Unusually High Failure Rates in the Numerical Optimization

You can hide your name from public view. This is not a personal campaign against any lecturer; it is simply a request for a review of the assessment process.

This petition is open to all JKU AI students, including those who have already passed the course, those who have not yet taken the exam, and students who may take the course in the future.

The students taking the Numerical Optimization course in the Artificial Intelligence program at Johannes Kepler University Linz (JKU) would like to raise their concerns about the current assessment format and the unusually high failure rates following the recent changes to the course.

In previous years, the course was assessed through two projects and one exam. However, this year, the format was changed to a single final exam. In the first exam, approximately 50% of the students failed. After concerns were raised, some changes were made for the second attempt with the intention of making the exam more manageable. Nevertheless, the failure rates increased further in the second and third attempts.

The goal is not to lower academic standards or question individual examination results. Our concern is that, despite adjustments introduced after the first exam with the intention of improving the situation, the failure rates continued to increase. We therefore believe that the overall assessment format and the reasons behind these consistently high failure rates deserve a broader review.

We kindly ask the JKU Vice-Rectorate to review the current assessment format of the Numerical Optimization course in the Artificial Intelligence program and the development of failure rates across the exam attempts. We also ask that the possibility of returning to the previous assessment format of two projects and one exam, or introducing another more balanced alternative, be considered.

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