One of the key objectives of the BCE MDP is personal development, and thus the way the students conduct themselves during the programme is monitored and forms part of the assessment process in evaluating the overall performance of each student.

The Student Agreement binds the Student, their Employer, the Student’s Workplace Mentor and CESA NPC. It sets out the rights, responsibilities, expected behaviour, and programme outcomes for the duration of the programme, or until the student completes the full programme, whichever occurs later.

By signing the Student Agreement, the student agrees to the following:

• Participate fully in all classes, activities, and assignments.

• Tolerate and respect individual differences.

• Behave in a friendly, cooperative, polite, and responsible manner towards everyone.

General Rules for Student Conduct in Online Classes

• Students shall not participate in any anti-social behaviour or abuse against other participants on the programme.

• Must not share any presentations, reference material, class recordings, or links to the session(s) with anyone outside the programme.

• Be mindful of your surroundings whilst online, especially when using your camera.

• Use headphones with a microphone, if you are in an open plan office or in a noisy environment.

• Ensure that your backdrop is appropriate for a classroom setting.

• Do not attend online sessions while driving a car or engaging in any activity where failing to give your full attention could
  compromise your safety.

• If you become aware of anything upsetting or inappropriate, immediately interrupt the lecture and speak out, or contact a Convenor or the CESA staff member on duty.

• Students are required to adhere to the instructions of the Convenor, Facilitator, and CESA staff, in line with the program’s exit outcomes.

• Students may not attend any online classes under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

• Cell phones are not permitted to be used during online classes unless they are used to view the lectures.

• Respect another student’s privacy.

• Students are to behave and conduct themselves in a manner which reflects respect and dignity toward their profession and fellow students.

Attendance

• Students must attend the compulsory weekly online classes on Tuesdays (12:45–17:30) and actively participate in class activities.

• Students must login into the online classes on time, as well as attend the full duration of the online class.

• Students are expected to devote their full attention during the online classes, and not to be simultaneously involved with other activities such as driving, construction site activities, undertaking work responsibilities or domestic matters, etc.

• If a student is unable to participate in any online class, they must properly request permission to be absent from class via the CESAnet and upload a letter or email from their employer outlining the reasons for their absence.

• A register will be maintained to record students’ attendance throughout the online classes.

Absenteeism

• Students absent from an online class will not release them from the obligation for timeously completing and submitting all related assignments and activity worksheets.

• If a leave of absence is approved by the Module Convenor, the student must obtain the class recording from the programme coordinator and view it in their own time.

Activities

• Activities are undertaken during the online classes, using virtual breakaway rooms, where the students will work in groups and must complete given tasks during a given time.

• At the end of each activity, a different student each week, will present their group’s findings to the class.

• Each group must designate one student to write a summary of their discussions and outcomes, distribute it to their group members, and include it in their Assignment and Activity Worksheet.

• Activity worksheets can be completed during the online group activity or when the students are completing assignments.

Assignments

• Students are required to submit completed assignments throughout the year, at a rate of approximately two per week.

• Assignments must be submitted before 12:00 mid-day on the Tuesday, one week after the relevant online session, unless otherwise advised.

• Assignments must be completed on the official worksheet provided for each assignment, downloaded from the CESAnet.

• Students must carefully read and understand each question, consider the assessment criteria, read the reference material, before attempting to answer any question.

• Students may obtain support and assistance from their Workplace Mentor, the Module Convenors, or the relevant Facilitator.

• Each Assignment is intended to be completed within ± 5 hours, with most of the work being done outside of office hours.

• Students must conduct their own research and base their assignments on actual workplace projects, as much as possible.

• Students must attend all online Assignment Feedback sessions.

Requests for an Extension on an Assignment

• A request for an extension, to an assignment submission date, must be made timeously on the CESAnet, with a valid reason provided.

• Last-minute, or past the deadline date requests, as well as unreasonable excuses for extensions will not be accepted.

