Guidelines, Practices and Policies for Teaching of

Undergraduate Courses in the

Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering

by

D.C. Weckman, PhD, PEng

Associate Chair Undergraduate Studies, Mechanical Engineering
Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering

The following guidelines are intended to help you as you prepare and give your undergraduate engineering course(s)
and to provide you with some of the necessary administrative tools, as well as established practices, policies and
regulations related to teaching of undergraduate engineering courses in the Faculty of Engineering and the
Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering (MME) and to proctoring and conducting examinations at
the University of Waterloo. It is hoped that these guidelines will be a helpful teaching resource.

(Last Update: March 22nd, 2018)

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................1
Useful Contacts for the Mechanical Engineering Program..............................................................2
Useful Contacts for the Mechatronics Engineering Program...........................................................2
Before the Course Starts..................................................................................................................3
The University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE)...............................................3
The University of Waterloo Calendar..............................................................................................3
Lecture and Examination Schedules................................................................................................4
Course Outlines (Syllabus)...............................................................................................................5
Course Textbooks and Other Reading Materials..............................................................................6
Course WEB Pages...........................................................................................................................7
Class Rosters....................................................................................................................................8
Course Enrolment Overrides............................................................................................................8
Teaching Assistants..........................................................................................................................9
MME Policy on No Marks for Assignments in 2nd & 3rd Year Courses...........................................9
During the Term............................................................................................................................10
Cancelling and Rescheduling Classes............................................................................................10
Audio Visual Aids..........................................................................................................................10
Photocopying..................................................................................................................................11
Students with Disabilities...............................................................................................................11
Course Critiques.............................................................................................................................11
Academic Offences and Academic Discipline Report...................................................................12
Missed Quizzes and Midterm Exams.............................................................................................12
Returning Assignments and Exams to Students and Policy 46: Information Management...........13
Posting Marks and Policy 46: Information Management...............................................................13
Finals and Onwards.......................................................................................................................14
Examinations & Proctoring Rules and Regulations.......................................................................14
Special Evacuation Procedures during Final Exams......................................................................15
Extenuating Circumstances and Deferred Exams..........................................................................16
Submitting Final Grades at the End of the Term............................................................................17
Informal Enquiry of Final Exams and Grades................................................................................18
Students Appealing their Grades and Policy 70: Student Petitions and Grievances......................18
Final Exams must be Kept for One Year........................................................................................19
Engineering Examinations and Promotions Committee.................................................................19
Concluding Remarks.....................................................................................................................20
Appendix B - Instructor Checklist..................................................................................................26
Appendix C – Quicklinks...............................................................................................................27
 Introduction

The Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering administers two undergraduate

studies programs; the Mechanical Engineering program and the Mechatronics Engineering
program. In addition, we teach a number of service courses in the Electrical & Computing,
Management, and Systems Design Engineering programs. If you are teaching a course to
Mechanical Engineering students, then your main administrative contacts will be the Associate
Chair Undergraduate Studies, the Academic Advisor, and the Examinations & Promotions
(E&P) Officer for the Mechanical Engineering program. If you are teaching a course to the
Mechatronics Engineering students, then your primary contacts will be the Director of
Mechatronics, the Academic Advisor, and E&P Officer for the Mechatronics Engineering
program. However, there are some activities such as scheduling and room bookings that are done
by Undergraduate Studies Coordinator for both programs. If you are teaching a service course
for another program, then you will be working with people in similar positions in those
departments.

There will undoubtedly be questions that arise throughout the term, especially if you are faced
with a situation that you are not sure how to handle. The following contacts can help you with
many of administrative details associated with preparation and delivery of your course(s) as well
as provide useful advice for how you might best deal with many situations you will undoubtably
encounter. Please feel free to contact any one of us if you have any questions or concerns.

We wish you all the best for a successful teaching experience!

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 Useful Contacts for the Mechanical Engineering Program

Professor Mike Collins, E5-3017, ext.37200, me-ugchair@mme.uwaterloo.ca, is the Associate

Chair for Undergraduate Studies, Mechanical Engineering. He is responsible for the overall
administration of the Mechanical Engineering undergraduate program.

Tanya Yoworski, E5-3106, ext. 33625, tyoworski@uwaterloo.ca is the Undergraduate

Academic Advisor for the Mechanical Engineering program. She is the primary contact for
undergraduate students and instructors and a first source of information for many of the day-to-
day administrative details related to the operation of the undergraduate program and courses in
Mechanical Engineering.

Professor Serhiy Yarusevych, E5-3013, ext. 35422, syarus@uwaterloo.ca, is the Examinations

& Promotions (E&P) Officer for the Mechanical Engineering program. He is responsible for
ensuring that the Faculty of Engineering Examinations and Promotions Rules and Regulations as
described in the University of Waterloo Calendar are applied fairly and equitably to all
undergraduate students in the Mechanical Engineering program. He will ensure that the correct
academic standing decision (e.g., Pass, Conditional Promotion, Required to Repeat, etc.) is made
each term for each undergraduate student and process all petitions from students requesting a
change of the academic decision for the term based on extenuating circumstances.

Adrian Buchanan, E5 3042, ext.38151, adrian.buchanan@uwaterloo.ca is the Undergraduate

Studies Coordinator for the MME department. He is responsible for all course scheduling, room
bookings, and event planning

Useful Contacts for the Mechatronics Engineering Program

Professor William Melek, E5-3109, ext.31412, is the Director of the Mechatronics Engineering
Program. He is responsible for the overall administration of the Mechatronics Engineering
undergraduate program.

Liz Skibicki, E5-3108, ext. 35197, eskibicki@uwaterloo.ca is the Undergraduate Academic

Advisor for the Mechatronics Engineering program. She is the primary contact for undergraduate
students and instructors and a first source of information for many of the day-to-day
administrative details related to the operation of the undergraduate program and courses in
Mechatronics Engineering.

Professor Sean Peterson, ERC-3007, ext. 38722, peterson@uwaterloo.ca, is the Examinations

& Promotions Officer for the Mechatronics Engineering program. He is responsible for ensuring
that the Faculty of Engineering Examinations and Promotions Rules and Regulations as
described in the University of Waterloo Calendar are applied fairly and equitably to all
undergraduate students in the Mechatronics Engineering program. He will ensure that the correct
academic standing decision (e.g., Pass, Conditional Promotion, Required to Repeat, etc.) is made
each term for each undergraduate student and process all petitions from students requesting a
change of the academic decision for the term based on extenuating circumstances.

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 Before the Course Starts

The University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE)

While we all have been students in many courses and have very good ideas about what was a
good course and who was a good instructor, we likely did not study the art and pedagogy of
effective teaching. Many of us have never before had to create and stand up in front of a class of
students and teach a course. This can at first appear to be a daunting task. Certainly, the first
thing that you should do is seek the guidance and wisdom of your faculty mentor who
undoubtedly has many years of experience at course preparation and delivery. There are
additional resources available to you, including the University of Waterloo Centre for Teaching
Excellence (CTE). The CTE fosters teaching and learning at Waterloo and supports the
development of instruction by individuals at all career stages. Through the CTE Engineering
Faculty Liaison, they assist in development and management of online instructional tools such as
LEARN and will engage in one-on-one consultations with faculty members on the teaching
pedagogy. Of particular interest will be their web page, which provides links to several useful
documents for course instructors.

