Late Submission Penalty Discussion

[Sirsh]

This is a thread dedicated to the discussion of 0% penalties being applied to late submission, should this be implemented or not?

I am a student, and believe that 0% penalties being applied for late submissions is quite frankly ridiculous. At my university in the student assessment and examinations handbook it states that a course coordinator may choose to apply either: 1. 0% late penalty, or 2. 10% per day late penalty for up to 7 calendar days and then it will be given 0%.

This is treated as a one size fits all rule and there are no exemptions for this either. So for pieces of work that are weighted heavily through the semesters, if you are unable to submit said work before the deadline you will be treated with this penalty with no exceptions.

However, it is understandable that from the coordinator/markers point of view that if this isn't implemented that a lot of students could take advantage of the relatively small penalty to hand in work late and keeping track of those who submit late would be an extra work load.

But if you have a student that has piece of work which is worth 50% of their total unit grade and is late by any justifiable reason then it will be extremely detrimental to their CWA and potential career prospects.

Also in most, if not all, of the syllabus within units they do not dictate that punctuality is a learning outcome, so how can there be any justification of this penalty being enforced.

What are your thoughts on this? It would be interesting to get both student and staff opinions on this.

 

[Vanadium 50]

How do you feel about deadlines in real life? If your employer is only a few days late with your paycheck, is that OK?

 

[axmls]

Some professors like to upload solutions to homeworks online after they've been turned in. That's not possible with late submissions, so there's one reason for a 0%. Another reason is that, quite simply, assignments you speak of that are worth large fractions of your grade are usually announced well in advance, so it should be easy to plan ahead and have it done early if you're unable to be in class the day it's due (unless it's a major emergency, in which case, I bet most professors would still accept it depending on the circumstances).

 

[e.bar.goum]

I've never seen any late policy that didn't have exemptions if you talked to the lecturer well before the due date or had a medical certificate after the fact. Student: "Hey, I've got a big sport commitment the weekend before my assignment is due, can I hand it in a couple of days late?". Lecturer: "Sure".

That being said, I've only rarely seen "there are no late submissions" in courses I've done. I think penalties should be pretty harsh though. 2-5% per workday or such are pretty weaksauce. My favourite that I've seen has been an exponential hourly penalty. 2% the first hour, 4% the second hour, 6% the third... Awesome.

 

[Dishsoap]

Honestly, I wish more professors had zero tolerance on due dates. I worked my arse off to get this assignment/project done on time, and person B had an extra day to do it and only got docked by a letter grade. College is for teaching you time management skills, and there is no better way to learn than by getting screwed a few times.

That being said, I've only rarely seen "there are no late submissions" in courses I've done. I think penalties should be pretty harsh though. 2-5% per workday or such are pretty weaksauce. My favourite that I've seen has been an exponential hourly penalty. 2% the first hour, 4% the second hour, 6% the third... Awesome.

That's... brilliant.

 

[e.bar.goum]

That's... brilliant.

Right? So dastardly brilliant. Computer science, where they had timestamps too! (well, I suppose it's possible everywhere now, since online submission is pretty much the norm.) Computer science has always had my favourite examples of submission deadlines - another course had 5am deadlines, with no late submission possible.

 

[Choppy]

But if you have a student that has piece of work which is worth 50% of their total unit grade and is late by any justifiable reason then it will be extremely detrimental to their CWA and potential career prospects.

Also in most, if not all, of the syllabus within units they do not dictate that punctuality is a learning outcome, so how can there be any justification of this penalty being enforced.

I'm not sure that the main purpose of late penalties is to "teach punctuality." To an extent they accomplish that, but really the point is to make the administration of the course more efficient. With no deadlines, hardly anyone would hand anything in. And a deadline without a penalty isn't really much of a deadline is it? The point of a deadline is that you introduce a condition where at a specific time there is no longer any point in working on the project. So people have to hand in what they've got and move on.

 

[Andy Resnick]

<snip>What are your thoughts on this? It would be interesting to get both student and staff opinions on this.

For my classes, late submissions are simply not accepted. This is explicitly stated in the course syllabus.

That does not mean I do not try to accommodate students- again, I am explicit about this- those students must contact me *before* the deadline.