Attendance at the online sessions is compulsory because they are an essential opportunity for students to build their knowledge through presentations and lectures from specialist subject presenters and interaction with the other students. Notwithstanding this the real backbone of the BCE programme is the assignments and activities undertaken and submitted by the students. The activities normally take place during the online sessions, and the assignments are prepared and submitted between the online sessions.

Students are required to complete and submit approximately fifty to sixty assignments during the year, at a rate of approximately two per week. The assignments are all based on the work presented during the online sessions, and comprehensive reference material is provided, but students are expected to carry out their own research in the workplace, discuss the assignments with their Workplace Mentors, and as far as possible to base the assignments on actual projects being carried out and procedures in the workplace.

Generally, the assignment related to a particular lecture/presentation is required to be undertaken and submitted within one week after the relevant lecture/presentation. Where necessary, students are encouraged to obtain support and assistance from the Module Convenors. The assignments require commitment and a lot of hard work, but any diligent student should find them manageable. As a very rough guide, it is intended that each assignment should be completed within about five hours, of which most of the work should be completed outside of the office hours.

One of the strong objectives of the BCE programme is personal development, and thus the manner in which the students conduct themselves during the course of the programme is monitored and forms part of the assessment process in evaluating the overall performance of each student. A sense of responsibility and self-discipline when preparing and submitting assignments and activity worksheets is thus most important, not only as far as the quality of work is concerned, but equally important is the timeous submission of all work which must be based on the “rules” described hereunder.

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 designated Student for that week will present their group’s findings on the task’s outcome.

Each Student is required to provide a brief write-up of the group’s discussions and the outcomes and insert this in their Assignment and Activity Worksheet. The worksheets are best completed during the online sessions as the group activity takes place, but Students may complete the worksheet at home and submit it together with the relevant assignment on the Assignment and Activity Worksheet.

Students who fail to submit all the completed Activity worksheets on time will be considered not to have met the programme outcomes.

ASSIGNMENTS

The following criteria apply to assignment submissions:

2.1. The students will be provided with a timetable on the CESAnet, indicating the assignment names and the dates on which each assignment must be submitted. Assignments typically must be submitted before 12:00 mid-day on the Tuesday, one week after the relevant online session.

2.2. An assignment worksheet is provided for each assignment on the CESAnet. The worksheet explains the work that must be done for both any activity and/or an assignment related to a particular online class and there is a detailed list of criteria against which the submitted work will be evaluated. The student must download the assignment, and thereafter carefully read and understand the questions, and assessment criteria, and refer to reading and reference material before attempting to answer any question.

2.3. Students are encouraged to always work together during the programme, and this also applies to the preparation of Activity and Assignment Worksheets, however, they must prepare and submit their own work for written Assignments. In the case of Activities, normally one student in the Activity group will take notes and will circulate the notes to the other group members who may use them verbatim when preparing the Activity Worksheet. In the case of written Assignments, although students are welcome to discuss the Assignments with one another in detail, every student must demonstrate that they have prepared the assignment independently.

Any evidence that a student has submitted work which is not of their own creation will be treated as possible collusion and will be subject to investigation by the Convenors, the relevant Facilitator and CESA NPC, and will result in a disciplinary process which will normally result in expulsion of the student(s) from the programme at the sole discretion of CESA NPC. Refer also to the Code of Conduct applicable to the BCE programme, which is published in the Student Guideline, on the CESAnet.

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

2.4. Students are likewise encouraged to make use of modern technology and artificial intelligence in the preparation of assignments, particularly where this can assist in ensuring good spelling and grammar and a well formatted document. Once again, in the case of internet sourced reference material or reference material obtained from any other source, the students must demonstrate independent thought and knowledge, and any reference material must be listed and described as such. Wording used from any reference source must be described as a quote. Likewise, 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 these requirements will be regarded as plagiarism and will lead to the same disciplinary process described in 3.3 above.

2.5. Every assignment is evaluated firstly by the relevant Module Convenor or relevant Facilitator. This assessment and marking process normally commences one week after the submission date for the assignment, after which the assignment is then moderated by the full panel of Programme Convenors, and detailed feedback is prepared on an individual basis for each student. The assignment feedback is then finally sent to each student via the CESAnet and emailed to their Workplace Mentor, with the objective that the feedback should be sent to the students within three weeks after the submission date.

