The 66th Student Council, FOCUSS:U, has shared a proposal via its official social media accounts to change the evaluation and grading systems for SSU’s online courses, Soongsil Cyber University(SSCU) and Soongsil Premium Courses, starting in 2026. The proposal includes SSU’s plan to change the evaluation system for online courses to relative grading and in-person exams.
The previous system consisted of a Pass/Fail system and online exams, but SSU cited issues with the existing system as the basis for the proposed changes. The main reasons were the increasing number of cases of cheating detected using AI during online exams, opposition from the professors to the existing system, and the fact that previous system was being abused as a means to easily obtain credits. In conclusion, SSU announced a plan that online courses will be evaluated through in-person exams in principle; while the Soongsil Premium Courses are encouraged to use absolute grading, courses at SSCU will be evaluated using relative grading.
The Student Council fully agreed with the aforementioned issues arising from online exams and the switch to in-person exams. However, they stated that since the change was introduced suddenly, students needed to be given sufficient notice in advance. They also argued that relative grading is inappropriate because of the specificity of online courses; therefore, they requested maintaining the existing Pass/Fail system or switching to absolute grading for grade calculation.
Following discussions between SSU and the Student Council, a revised plan was finalized: the evaluation system will be changed to in-person exams, and the grading system will be switched to an absolute grading.