The University of Waterloo Calendar

The University of Waterloo Undergraduate Calendar contains a comprehensive description of all
Undergraduate Programs offered at this University. You may access the online calendar by
following the link to the calendar on the Registrar’s Office home page. In particular, you will
find the following sections useful:
1. A list of important dates such as first day of lectures, last day of lectures, University
holidays, start and finish dates for final exams, etc. in the first pages.
2. A description of the Mechanical Engineering program and the Mechatronics Engineering
program
3. The Faculty of Engineering Examinations and Promotions Rules and Regulations. These
are the rules that we use to govern the progression of students through our programs,
what kind of grades can be assigned to students for courses and the different types of
academic standing for each term, e.g., satisfactory, good or excellent (i.e., passed),
conditional promotion, required to repeat term, etc. It is strongly recommend that you
become familiar with these rules.
4. The official calendar course descriptions for all undergraduate Mechanical and
Mechatronics courses with prerequisites and other special notes. There will be a course
description for the undergraduate course you will be teaching in this section. You are
required by Senate to teach all topics listed in this short calendar description. However,
you must develop your own, more detailed, course outline for handout to the students the
first day of lectures.

You can access the calendar online at http://ugradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca/. You will also find it
useful to review the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering web pages,
especially the sections for ‘Current Students’ in Mechanical or Mechatronics Engineering by
following the links on the Department home page starting at http://www.mme.uwaterloo.ca/. The
“Current Student” web pages will contain the important dates and schedules for all classes during
the term.

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 Lecture and Examination Schedules
Each teaching term, the Undergraduate Studies Coordinator will furnish you with:
1. A lecture schedule with times and room locations for all lectures, tutorials and labs.
When planning your lectures, assignment and lab due dates, you should check for
Important Dates during the term such as 1st and last days of lectures, University holidays,
1st and last days of final exams, etc. The term and make-up lecture schedule and the
weekly class lecture schedule can also be downloaded from the Student Information web
page for the program.
2. If you are teaching a 2nd or 3rd year course, you should obtain the term schedule of
midterms and make-up lectures from the Undergraduate Studies Coordinator. Note that it
is the policy of the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering to hold all 2 nd
and 3rd year midterms during either week 6 or week 7 1. During midterm week, there are
no lectures. Instead, 3 make-up lectures are scheduled at various times throughout the
term. These three make-up lectures are required to make up for the lectures not given
during the midterm week. A term schedule of make-up lectures, holidays, midterms and
final exams, etc., may also be downloaded from the Student Information web page for the
program.

Lecture and examination schedules are set approximately 6 months in advance, and are primarily
based on class size, room availability, and a quality undergraduate schedule. Instructor requests
must be made 6 months in advance by completing an instructor constraint form: available from
the Undergraduate Studies Coordinator.

If you want to check to see how many students are enrolled in your course as well as the
scheduled lecture times and locations you can check on the web at:

http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocour/CIR/SA/under.html for Undergraduate courses

http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocour/CIR/SA/grad.html for Graduate courses

Given enough warning, the Undergraduate Studies Coordinator may be able to accommodate
one of several lecture formats: three 50 minute lectures per week (with a 10 minute break), two
75 minute lectures per week (with a 15 minute break), or one 100 minute lecture (with a 20
minute break) plus one 50 minute lecture (with 10 minute break). Three 50 minute lecture times
is considered the norm.

Please be courteous to the next instructor by cleaning off your writing from the boards and
allowing the next instructor into the classroom to set up for their lecture 5 minutes before their
lecture starts on the half hour.

Requests for a single 3 hour lecture slot (150 minutes with 30 minutes of break time) will not be
granted without sufficient justification:
 For sessionals coming from off campus to deliver courses
 For co-numbered graduate / undergraduate offerings
 For graduate offerings in general in which there is high MEng enrollment.
 For courses with special lab requirements
1
Motion passed at another Department of Mechanical Engineering meeting sometime back in the 20th century!

4
Three-hour lecture slots will most often be slotted in as evening lecture times.

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 Course Outlines (Syllabus)
All courses taught at the University of Waterloo are required to have a course outline. The
content is specified at: https://uwaterloo.ca/associate-vice-president-academic/information-
instructors. Also, check the links on the right of the CTE Resources for Faculty page
https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-excellence/support-faculty-and-staff for a good guide for
course outline requirements and a template.

A sample course outline is included in Appendix A. The course outline should include the
following basic elements. The general course information (title, description, prerequisites) can be
obtained from the undergraduate calendar at calendar course descriptions

 Course number and title

 Term and year of offering
 Class days, times, building and room number (available on the Undergraduate
Schedule of Classes website or on Quest)
 Class instructor’s name, office, telephone contact, email contact, office hours
 Teaching assistant’s name, office, telephone contact, email contact, office hours
(if one is assigned)
 Course description
 Course prerequisite(s)
 Course objectives
 Required text and/or readings
 A general overview of the topics to be covered including Chapters and Sections to be
covered in the textbook if appropriate
 The evaluation structure for the course including course requirements, deadlines ,
weight of requirements toward final course grade, and the policy for late assignments.
Statements related to threshold marking schemes should also be included if appropriate.
 Acceptable rules for group work re: collaboration
 A statement of referencing style if required for assignments and reports (may be
included instead in any handouts detailing assignment and report requirements)
 All course outlines must contain statements about Academic Integrity, Grievance,
Discipline, Appeals and a Note for Students with Disabilities. This is a Senate
requirement. The web page listed below describes the appropriate material for inclusion
in the course outline. You should include a pointer to this page in your on-line course
material and you must provide a copy of this material in the course outline you hand
out to the students.
It may be that you have a different standard regarding plagiarism. If that is the
case, please describe your standard to the students by first pointing to the default
description and then how your requirements differ. The URL is:
http://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/current-undergraduate-students/academic-
support/course-responsibilities
 If TURNITIN plagiarism checking software will be used in the course, a clear
statement to that effect must be included in the course outline.

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Course outlines are a contract between the course instructor and the students. Once presented to
the students, you cannot make changes to the outline without first obtaining agreement from the
class. Changes may include:
 exam dates/times
 marking scheme
 assignment deadlines
 other course requirements
Any change must be agreed to in writing by every student in the class before the change can
occur. No student can be penalized by any change in the marking scheme 2. If they obtain a better
mark using the original marking scheme, than you must assign that mark. It does not matter if the
student agreed to the change.

You must review the course outline with your class during your first lecture.

You will be required provide a copy of your course outline to the Academic Advisor before the
start of classes. You may also be required to provide a copy to the Accreditation Assistant
depending on where we are during the accreditation cycle.

