Graduate Students Invigilation Policy
Graduate programs at the School of Nursing are designed to promote accessible educational experiences. To facilitate this, students may take exams related to their program of study at a distant invigilating site. An invigilator is required without exception for all exams.
The purpose of this policy is to set out the School of Nursing policy related to invigilation for: Oral defense of MN research project or thesis, or doctoral dissertation candidacy or dissertation proposal B. Course exams.
A. Oral Defense/Examination of Research
Graduate students may wish to take oral exams by distance to defend a MN research project or thesis, a doctoral candidacy or dissertation proposal. Their supervisor and supervisory committee need to agree with this option. In this case, the following guidelines are in effect.
Once the project/thesis/dissertation is complete and the supervisor and the committee members decide that the student is prepared for oral examination, candidacy exams, or dissertation proposal defense, the supervisor must send an e-mail to the Graduate Education Administrative Assistant (gradnurs@uvic.ca) confirming that the document is complete and stating the anticipated date and time for the exams. In the case of candidacy exams, there are two stages. The first stage of the candidacy exam is a written exam, either written over four weeks (Option A), or on two successive days for three hours each (Option B). If the student and committee select Option B, the exam must be invigilated using one or more of the following options for a distance invigilation.
The supervisor e-mail to the Graduate Education Administrative Assistant must also include the following information considering that the oral defense is by distance:
- Title of the project/thesis/dissertation
- Confirmation of the committee members
- Invigilation center (e.g., TLSI) and invigilator’s name and contact information
- Technology to be used (e.g., zoom, teleconference, video conferencing)
Timeline for submission of documents before the oral exam is as follows:
- MN Research Project – 10 working days
- MN Thesis – 20 working days
- PhD Dissertation – 30 working days
Twenty-four to forty-eight hours in advance of the scheduled written examination, the supervisor contacts the invigilator to provide the candidacy questions and instructions for administration of the questions. The instructions to the invigilator must include:
- The dates and times of the exam
- How to administer the exam (e.g., one question per day)
- An explanation of the exam (e.g., if open book, what that means)
- Instruction that the student may see the question 30 minutes before the start of the exam
- For the written portion of the doctoral candidacy exam, no access to the internet is allowed. No texts or written materials are allowed. Students are not allowed to use their personal computer/cell phone/tablet to complete the exam. All personal electronics must be collected by the invigilator prior to the start of the examination and held until the exam has been completed.
- Photo ID must be presented to the invigilator at the time of the exam.
- Any other instructions that may be required.
B. Written Examinations for Course Exams (NP stream)
The British Columbia College of Nurses and Midwives (BCCNM) used to require invigilated exams. However, recently BCCNM does not have any specific policy regarding invigilation for graduate students in the Nurse Practitioner (NP) stream, as they review programs at a high level based on the BCCNM education standards and indicators.
Usually, NP courses are a combination of theory and clinical components during the same term. Each component (e.g., theory) has its own exam during that same term. When NP students take a clinical exam in the context of a clinical placement in a remote community, they might not have access to a proctoring center. In this case, instructors need to choose one or more of the following options of a distance invigilation and provide any instructions that may be required. LTSI does not recommend using invigilation software, because it is expensive and has shown to be discriminatory.
Options of Distance Invigilation
- Online Assessment Room – LTSI does offer this online bookable Zoom invigilation service to all instructors. To learn more about this, please visit
- Respondus LockDown Browser – A feature or a tool that prevents students from opening multiple windows. To learn more about this, please visit
- Brightspace features, which we do use now, to alleviate concerns regarding student academic integrity:
a) scramble the questions at the quiz/exam level, and
b) scramble the responses at the question level.