2.6. As the BCE programme is outcomes based, assignment submissions are not “marked” in the traditional manner, but they go through an evaluation and moderation process in which the student’s work is measured against several criteria.

2.7. Assignments which meet the assessment criteria for that assignment are rated as “Achieved”, or if they exceed the assessment criteria, they are rated “Excellent”. It should be noted that the “Excellent” rating is only awarded under exceptional circumstances where the student clearly demonstrates that they have submitted work of a standard higher than that which was expected and with extra effort. It is intended to recognise students who “go the extra mile”.

2.8. Assignments which show that the student understands the work and meets the assessment criteria but lacks detail and satisfactory content, and/or shows poor effort and/or presentation are rated as “Achieved with Comments”.

2.9. Assignment submissions, which do not meet the assignment’s assessment criteria, will need to be redone and resubmitted. The Student should discuss such assignments with either their Workplace Mentor or the relevant Module Convenor before resubmitting the assignment after which the resubmission will once again be evaluated and moderated, and the student will receive revised feedback.

2.10. To enable the Programme Convenors to monitor and measure the student’s overall performance during the programme and to provide meaningful feedback to the student and their Workplace Mentors, a weighting or “score” is provided against the criteria used to evaluate the assignment. The maximum “score” for an assignment is 10. The evaluation and “scoring” process is illustrated in the following table:

2.11. The above procedures will be explained to the students in more detail during the first online session.

2.12. To qualify to write the exam, at the end of each trimester, every student MUST complete and submit every single activity and assignment worksheet for that trimester. Every assignment, after evaluation as described above, must meet the assessment criteria for that assignment, even if that means resubmitting the assignment several times.

2.13. Online Assignment Feedback Sessions will be held in addition to the normal online sessions. The Students’ attendance at these sessions may be compulsory, at the Programme Convenors’ discretion, and depending on the circumstances. The sessions will generally take place after the normal lectures and presentations or at 16:00 on a Wednesday afternoon and should finish within an hour.

2.14. The assessment score achieved for each assignment, together with the assignment feedback, will be sent to the student via the CESAnet, and via an email to their workplace mentor. 

2.15. Assignments which are submitted late are extremely disruptive to the students’ progress as well as, the other students and the programme administration. When an assignment is submitted late by the student, it has a “snowball” effect on the preparation and submission of all subsequent assignments and experience has shown that the student quickly loses control of the situation and is unable to catch up. Nevertheless, it is recognised that sometimes, due to circumstances beyond the student’s control, a delay in the submission of an assignment is unavoidable. If a student becomes aware that they will be unable to submit an assignment by the cut-off date and time, they must immediately request, via the CESAnet, with reasons, permission to submit the assignment late. The following will apply:

2.15.1. A request for an extension to the assignment submission date must be submitted timeously and in writing on the CESAnet and a valid reason must be provided for the request. Last-minute, or past the deadline date requests, or unreasonable requests for extensions will not be accepted. Permission to submit an assignment late will be granted at the sole discretion of the relevant Module Convenor.

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

2.15.3. Permission for an extension not exceeding one week will be granted at the sole discretion of the Module Convenors but will normally not be unreasonably withheld. 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.

2.15.4. Requests for extensions exceeding one week will only be granted under exceptional circumstances and at the sole discretion of CESA NPC.

2.15.5. 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 CESA NPC.

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

2.15.7. Exceptional circumstances may include matters such as medical reasons, business travel outside South Africa, family tragedy or emergency (immediate family only), or any other matter which CESA NPC, at its sole discretion may consider to constitute exceptional circumstances.

2.16. Students who do not comply with the above will be penalised, as explained in the table above by having marks deducted from their assignment “score”. Regardless of the penalties incurred it remains compulsory for the student to complete and submit every activity and assignment worksheet for a particular module and every assignment must gain an evaluation of “ACHIEVED” to qualify to write the exam.

2.17. A student may appeal a decision to refuse a request for an extension or the application of penalties for late assignment submissions, provided that such appeal is lodged in writing via the CESAnet with valid reasons, within seven (7) days of the student being notified of such refusal.

Each time a student submits an assignment or activity more than one week late without being granted permission for a late submission, the “score” for the assignment will be zero.