Course Textbooks and Other Reading Materials

Each teaching term, the Academic Advisors will furnish you with an order email for your
recommended course text book and ordering of a desk copy of the course text and instructors
aids such as PowerPoint files of all figures and a solutions manual, etc. Textbook orders may
also be submitted online at www.bookstore.uwaterloo.ca/info_faculty.html well in advance of
the start of term or. If an online order is placed, the Academic Advisor will receive confirmation
of the order. A desk copy of the book may also be requested directly from the publisher. Most
have a request system in place on their websites. If the desk copy is delayed, you can pick one up
from the Bookstore and replace it with the desk copy when it arrives, or return the clean original.

An alternative to a textbook is to prepare a course notes package for students containing copies
of the reading materials from various sources. Note that this option requires some lead time to
obtain copyright permissions. There are restrictions on the amount of content that may be
included from one publication. Contact Courseware Solutions for more information at
http://www.bookstore.uwaterloo.ca/courseware/. Copyright information is available at
www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/copyright.

To can reserve reading material in the Davis Library. Students have greater access to the material
through the Library than through the course instructor, teaching assistant, or Department staff.
Check copyright information at www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/copyright. Please refer to the website
www.lib.uwaterloo.ca/borrowing/reserves and complete the appropriate online form. Note that
you may only put a maximum of one copied chapter from a book on reserve at a time – unless
the whole book is put on reserve. Also note that it is not appropriate to prepare these items
yourself and then sell them in class.

2
Geoffrey McBoyle, Associate VP Academic, March 8, 2011

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 Course WEB Pages
You may generate and maintain your own course web pages if you wish, but it is strongly
advised that you take advantage of the University of Waterloo’s learning management system
LEARN which is accessible starting from the “Waterloo LEARN” link on the University of
Waterloo home page. This is a password protected web-based learning management system
available only to students and instructors of the University of Waterloo. It enables instructors to
manage distribution of course materials and interact easily and efficiently over the web with only
those students registered in their course. Instructors can post documents online, such as a course
syllabus; administer surveys, quizzes, and tests; send and receive course mail; establish and
monitor message boards and chat rooms; receive and grade uploaded assignments using online
drop boxes; create teams for discussion or for special projects; add off-line assignments to an on-
line grade book; track student progress and post student marks. The instructor must always be
mindful of copyright infringement issues when posting material other than their own on the web
or other non-password protected venues. The LEARN system is linked with the Registrar’s
student database and obtains the class roster, email addresses, etc. directly from the Registrar’s
database. Only students in the class roster or individuals for which you have given permission
such as your TAs may access your course web pages. LEARN has the advantage that the
material posted there is password protected and individual students will only be able to view
their own marks posted in the grade book and no other student marks.
If you are planning to use LEARN for a course, you will need to request that your course be
registered in LEARN by sending a request to the LEARN Help desk via learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca
You may request that your teaching assistants be registered in the LEARN account. Once you
login to LEARN using your WatIAm ID and password, a list of courses that you are teaching
will appear. The data for this drop-down list is generated from information received from the
Registrar's Office. If you do not see a course that you are teaching in this list, you should contact
the LEARN help desk, supplying your name, the term the course is being taught and the name
and section(s) of the course. Select your course (for cross-listed courses, just choose one -- the
courses will be merged). If you have used LEARN before for your course and you are requesting
the same course for a new term, you can request that course content from one term be transferred
to new course. You will receive notification when your course is created and your class roster
will be populated prior to the course commencing.

If you wish to use the third party software utility TURNITIN to check all student work submitted
for plagiarism, then you must request the LEARN help desk to activate the TURNITIN link for
your LEARN course. Further information on this utility is available through the LEARN help
pages and through the Centre for Teaching Excellence web pages.

If you have any questions or need assistance putting your course content into LEARN, please
contact the Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) Faculty of Engineering Liaison listed in the
help section of LEARN.

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 Class Rosters
If you want to check to see how many students are enrolled in your course as well as the
scheduled lecture times and locations you can check on the web at:

http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocour/CIR/SA/under.html for Undergraduate courses

http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocour/CIR/SA/grad.html for Graduate courses

If you wish to look at and download your class roster into an Excel spreadsheet, you may do so
by using the Registrar’s Student Information System called QUEST. Follow the links to QUEST
from the UW home page or go to the QUEST home page at:

http://uwaterloo.ca/quest/faculty-and-staff/

Choose Faculty & Staff and then Quest Login on the left side of the page. Use your WatIam user
ID and Password to login. If you are a new user, you will need additional information as outlined
in the Login page.

Course Enrolment Overrides

During the two months or so prior to the start of classes, you may be approached by students to
be allowed to sign into your course. The most common reasons for this request are:

 To override Class Seating Capacity: If your class is at capacity, DO NOT sign override
forms. Doing so will result in schedule and room changes that will not be favorable to the
instructor or student. Please check with the Academic Advisor for the seating capacity of
the room where your course will be taught so it is not exceeded (due to fire regulations).
 To override Enrolment Caps set for reasons of lab capacity requirements: If your class
has a lab (or similar) component that is resource intensive, an enrolment cap may have
been set. DO NOT sign override forms unless you are prepared to make special
accommodations for these students.
 To override Time Conflicts: It is the instructor’s responsibility to understand the nature of
the conflict, and to determine if the student’s plan is acceptable. The professor signing the
override form is responsible for ALL accommodations required for the student to
overcome the conflict (i.e .providing notes, alternate exam and quiz dates, etc).
 To override Course Prerequisites or Consent: Student’s may try to take a course outside
their department. It is the instructor’s responsibility to assess if the student has the
necessary background to be successful in the course. If you are concerned about a
student’s ability to succeed, DO NOT sign the override form.

Students who approach a professor looking for a course override on the basis of Unit Load,
Service Indicators, Reserves, or because the Drop/Add deadline has passed should be directed to
the Academic Advisor.

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 Teaching Assistants
If you are teaching a core course, then the Associate Chair for Graduate Studies will select and
appoint 1 or more teaching assistants to help you with proctoring and marking of mid-term and
final exams, conducting tutorials and/or labs, projects, and any other duties required. When using
TAs to assist in marking of mid-term and final exams, you must provide solutions and a detailed
marking scheme and you must sit and mark with the TAs to ensure that they are properly
supervised during marking. Under no circumstances should TAs be allowed to create solutions,
marking schemes or exercise their own discretion when marking exams.

If you are teaching a fourth year technical elective course and the course enrolment is greater
than about 30 students, then you may wish to request from the Associate Chair of Graduate
Studies that a half or full TA be assigned to your course. Normally, teaching assistants are
required to work up to 10 hours per week for a total not to exceed 130 hours during the term plus
10 hours for marking the final exam for a total of 140 hrs. in the term. Also, if your course
examinations are held in two or more rooms, then the Academic Advisor will normally assign
extra TAs to help proctor to ensure that there are the required two proctors per room during an
examination.

