail domain. The exam attachment can cause some spam filters to misidentify the message as a junk e-mail.

A window for an exam is the date or range of dates during which a distance education student may take a proctored exam. The shortest window is one day (24 hours). Many instructors allow much longer windows.

You must provide an envelope and postage for your proctor to submit your exam if he or she requests that you do so. Your proctor is required to return your original exam to the Engineering Online office once he or she has received confirmation that the electronic submission was complete.

Most Engineering Online exams are paper-based. A few classes use computer-based exams. Students should confirm in advance how instructors plan to administer exams and make appropriate arrangements.

Engineering Online requires both an electronic copy and the original of the examination. The electronic copy provides immediate confirmation that the exam was completed during the assigned time and allows the professor faster access for review and grading. The original copy of the exam serves as a backup for the electronic version in case questions arise from the transmission of the electronic copy. To protect the confidentiality of both the examination content and students’ responses, neither students nor proctors are permitted to keep a copy of a completed examination. By collecting the original copies of completed exams, Engineering Online protects the integrity of the testing process.

The window establishes the date(s) within which you must take the exam. Instructors will typically establish a time-limit for completing the exam within that window. So, for example, while you may have a week during which you can schedule your exam, you may only have 75 minutes to actually complete it.

If you have a take-home exam to turn in, but you are not sure how to submit it, first try to contact the professor or teaching assistant for the class for guidance. If you are not able to get an answer prior to the date or time the exam is due, please submit an electronic copy of your completed exam to the Engineering Online office. You can either fax the exam, or send it as an e-mail attachment. Be sure that your name is on each page of the document. Include a brief explanation of the situation.

Engineering Online students can use the testing services that are a part of NCSU’s distance education programs. Learn more about the testing center. Students hoping to use this service should still complete a proctor identification form. When you are asked to identify the “type” of proctor, select DE PROCTORING SITE, then CENTENNIAL CAMPUS, and submit the form. The system will populate the remaining required fields.

In some instances, students can take an examination with the on-campus class or in a specially seated exam. This is done at the discretion of the instructor. Students hoping to do this should still have an approved proctor on file in the Engineering Online office. Students planning to take a seated examination should notify Engineering Online’s examination coordinator of their intent prior to the exam.

Visit the local testing webpage. There, you can find the testing center’s examination policies, instructions for scheduling an exam, driving directions, parking details, and hours of operation.

There is no charge for using NC State University’s distance education testing service.

As soon as you know that you will be taking a seated exam instead of a proctored one, please notify Engineering Online’s exam coordinator of your intent. This will keep the coordinator from unnecessarily making arrangements with your designated proctor and your professor.