• The request must include a proposed new submission date, which should normally be no later than one week after the original submission date.

• One mark will be deducted from the assignment “score” for all assignments submitted after the due date, regardless of whether or not permission for a late assignment submission was requested or granted.

• All requests for extensions exceeding one week must be accompanied by a properly motivated letter providing acceptable reasons from the Employer, and/or a medical certificate, or other documentary proof, which may be considered by the CESA’s Education & Training Manager.

• Exceptional circumstances may include medical reasons, business travel outside South Africa, family tragedy or emergency, or any other matter deemed exceptional by CESA’s Education & Training Manager at its discretion.

• Normal work-related activities such as project deadlines, attendance at work related meetings, travel within South Africa, and the like, will not be considered acceptable.

Summative Assessment (Exams)

The end‑of‑trimester online exam is “open book”, and Students may refer to their class notes, presentations, and the textbook, the ‘Role of the Consulting Engineer during Project Delivery’ and any prepared study notes while writing the exams.

The requirements for entrance to the exam are as follows:

• The Student must have attended all the online classes, except where the Student has been granted leave of absence.

• The Student’s Portfolio of Evidence on the CESAnet must be complete, as described below:

  • All Activity Worksheets completed and submitted and marked as such by the Convener/Facilitator.

  • All assignments, including resubmissions, must meet the assessment criteria.

• The overall performance for each Student is then evaluated by the Module Convenors, which involves a review of the overall assignment and exam results for each Student, after which a decision is made as to whether or not the Student has met the overall programme outcomes.

• As a guideline, a final combined score for each module is made up of 40% of the total module assignment score and 60% of the module exam score. This combined score must be 60% or above for the student to successfully pass the module under evaluation.

• Students who do not achieve a combined score of 60% for a module will be required to write a supplementary exam for that module. The pass mark for the supplementary exam is 65% which is calculated as 40% of the total module assignment score and 60% of the supplementary exam score.

• There will be no exam for the Interpersonal Skills module and the final score for this module will be calculated on the average of all the assignment scores. This score must be 60% or above for the student to successfully pass the module.

A final report will be sent at the end of each trimester, after the exams have been assessed and moderated, to each Student, their Workplace Mentor and their HR representative, detailing the outcome of the Student’s exams along with a brief report on the Student’s overall progress during the trimester.

These trimester reports may be used until the official graduation, in which the Student will receive their official BCE MDP certificate.

Student’s Portfolio of Evidence

• All completed Activity and Assignment Worksheets, including resubmissions, make up the student’s Portfolio of Evidence on CESAnet.

The Dangers of Collusion and Plagiarism

• Students are encouraged to work closely with fellow students during the programme, particularly in preparing Activity worksheets.

• Students are welcome to discuss the Assignments with their peers; however, every student must demonstrate that they have prepared and submitted their assignment independently.

• Any evidence that a student has submitted work not of their own creation will be treated as possible collusion, investigated by Convenors and the CESA NPC, and may result in a disciplinary hearing that could lead to expulsion from the programme at
  the sole discretion of CESA NPC.

• The basic principle is that Students must never share their written assignments with others, either in writing or verbally.

Use of Modern Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

• Students are encouraged to make use of modern technology and artificial intelligence, in the preparation of activity and assignment worksheets, particularly where this can assist in ensuring good spelling and grammar and a well formatted document.

• If Students use internet sourced reference material or reference material obtained from any other source, the students must demonstrate independent thought and knowledge and any reference material used, must be listed and described as such.

• Wording used from any reference source must be described as a quote.

• The use of artificial intelligence-based systems such as ChatGPT may be acceptable in the preparation of an assignment provided that the student can demonstrate independent thought, knowledge, and an understanding of the subject matter and provided that the student lists the AI system used as a reference source.

• Failure to comply with the above requirements will be regarded as plagiarism and will lead to the same disciplinary process described in 3.3 under ‘3_Assignments’ in your student
  Agreement.