MME Policy on No Marks for Assignments in 2nd & 3rd Year Courses
The MME Department has a policy that no marks shall be given for assignments in all 2 nd and 3rd
year courses3. Please note that while no marks are allowed for assignments, the pedagogical
value of assignments as study aids throughout the term in each course is well recognized. Thus,
instructors are encouraged to provide frequent and relevant assignments in their 2 nd and 3rd year
course through the term as study aids for their students; however, these assignments are not to be
marked and no marks for assignments should be included in the grading scheme of any 2 nd or 3rd
year course outline.

3
Motion passed at a Department of Mechanical Engineering meeting sometime back in the 20th century!

10
 During the Term

Cancelling and Rescheduling Classes

You are expected to give all scheduled lectures during a term (36 hours in total). Under no
circumstance should a course be ended early 4. Advance notice to cancel a class or classes should
be given when possible. If the absence is due to illness or other commitment, you may arrange
with a colleague or your faculty mentor to cover the class on your behalf. If the cancellation is
last-minute, please notify the Academic Advisor so that a notice can be posted on the classroom
door. Note that it is expected that you will give all scheduled lectures and that you will arrange
with the class and the Academic Advisor a suitable time later in the term to make up for any
missed lectures.

Audio Visual Aids

The Department’s dedicated classrooms, CPH 3679, DWE 2402, E5-3101 and E5-3102 have
data projectors, a computer, a CCD camera (Elmo) system for projecting hardcopy as well as a
wireless microphone audio system in a console at the front of the room. You may use your own
laptop to drive the data projector contact MME IT Technician by email if you need operating
instructions or experience technical difficulties with these systems. If you do experience any
problems, please report them immediately, so the issue can be promptly attended to! Please see
the Department Assistant if you need replacement batteries for the wireless microphone in for the
wireless data projector controllers.

The Department has a portable data projector and a laptop computer to drive the data projector.
Contact the Department Assistant, E5-3001, ext. 33328 to sign out the data projector. Contact
MME IT Technician, by emailing rt@rt.uwaterloo.ca to arrange for use of the laptop.

The University Instructional Technologies and Media Services (ITMS) Department maintains a
library of movies and video tapes on a wide range of topics. You may book a movie, movie
projector and projectionist for showing a movie during a lecture from them online

Many of the Registrar-controlled lecture rooms are electronic class rooms with a data projector
and computer, a VCR and wireless microphone and audio system in a console at the front of the
class. If you wish to use this system, you must sign-out a key for the console for a day or for the
term from ITMS in MC1007

If you wish to book or sign out audio visual equipment such as slide projectors, overhead
projectors, movie projectors, data projectors, portable screens, etc., for one lecture or for the
entire term, you may do so from ITMS in MC1088.

If there is a problem with any audio visual equipment maintained by ITMS, e.g., overhead
projectors, etc., then please report it to the Audio Visual technicians at avfix@uwaterloo.ca or by
phone at ext. 33033. In an emergency, each AV console has a red phone inside with a posted
phone number. An AV technician will be dispatched immediately to assist you.

4
Memo from Dr. Adel Sedra, Dean of Engineering, to all Faculty and Instructors, Dec. 15, 2005.

11
 Photocopying
Photocopying of small numbers of pages for your own course preparation, etc., may be done on
the Department photocopy machine in E5-3001. Please see Department Assistant, secretary in
E5-3001 to obtain a department key code for the departmental photocopier. Do not use your
research account key code for course copying. Please note that class sets of handouts should not
be made on these photocopy machines.

Photocopying of class sets of all hand-outs, mid-term and final exams, etc., should be done by
Media Services. Please give the master copy to Department Assistant in E5-3001 for copying at
Media Services. She will fill out the required requisition form and Department account number
for you, get the copies made and call you when the copies are ready for pick-up.

Students with Disabilities

The AccessAbility Services Office located in NH 1401 collaborates with instructors to arrange
appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic
integrity of the curriculum. Students with special needs are required to register with the
AccessAbility Services office, and then special arrangements will be made for assignments, mid-
terms and final exams as needed to accommodate the student’s disability. Frequently, the student
will be accommodated, for example, by writing the exam in the AccessAbility Services office
with extra time or other accommodations. You will be contacted by the student prior to exams
and will receive a separate letter from the Access Ability Services office verifying that the
student is a client with their office.

Course Critiques
The students will critique all Engineering undergraduate courses that have 5 or more registered
students. This is done during the last few weeks of the term. You will receive an email memo
from the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies concerning the course critiques Please
arrange for your class to participate in the online submission course critique process during one
of your lecture periods in order to complete the course critique. All course critique results are
available for viewing from the password protected course critique web page published by the
Dean of Engineering office
https://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/student-course-evaluations.

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 Academic Offences and Academic Discipline Report

All occurrences of academic offences such as cheating during an exam, copying or plagiarism in
assignments or reports, etc., must be reported to the Associate Dean Undergraduate Studies,
using the Academic Discipline Report form, even if the offence was settled informally. It is very
important to report each instance to Associate Dean Undergraduate Studies in order to screen for
habitual offenders across courses in a term and throughout the student’s academic career.

The instructor must review and keep all evidence of an academic offence. An example of an
informal resolution might be when both students involved with copying of an assignment or lab
report might be reprimanded by the instructor and a mark of 0 given for that assignment only.
This Academic Discipline Report is to be completed by the instructor in order to document an
academic offence, to request a formal investigation or to summarize an offence with an informal
resolution. The completed form must be sent to the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies,
along with supporting documentation. Additional copies of this form are available by clicking on
the “Faculty” button on the left side of the Engineering Undergraduate Studies Office web page
at http://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/faculty-and-staff/undergraduate-information-and-forms .

All 2nd, 3rd and 4th year Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering students are reminded in their
course outlines and on their respective Student Information web page available through the
Mechanical Mechatronics Engineering home page that they should to be careful to avoid
accusations of plagiarism, copying or cheating. They are also directed to review University of
Waterloo Policy #71 – Student Discipline, available on the web at:

http://uwaterloo.ca/secretariat/policies-procedures-guidelines/policy-71 that defines academic

offences to include plagiarism, copying and cheating. The procedures to be followed in the event
of one of these offences are also described in this policy.

Missed Quizzes and Midterm Exams

From time-to-time, a student may fail to show up for a quiz or midterm exam due to extenuating
circumstances. The student must inform the instructor and the Academic Advisor within 48
hours. In addition, they must provide an original copy of documented evidence to the Academic
Advisor such as a doctor’s note on the Health Services Verification of Illness form, etc.

If a student fails to write a midterm exam due to extenuating circumstances, then it is

recommended that the marks associated with the midterm exam will be included in the final
exam. However, the instructor may exercise some discretion if wished and allow the student to
write a deferred midterm exam as soon as the student is able to return to normal academic duties.

Do not accommodate a student illness until the Undergraduate office has verified and approved
the submission of the relevant documentation.

