DAU does not assign letter grades for course completions. DAU employs a mastery (level required for graduation) system. Students must meet prescribed mastery standards to successfully complete a DAU course. For classroom-based and distance learning courses, the standards are as follows:

• Classroom-based Courses.  Mastery is achieving 80% or higher on all assessments and/or 80% or higher on the weighted measure of all coursework. These standards, as well as student assessment methods, will normally be discussed on the first day of class and provided to the student in writing.

• Distance Learning Courses.  Mastery is scoring 100% on each online assessment. The student will have three opportunities for achieving 100% on each assessment. Students are strongly encouraged to seek assistance from the assigned faculty prior to making a third attempt. Students failing the third test attempt will be dropped from the course as a failure and must be re-enrolled. The following are exceptions to this standard:
  
  
  • DAU System Failure. When there has been a DAU system(s) failure, the student(s) adversely impacted may have their last testing attempt reset and/or course failure removed if applicable.
  
  
  
  • Approved Content Challenge. When a course failure is directly related to a course content/test question challenge and that challenge has been accepted (validated by the course instructor), the student’s last test may be reset and the course failure removed.
  
  
  
  • Continuous Learning Modules (CLMs). There is no limit on the number of attempts a student may make to achieve 100% in completing a CLM.

Should a particular course deviate from these guidelines, the specific information on course mastery will be provided to the student at the beginning of the course.

Contesting a Failure to Achieve Mastery Standards (Resident Courses Only). Students who fail to achieve mastery standards have the right to contest their failure within 30 days of the course completion by providing a written request to review their assessment instruments to the Regional Associate Dean for Academics. The course lead instructor will provide the contact information to the student upon notice of a failure. The Regional Associate Dean for Academics will review the assessment record of the student, make a determination that the final grade was or was not appropriate, and provide a written response back to the student within 30 days of receipt of the request.

A student who fails to achieve mastery will not receive credit for the course and will be recorded as an academic failure for the course. This grade will be entered in the student’s official transcript and both the student and student’s supervisor will receive written notification. Additional information on student evaluations and records retention can be found in DAU Directive 704, Student Academic and Administrative Polices.