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When submitting your written assignments, always remember the basic rules of academic writing (see instructions). You are expected to express coherently whose ideas or research results you are using or referring to, and where they were published: otherwise you will be charged with plagiarism. Plagiarism means copying someone else's text, thoughts or ideas without permission. In study assignments intentional plagiarism is usually represented either by copying other student's work or a part of it or by copying text directly from the reference material (for example literature, internet, theses) without appropriate references.

By using precise references, you enable the reader of your text to not only find the original source and read more about it, but also show which parts of the text are your own considerations. Please see also the ethical guidelines for studying and the handling of academic misconduct at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥.

Written assignments are subject to the Degree Regulations of the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥. Intentional plagiarism is reprehensible and it will always lead to consequenses.

All written work require an informal evaluation of your own work. Return your evaluation in the same file as the written assignment, preferably as the last page. The length of your evaluation can vary according to the assignment and how you worked on it – ranging from a few lines to a whole page. You can support the achievement of your study aims by actively examining your own learning process.

You may consider the following questions:

• What are the problem areas in your learning?
• What facilitates or supports your learning? What inhibits it?
• What are the aims of your learning process and the reasons you set them?
• What initial knowledge, ideas and expectations did you have of the topic at hand?
• How well did you achieve your aims? How aware were you of setting these aims?
• How do you study? How could your study methods be improved, and why?
• What are your strengths and weaknesses as a student?

Examining our own study activity systematically will help you set appropriate learning aims and exercises for yourself. We therefore encourage you to develop and sustain a reflective attitude towards your own learning processes.

Your own evaluation gives you the opportunity to give us, the teachers, feedback on the quality of the assignments. At the same time, it gives us the opportunity to react immediately to any study-related needs and questions you may have. Moreover, the evaluations provide us with clues on
potential misunderstandings of the assignment instructions, and can thus be used to clarify them as needed. The evaluations also guide us in developing future courses.

Your own evaluations will not be graded, and they will not affect the grading of your assignments.

Evaluation is a part of the learning process, with an opportunity for individual guidance. The evaluating lecturer will usually give feedback for your work in the form of comments, questions and tips. In addition, the evaluator will focus on the overall strengths and weaknesses of the work. If necessary, the feedback will also contain tips and instructions for rewriting or improving the work further. The evaluation will be given to you within 3–4 weeks of the work’s arrival at the Open University. The work you submit to the Open University will not be returned to you.

You will get your grades in ECTS credits. ECTS is a credit transfer system established by the European Commission. ECTS credits reflect the quantity of work each course requires in relation to the total quantity of work required to complete a full year of academic study at the institution, that is, lectures, practical work, seminars, individual work - in the laboratory, library or at home - and examinations or other assessment activities. One ECTS credit corresponds to about 27 hours of work/studying. In practice, the workload required to obtain one ECTS credit varies according to the level of study and between disciplines.

The Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥ uses the grading scale from 0 to 5, with 0 as the lowest and 5 as the highest grade. These scales correspond to the ECTS scale as follows:

• 5 (excellent) / A
• 4 (very good) / B
• 3 (good) / C
• 2 (satisfactory) / D
• 1 (sufficient) / E
• 0 (fail) / FX,F
• Some courses are graded only: pass (in Finnish HYV) -  fail

In most subjects, a final grade in the study certificate will be calculated for a completed programme on the basis of student records for the courses. 

Guidelines for requesting rectification at the Ä¢¹½Ö±²¥: A student who is dissatisfied with the grading of a study unit may appeal orally or in writing to the teacher involved and make a request for re-assessment. The request for the re-assessment of a study unit must be made within 14 days of the date on which the student first had access to the grading results and information on how the assessment criteria were applied in his/her case.