13
 Returning Assignments and Exams to Students and Policy 46: Information Management
The University of Waterloo Policy 46 on Information Management states that it should not be
possible for a student’s ID or grades to be visible and associated to the student’s name. Thus, if a
student’s name and grade or ID are visible on the front page of any assignment, report or exam,
etc., then the document must be handed back individually to each student so that it is not possible
for other students to see the front page. This can be quite cumbersome and time consuming,
especially in large classes. Due to confidentiality, assignments, reports or exams are not to be left
unattended for students to pick up. For large classes, it would be best if the student name, ID
number and grade are not visible on the front page by other students. You may instruct the
students to put only their names on the front page and their names, ID numbers and grades on the
inside page. Normally, assignments, reports and exams should be returned to the individual
student in class or via the TA or instructor during office hours within about two weeks after the
submission deadline.
Posting Marks and Policy 46: Information Management
Individual course components with grades may be posted using any combination of the
following: on your office door, on your course web page or on LEARN in the gradebook. Note
that an advantage of posting grades in the gradebook in LEARN is that LEARN is password
protected and the student can only view his or her own grades.

When posting marks in a public area, you should not include the students’ names, only the ID
numbers and the grades with the course component identified and its weight towards the final
course grade. This is to ensure that the student name and ID are not both visible to other students.
It also ensures that the posted grades cannot be associated to an individual student by other
students. It is usually a good idea to sort the posted marks by ID number so it is easier for
students to find their grade. If you have a mature student in your class with a very distinct ID
number, you may wish to leave off the first 2 digits of the ID numbers to make it less
recognizable to others in the class. Note, however, that final course grades and final exam grades
may not be posted until after the last day of the University’s defined final exam period.

14
 Finals and Onwards

Examinations & Proctoring Rules and Regulations

The UW Examinations Regulations and Related Matters is also available from the Registrar’s
web page at https://uwaterloo.ca/registrar/ under the “Final Examinations” button. This
document provides useful rules and guidelines for conducting and proctoring midterm and final
exams. Please read this document very carefully, taking special notes of when final exams may
and may not be held during the term. Also attached is a memo from the Registrar's Office
offering further advice on what to do and not to do if evidence of cheating is discovered during
an exam. You may wish to review these and make sure that your TAs are aware of these
recommended procedures as your midterm and final exams approach.

Course instructors are required to proctor all midterm and final examinations with the assistance
of TAs. If an emergency or an unexpected conflict arises that prevents you from proctoring, then
you or the Chair must arrange for another faculty member who is familiar with the course
material and can answer student questions during an exam and can deal with any incidences of
cheating during the exam to proctor the exam in your place. Under no circumstances should TAs
be expected to proctor exams themselves.

All 2nd, 3rd and 4th Year final exams are scheduled by the Registrar’s Office and administered by
the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering and the instructor. All final exams in
1st year Engineering courses are scheduled and administered by the Registrar’s Office. The
scheduling and administration of these exams are described in the UW Examinations Regulations
starting on page 1. Most notably, the 1st year Engineering exams administered by the Registrar
must be given to the Registrar’s Office more than 10 days before the final exam for printing and
must include a special first page with very specific information and format as described in the
Regulations on page 2. This Examination cover page may be down-loaded from the Registrar’s
web site https://uwaterloo.ca/registrar/ under the “Final Examinations” button.

There are a number of rules and restrictions listed in the Examinations Regulations and Related
Matters document that restrict when final exams may or may not be held. Please note specifically
that you may not give lectures or require any term assignments or reports to be handed in
between the last day of lectures and the first day of final exams. Also, any in-class tests held
during the last 5 teaching days of the term may not be weighted more than 25% of the final
course grade.

15
 Special Evacuation Procedures during Final Exams
There are special final exam Evacuation Procedures for all exams held in any University of
Waterloo building. These procedures must be followed in the event that a fire alarm occurs
during a final exam in these buildings. Please ensure that you and all of your final examination
proctors have been made aware of the evacuation procedures that are in place for buildings you
have been assigned for your final examinations.

If the students must leave the examination as the result of a fire alarm, it is the instructor's
decision as to whether or not they are permitted to return once the Fire Department has approved
re-entry into the building (see http://www.registrar.uwaterloo.ca/exams/evacuation.html ). Upon
return to the examination room, it is also the instructor’s decision whether or not the examination
can be continued. This decision could be based on the following considerations:
a) If the examination is not compromised by inter-student communication, then return to
examination room and resumption of the examination may be appropriate. For example,
exam questions based on longer essay answers may not be compromised by limited
communication, but exam questions based on remembering (or selecting) a design
technique or solving a specified problem could be compromised by very limited
interaction between the students while outside the examination room.
b) It may be more appropriate to stop the exam with 30 minutes remaining and then adjust
the results to handle the missing time, than to let the students continue with some
communications between students.

If the instructor’s decision is to terminate the exam and the exam has been sufficiently
compromised that it must be re-staged, then it should be rescheduled as soon as possible.
Remember that the day immediately following the last day of final exams (even Sunday) is
always set aside for exams that were cancelled due to University closure (e.g., a severe snow) or
exams that were compromised due to fire alarms. You may wish to develop and keep on hand a
spare final exam for such situations, because there will be little time available to set a new exam
and to have it copied in time for the rescheduled exam. Please keep in mind:
1. Students will talk when they leave the examination room due to a fire alarm and
2. Most, if not all, students are more upset by false fire alarms during an examination
than the instructor.

16
 Extenuating Circumstances and Deferred Exams
From time-to-time, a student may experience a significant life event such as hospitalization due
to sickness or injury, death in the family, or other medical emergency that makes it impossible
for the student to write a mid-term or final exam. If a student fails to show up for a midterm or
final exam due to such extenuating circumstances, then the student must inform you, the
instructor, as well as the Academic Advisor as soon as possible within 48 hours. In addition, they
must provide an original copy of documented evidence to the Academic Advisor such as a
doctor’s note on the Health Services Verification of Illness form, etc.

Do not accommodate a student illness until the Undergraduate office has verified and approved
the submission of the relevant documentation.

If the student fails to show up for a final exam without a reason, then you may be required to
give a course grade of DNW (did not write). This has very serious consequences for Engineering
students, since they may not have any DNW grades on their transcript at graduation. In addition,
one or more DNW grades may be sufficient grounds to invoke an academic decision of
“Required to Withdraw from Engineering”.

If a student misses a final exam with a valid excuse and documentation, then it is the policy of
the Department that the student should be required to write a deferred exam as soon as possible
after the student is able to return to normal academic duties following an absence due to illness
or other extenuating circumstance5. Therefore, you may be asked by the Associate Chair
Undergraduate Studies or the Director of Mechatronics to arrange a deferred exam for the
student as soon as the student is able to return to normal academic duties. Because this should
not be the same exam as the class wrote, you are strongly encouraged to begin to develop and
maintain at least one mid-term and final exam and solutions that can be used for deferred or
supplemental exams in the course. If a deferred exam has been allowed and this cannot be
written and marked before final electronic grades submission date, then you should give the
student a grade of INC (incomplete) in the course. Note that you can resubmit revised course
grade through QUEST as many times as you wish up until the final electronic grades submission
date. You can change the mark from INC to the numerical grade using a logging into the INC
change grade database. If changing DNW grad or final numerical grade you must complete a
Grade Revision form. This form can be obtained by contacting an Academic Advisor.

