Late assignments

Do you accept late work? Do you deduct points for late submissions?

Sherri wrote

In general, I don’t accept late submissions unless there are extenuating circumstances. In these cases, I encourage students to speak to me and I usually give extra time (case by case, if situation is truly extenuating).

My students usually do a good job on assignments. I have, on only a few cases, allowed the student to “re-do” a dismal assignment and deducted half of the original assignment’s missed points on the re-grade. This has occurred a couple times when a student misinterpreted the instructions or inadvertently skipped a step and left a portion out of a paper, etc.

Early on in my teaching career, a colleague pointed out that it was important for the students to do all the assignments sooner or later.

That got me thinking. Is this assignment important in learning this material? If yes, then students need to be encouraged to do it. Better late than never. Grading can be set so that it is always to the student’s advantage to do the work, even if it is not for full points.

Students who routinely hand in work late can pass but only regular on-time submitters have a shot at an “A”.