I have been on both sides - allowing late work and not allowing late work. If late work is allowed, it is limited in the type of assignment and the number of days a student has to submit. However, the student must speak with me first. Further, there is a penalty for late work. I recognize that the lesson is most important, but the penalty also instills the need for soft skills, such as timeliness in completion of tasks at work.
Unless it is an excused absence, I do not allow students to take an exam on a date other than the scheduled date. It is not fair to other students as the late student may have had an extra day or weekend to study.
Finally, if late work is accepted I am strict with time for late submission. I have many assignments to grade and the institution has strict requirements for faculty time to grade. I do not want to be overloaded at the end of a term; therefore, under no circumstances do I accept any late work in the last week of the course.
Pat,
For me, I look at the relative importance of the assignment and the degree to which the assignment aligns with the overall course goals. Some assignments just have to be done on time and no amount of downgrading for late submission would be satisfactory. Routine homework, quizzes, or in classes with a lot of writing assignments, it seems accepting late submission with a penalty would be resonable. In the end, as far as grades, we have to ask, to what degree has my student learned the needed material? A fair and accurate grading ssytem would measure this effectively.
Barry Westling