5
Approved by the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering during their Nov. 10, 2009 meeting.

17
 Submitting Final Grades at the End of the Term
At the end of the term, you will be required to submit your grades electronically to the
Registrar’s Office through a secure web-enabled submission process embedded in QUEST. This
process is also compatible with the grade book facility used in LEARN. Note that, up until the
last date for electronic submissions of grades for that term, you may resubmit revised course
grades as many times as you wish. Independent of this, please give the Academic Advisor the
calculated course average and number of failures for your course.

For Engineering courses, you must assign numerical grades between 0 and 100%. These grades
must be integer values. You may also assign a number of non-numeric grades such as AEG,
DNW, INC, etc. The meanings of these acronyms are described in the instruction sheet from the
Registrar’s Office that comes with the grade sheet(s). They are also described in the Engineering
Examinations and Promotions Rules and Regulations section of the University Calendar. Note
that the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering has no policy or guidelines on
class averages, thus, adjusting grades to influence the class average or number of failures in a
course is not expected nor encouraged6. It is the responsibility of course instructors to ensure that
the grade received is a true reflection of each individual student’s competence in the course
material.

In some cases, students who have previously failed a course may be allowed to clear that failed
course by writing a supplemental exam. This is to be the final exam in the failed course the next
time that course is offered up to one year. If this happens, you will receive a list of the students
who will be writing your final exam. After their exam has been marked, you should record the
grade received in the supplemental exam form and return it to the Academic Advisor who will
then forward the sheet to the Registrar’s Office.

In Engineering, a grade of 50% or more is required to pass a course. All courses with less than
50% must be cleared prior to graduation. A course may be cleared by writing a supplemental
exam in the course or by retaking or replacing the course. It is the Department of Mechanical &
Mechatronics Engineering’s policy to allow students to clear a failed course by writing the final
exam of the same course the very next time the same course is offered if the course grade was
40-49%7. The student must retake the course sometime prior to graduation if the course grade
was 39% or less.

Student marks become visible to the students on QUEST, the on-line, web-based student
information system, within about 2 working days after the marks are entered by the Registrar’s
Office. Therefore, you will begin to receive requests from some students for informal review of
their final exam and term marks soon after you submit your marks. You should be aware that
even though QUEST displays course grades as integer values, it will display the term average to
5 significant digits. In Engineering, a student must have a term average greater than 60% to pass
the term. Hence, a student with a term average of 59.500% will pass, because this number is
rounded up to 60% for the purpose of determining the Academic Standing or Decision for the
term. You may have to make sure that the student knows this if they come to you to have an
informal review of their final exam.

6
Motion passed at Department of Mechanical meeting, June xx, 2002.
7
Motion passed at the Department of Mechanical Engineering meeting, a very long time ago.

18
 Informal Enquiry of Final Exams and Grades
The procedures for informal review of final exams are described in the UW Examinations
Regulations and Related Matters document. If any errors in addition or marking of the final exam
or in calculation or data entry of the final mark are detected as a result of this informal enquiry,
the mark may be changed by completing and signing a Grade Revision form which is available
through the Academic Advisor. Please note that the informal review should not normally involve
remarking of the entire final exam, rather, it should involve an informal review of the final exam
and check that all marks had been correctly recorded and added up. It is the policy of the
Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering that remarking of the entire final exam
should not normally be done unless the student files a formal Appeal of the Course mark as
described in the Examinations & Promotions section of the University of Waterloo Calendar8.

If during the informal review, it becomes apparent that the ability of the student to focus on
academic studies was severely compromised by external extenuating circumstances during the
term such as hospitalization, death in the family, etc., then please direct the student to see either
the Academic Advisor, the Associate Chair of Undergraduate Studies (for ME Students), or the
Director of Mechatronics (for MTE students) as soon as possible.

Under no circumstances should you, the instructor, adjust a student’s mark in your course based
on extenuating circumstances or compassionate pleas by the student. Students have been known,
for example, to approach all 5 or 6 individual instructors in their term and plea for sufficient
extra marks from individual courses to affect a change in the academic decision for the term.
This is called marks fishing and must be avoided. The primary role of a course instructor is to
assess that competence of the student in the course material. If for any reason a final mark is
readjusted for the student then all student exams must be remarked for the same consideration.
Alternatively, it is the responsibility of the Examinations & Promotions committee to consider all
documented extenuating circumstances and assess whether or not the correct academic decision
for the term has been rendered.

Students Appealing their Grades and Policy 70: Student Petitions and Grievances
If the student’s concerns can be resolved through a meeting between the instructor and student
through informal enquiry, then that is the end of the matter. If, however, the student is still
unhappy after meeting with the instructor, he/she can grieve the issue under Policy 70. Such
appeals are normally submitted to the Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies.

8
Motion passed at a Department of Mechanical Engineering meeting an even longer time ago back in the 20th
century!

19
 Final Exams must be Kept for One Year
If you are a faculty member : As noted in the UW Examinations Regulations, you must keep all
final exams for one year. This is required in the event that a student asks for an informal review
of the final exam, petitions an academic decision or appeals a grade after the final grades have
been submitted. After the one-year holding period, all final exams should be shredded.

If you are teaching the course as an Adjunct Lecturer (sessional) appointment, i.e., you are a
PhD student or Post-Doctoral fellow, then at the end of the term, when you submit your final
marks to the Adacemic Advisor, please provide her with the following as well:
 
1) The final grades sheet with the calculated course average and no. of failures entered at the
bottom of the grade sheet.
2) All marked final exams.
3) A copy of the final exam.
4) A copy of the solutions for the final exam with the marking scheme.
5) A copy of the spreadsheet used to record and calculate the final course marks. This
should include what assignments, labs, projects, midterm exams, final exams were
marked out of as well as the weightings of these marks used to calculate the final course
grade.

The UG Office will keep this information and the exams for one year. This is required in the
event that a student asks for an informal review of the final exam, petitions an academic decision
or appeals a grade after the final grades have been submitted. In the event that one of these
happens, the Academic Advisor will retrieve the student's final exam and we will ask you to
review the final exam with the student. If you have gone on to greener pastures, then we will ask
your identified mentor or a Professor who has taught the course before to do this task.

Engineering Examinations and Promotions Committee

The Examinations and Promotions Rules and Regulations used in the Faculty of Engineering to
determine the academic standing of undergraduate students each term are provided in the
University of Waterloo Calendar.

