Late work policy
There is a debate over whether to accept late work or not, when to accept it, and how much penalty (if any) should be assessed. I wanted to know thoughts about late work in an online classroom in both sychronous and asychronous environments.
Though it's hard for students to turn in their work on time regardless of the setup of the class, I find myself making concessions to 'help them along' and accept late work. One such penalty would be 10% points each day an assignment is late.
As the bumper sticker says "Stuff Happens"...or something like that. When a student is called to active duty because of a natural disaster, or the student delivers a baby in the middle of the course, it is fair to give more time.
Since I cannot discern the truth of a student's situation, and the exemption from the "late penalty" should not be awarded on the basis of "the best alibi", I allow students to post late for full credit.
So, for fairness and student retention, I do not penalize for "late".
I find if I don't have a penalty for late course work I am bombarded with it at the end of the course. So I have a penalty for late course work and most of the students turn it in on time. The students that turn in their course work late have a penalty but not to the point that it causes them a failing grade. That helps with retention.
I have worked with various late policies and find that regardless of the policy, there will be late work. With that being said, I do believe in the late penalties and comply with each of the ones that I have had to enforce.
There are some life circumstances that cause late work; however, there’s usually nothing preventing the work from being submitted early.
Reply to Michael Scipione's post:
I beleive a dead line is a dead line. If online or on the ground, when an assignment is given and there is a deadline for sumbission of completed work, I would accept late submissions but with 10% deducted for each day the assignment is late. The assignemt can be handed in early, but it would not be fair to other studnet that use time managment to ensure thier work is handed in on time for the late work to receive the same grade. for final projects no late submissions should be accepted.