If you taught an undergraduate course during the term, then you are automatically a member of
the Department of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering (for ME courses) or the
Mechatronics Engineering (for MTE courses) Examinations and Promotions (E&P) Committee
for that term. The chair of this committee is the Examinations and Promotions Officer for the
program. This committee will meet after all marks have been entered and processed by the
Registrar’s Office. Only those students who did not pass individual courses or the entire term
will be discussed at this meeting. It is important that you attend this meeting so that your
comments concerning the performance of individual students in your class who did not pass the
term may be considered. Please bring your course marks sheets and any other information related
to the students in your course to the E&P meeting so that you may check that there have been no
data entry errors and provide information related to a student’s performance in midterms and
assignments, etc., during the term. Decisions concerning the academic standing of students who
did not pass the term will be made at this meeting.

20
 Concluding Remarks
While you will undoubtedly find that the largest and most time-consuming task in giving a
course for the first time is preparing and giving your lectures, there are a surprising number of
smaller administrative tasks that you must also perform if your course is to be well organized and
successful. To help you, an instructor checklist of tasks has been prepared for you in
Appendix B. In Addition, Appendix C contains a list of useful links for materials related to
teaching of undergraduate studies courses.

If you have any further questions as you prepare and give your course, please contact anyone
appearing in the lists of useful contacts on pages 3 & 4. We trust that you will find your teaching
experience here at the University of Waterloo both challenging and richly rewarding.

21
 Appendix A - Sample Course Outline

1ME 215 - STRUCTURE and PROPERTIES of MATERIALS

Department of Mechanical and Mechatronics Engineering

Term, Year COURSE OUTLINE Instructor: Name

Course Description:
The relevance of materials to engineering practice. The microstructure of materials, crystallinity
and crystal imperfections, glasses and amorphous solids. Elastic and plastic deformation in
metals, viscoelasticity of plastics. Strengthening mechanisms in metals, polymers and ceramics.
Fracture of brittle and ductile solids. Electrical and magnetic properties of materials.

Required Textbook: Donald R. Askeland, Pradeep P. Fulay and Wendelin J. Wright, The
Science and Engineering of Materials, 6th Edition, Cengage Learning, Stamford,
CT, 2011.

Specific Topics:

Chapter 1: Introduction to Materials Science and Engineering (Reading Assignment)

Chapter 2: Atomic Structure (Quick Review)

- structure of the atom, atomic bonding and inter-atomic spacing

Chapter 3: Atomic and Ionic Arrangements

- Unit Cells, Crystallographic Points, Directions and Planes in Metals
- Ionic and Covalent Structures, X-ray diffraction

Chapter 4: Imperfections in the Atomic and Ionic Arrangements

- Point defects, Line defects (dislocations) and Surface defects
- Grain Size Strengthening and Solid-Solution Strengthening

Chapter 6: Mechanical Properties: Part One (Sections 6-1 to 6-7)

- The Tensile Test, Elastic Deformation and Plastic Deformation
- The Hardness Test

Chapter 8: Strain Hardening and Annealing

- Cold Working and Strain-Hardening Mechanisms
- Annealing (Recovery, Recrystallization and Grain Growth)
- Hot Working

Chapter 7: Mechanical Properties: Part Two

- Fracture Mechanics, Ductile and Brittle Fracture, Fatigue and Creep
- The Impact Test (Section 6-8 to 6-9), Fatigue Test and Creep Test

22
Chapter 15: Ceramic Materials
- Atomic Structures and Properties
- Processing and Applications of Ceramic Glass, Clay and Refractory Products

Chapter 16: Polymers

- Classifications, Structures, Mechanical and Thermomechanical Characteristics
- Processing and Applications of Thermoplastics, Thermosetting Polymers, etc.

Chapter 17: Composites: Teamwork and Synergy in Materials

- Particle and Fibre-reinforced Composites, and Structural Composites

Chapter 19: Electronic Materials

- Electrical Conduction and Semiconductivity

Chapter 22: Thermal Properties of Materials

- Specific Heat, Thermal Expansion and Thermal Conductivity
_____________________________________________________________________________
RESERVED BOOK LIST

The following books may be requested from the Reserved Reading Desk in the Engineering,
Mathematics and Sciences (EMS) Library in the Davis Centre. Ask for them by their call
number. These books are for reading room use only and have been set aside to augment your
course text and to help you during preparation of your laboratory reports.

Call No. Author Title

1) TA 403.A74 D.R. Askeland & P.P. Phulé, The Science and Engineering of Materials, 5th ed.
2) TA 403.C23 W.D. Callister, Material Science and Engineering: An Introduction

SPECIAL NOTES

1. Instructor: Name, in E5-xxxx at ext. xxxxx, name@uwaterloo.ca

2. Teaching Assistants:
Name, E3-xxxx, ext. xxxxx, name @uwaterloo.ca (for Labs)
Name...
Name...

3. Regular Meeting Times:

Lectures: Days, Times, Room
Labs: Days, Times, Room
Tutorials: Days, Times, Room

4. Approximate Marking Scheme: Project 5%

4 Labs 20 %
Mid-term 30 %
Final 45 %

23
 Note: Students who fail both their individual midterm and final exams will not be
allowed to pass the course on the basis of group Project and Lab report marks. Therefore,
their Project and Lab marks will be discounted and their final course mark will be based
on 40% midterm and 60% final exam.

5. Study Assignments: will be given out from time to time throughout the term. The
assignments will not be marked; however, solutions will be made available from
LEARN ME 215 web pages approximately one week later. These assignments are
valuable study aids. It is strongly recommended that you work through these assignments
and take them to your tutorials if you have any questions.

6. The mid-term: is scheduled to be Date, Time, Location

7. Lab and Project Groups: You must sign up into lab groups of no larger than 3 people
on the sign-up sheet posted in the hall outside the Materials Lab (E3-2119) prior to
2:30pm Date. Remember your group number. Each group of 3 people will be
responsible for writing and submitting a single project report and the lab reports. Groups
of 1 or more than 3 are not permitted.

8. LEARN Course web pages. All course outlines, hand-outs, project & lab manual,
solutions, etc., will be available from the Lessons tab in the LEARN course web pages.
Please check LEARN regularly for important announcements and dates.

Introduction to the Engineering Student Machine Shop, Basic Machining

Techniques, start of the ME 215 Project, Lab Safety Lecture and tour of the
Materials Lab: This will take place on Date, starting at 1:30 pm Please note that
attendance at this introductory session is mandatory! You will not be allowed to do
the project or the labs unless you attend the safety lecture and sign a form
indicating that you have done so.

9. ME 215 Project: Each group will perform the ME 215 Project during the first two weeks
of term and submit a project report. See the group schedules below for when the project
starts and when the project reports are due for each group.

10. Laboratories:
a) Following the project, there will be four (4) labs. during the term.
b) Lab. reports are due one week after the lab. in the hand-in box outside the
Materials Lab.(Place). There will be a late penalty of 10 %/day or part thereof.
c) Lab. reports will be marked and the marks posted on LEARN. Note that up to
20% of the lab. mark may be deducted for poor lab report format, poor
graph or table format, or poor English (spelling, grammar, etc.). Any reports
judged to be entirely unacceptable will be returned without marking for rewriting.
d) The labs begin Date. You should download and print a copy of the ME 215
Project and Lab. Manual in the Lessons Tab of the LEARN ME 215 web
pages. Be sure to read the lab. manual before you go to perform the project
and labs.

24
 e) All project reports and lab reports must be your own original work. Any material
taken directly from other refereed sources such as text books, handbooks or
journal articles must be properly referenced. Please note that most web pages are
not refereed and, therefore, are not normally considered to be reliable sources of
information for engineering purposes. Submission of reports that contained
unreferenced copied or plagiarized material from other student reports or other
external sources is considered and academic offence. Please read the following
page carefully.

______________________________________________________________________________

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING COURSES RESPONSIBILITIES

Courses offered in the Faculty of Engineering place responsibilities on the Faculty of

Engineering, the instructor and teaching team and all students. Many of these responsibilities are
described at the first lecture or are captured in the policies of the university and the Faculty of
Engineering Course Responsibilities web pages.

There are two responsibilities that have been specified by the Senate of the University of
Waterloo as requiring special mention. One relating to the responsibility of students with respect
to plagiarism and academic discipline and one relating to the teaching team with respect to
students with disabilities. These two responsibilities have been expressed in specific wording by
the Senate and are listed below. All courses offered by the Faculty of Engineering subscribe to
these specifications except as may be noted on the course syllabus's or during the first lecture.

Avoidance of Academic Offences: Students are expected to know what constitutes academic
integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for their actions.
Students who are unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who need help in learning
how to avoid offences (eg., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration
should seek guidance from the course professor, TA, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate
Associate Dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students
should refer to Policy #71, Student Academic Discipline . Students who believe that they have
been wrongfully or unjustly penalized have the right to grieve; refer to Policy #70, Student
Grievance . University Policy #71 defines academic offences to include plagiarism, copying and
cheating as follows:

Plagiarism is defined as taking "intellectual property," such as words, drawings, photos, or

artwork, etc., written or created by others, and passing it off as your own. When you submit a
report or assignment with your name on it, it is assumed that you are the author of everything in
the assignment except for those materials which are specifically identified as coming from other
sources. Therefore, if you include sentences, photos, drawings or figures from other sources in a
work report or lab report, the complete reference must be cited. This applies in particular to any
material cut and pasted from the internet or any other electronic source.

25
Cheating includes "copying from another student's work or allowing another student to copy
from one's own work, submitting another person's work as one's own, fabrication of data,
consultation with any unauthorized person during an examination or test, and use of
unauthorized aids."

Collaboration is encouraged among students. Discussion, debate and the collegial exchange of
information is encouraged and is always helpful in the education process. Just make sure you
avoid plagiarism and cheating.

Students Requiring Special Help or Accommodations: The Access Ability Services

office, (Needles Hall, Room 1132), collaborates with all academic departments to arrange
appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic
integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your
disability, please register with Access Ability Services at the beginning of each academic term.

26
 Appendix B - Instructor Checklist
Adjunct Lecturers:
 Sign and return your appointment contract to the Dean’s Office
 Complete Payroll forms (if needed) – check with Administrative Assistant
New Faculty and Adjunct Lecturers:
 Get Watcard (if needed) to access library resources
 Meet with assigned faculty mentor to obtain course notes and teaching materials
 Order textbook(s) through the bookstore, a desk copy if desired as well as instructor
resources (solutions manual, etc.) or course readings packet (see Academic Advisors)
 Set up LEARN class shell/website if desired
 Confirm class schedule online or with Academic Advisor
 Prepare course outline and review with faculty mentor, noting important dates,
holidays and any religious observances for the term.
 Submit an electronic copy of the course outline to the Academic Advisor
 Organize and schedule any labs with lab technicians and teaching assistants
 Meet with assigned Teaching Assistant(s) (if applicable) to discuss their duties
 Pick up keys for classroom/audio-visual resources/office space as appropriate
 Discuss course overrides for pre-requisites or waiting list management with Faculty
mentor and Academic Advisor
 Obtain class roster from QUEST (note that the number of students may change
periodically until the course drop and add periods end.)
 Meet with the faculty mentor to review detailed lecture plans for critical milestone
course events: 1st lecture, midterm preparation lecture, midterm feedback lecture, and
final exam preparation lecture.
 Note any students requiring exam accommodations with the Access Ability Services
 Arrange for course critiques and teaching assistant evaluations to be performed by a
student class representative towards the end of term.
 Submit final grades electronically on Quest (see Academic Advisor for assistance)
 Provide the final course average and number of failures to the Academic Advisor
 Submit a copy of the final grades breakdown to the Academic Advisor
 Attend the Department Examinations & Promotions Committee meeting for your
program early in the following term

Adjunct Lecturers:
Submit to the Academic Advisor: 1) a course outline, 2) hard and soft copy of your final course
grades, and weighting for each course activity, i.e., the marking scheme, 3) a hard copy of the
final exam, solutions and marking scheme, and 4) all final exams/papers/course materials. These
materials will be stored for the required one-year period before shredding in the event that a
student wishes to pursue informal enquiry or appeal the course grade.

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 Appendix C – Quicklinks

Centre for Teaching Excellence (CTE) home page: https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-teaching-

excellence/

Faculty of Engineering Undergraduate Studies Office web page for Faculty &
Coordinators: (Academic Discipline Reports, grade revision forms, etc.):
http://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/faculty-and-staff .

Faculty of Engineering Course Responsibilities web page.

http://uwaterloo.ca/engineering/current-undergraduate-students/academic-support/course-
responsibilities

Instructional Technologies and Media Services (ITMS): (audio visual aids)

http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infoav/

Mechanical Engineering Current Student web page (Important dates, class, make-up/term,
midterm and final exam schedules for each class, etc.):
http://www.mme.uwaterloo.ca/undergrad/mechanical/current.html

Mechatronics Engineering Current Student web page (Important dates, class, make-up/term,
midterm and final exam schedules for each class, etc.): http://uwaterloo.ca/mechanical-
mechatronics-engineering/current-students-mechatronics-engineering

Registrar’s Office home Page (Important dates, Examinations Regulations & Related Matters,
etc.): https://uwaterloo.ca/registrar/

Quest (Registrar’s Student Information System, Class Rosters, Electronic grade submission,
etc.): http://www.quest.uwaterloo.ca/facultystaff/index.html

Schedule of Undergraduate Courses:

http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infocour/CIR/SA/under.html

University of Waterloo Calendar: (important dates, Examinations & Promotions Rules, ME &
MME program descriptions, course descriptions, etc.): http://ugradcalendar.uwaterloo.ca/

University of Waterloo Policies Related to Undergraduate Students:

http://www.secretariat.uwaterloo.ca/Policies/Policies_index.htm
19 Access to and Release of Student Information
33 Ethical Behaviour
70 Student Grievance Policy
71 Student Academic Discipline Policy (including plagiarism and other offences)

LEARN login page: https://cas.uwaterloo.ca/cas/login?service=http%3a%2f

%2flearn.uwaterloo.ca%2fd2l%2forgtools%2fCAS%2fDefault.aspx

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