Online Class Homework Policies

[Chelli]

If you teach online or have had your child take an online class, what has been the policy as far as deadlines to turn work in to be graded or assessed? 

I'm about to start my fifth year teaching online writing and literature classes in the fall and the grading is killing me. Mainly because I've tried to be understanding with deadlines (all of my students are homeschoolers), but I consistently have students turning in assignments weeks, sometimes over a month late. It makes it very difficult to stay on top of grading their work and moving forward with writing assignments. Many times the writing assignments require me to look over their work and provide feedback before they can move forward. 

I want to change this moving forward, but I also don't want to be draconian in my approach. Is there a good policy that allows for understanding that life happens, but also enforces a firm deadline? 

[Ting Tang]

We have only done one class online, and it was short-term.  Could you allow one exception but hold firm on the rest of the due dates?  If work is not submitted on time, then the grade should reflect that as it would in any other brick and mortar school.  Otherwise, maybe those families should return to homeschooling without outsourcing the teaching and grading it themselves.  

[Bootsie]

If you do not do as much as you can to reduce late assignments, you will find yourself with a grading nightmare.  Also, in some courses, if a student does not complete an assignment and receive feedback, it really impacts the student's ability to go on with other course material. 

Depending on the number of assignments and pace of the semester some strategies could be:

• refusing any late assignments but providing one dropped grade/assignment
• penalizing a paper a number of points for each day it is late
• allowing a student to turn in one late paper per semester
• providing a due date for paper with each assignment having a 48-hour grade period
• allowing for late papers only under extreme extenuating circumstances (and then you have to be tough)

I think it is also important to make sure that students have enough time to plan and do their assignments around their life.  An assignment made on Thursday that is due on Monday makes it difficult for a student who has weekend trip planned.   Deadlines provide the opportunity to practice important life skills of time management, setting priorities, and dealing with life as it comes up.

 

[ScoutTN]

Most of my daughter’s online snd locally outsourced classes have clear and firm policies utilizing several of the strategies Bootsie listed. Exceptions only in rare circumstances, not for poor time management. 
 

[lanabug]

My oldest is taking her first online class this year. The policy is 10% deduction for every day the assignment is late. An assignment can be re-submitted for one week after the work is graded to earn a higher grade. For example, if an assignment was two days late and the student also missed some answers, they could resubmit but the assignment would max out at 80% (20% deduction for being late).

It has seemed like a very fair policy to me, and the teacher has generally returned all grades within a week of the due date.

[cintinative]

from my syllabus from 2 years ago for a co-op class that met once per week:

 PENALTIES FOR LATE WORK and REQUESTS FOR EXTENSIONS

Extensions will only be granted in the event of extended illness (more than four days). Work that is received the day of class will be considered on-time. For each subsequent day that it is late, 10% of the grade will be deducted. Work that is turned in a week late will not be graded and will receive a zero.

 

BTW, I found it really difficult because despite using Google Classroom I still had kids emailing me files and texting me files. If there had not been a pandemic going on, I would have been a lot less forgiving. Everything was supposed to be submitted via Google classroom.

[cintinative]

2 hours ago, Bootsie said:

 

I think it is also important to make sure that students have enough time to plan and do their assignments around their life.  An assignment made on Thursday that is due on Monday makes it difficult for a student who has weekend trip planned.   Deadlines provide the opportunity to practice important life skills of time management, setting priorities, and dealing with life as it comes up.

 

I agree with this also. All of my assignments for the whole semester were up at the beginning so if a student knew they were going on vacation they could work ahead and still meet the deadlines.  

[kiwik]

Lantern English deduct 10%per day.  We don't really care about the marks but we don't like to inconvenience the teacher.

[HazelAnne]

We have used classes that deduct 10% for late assignments. (Exceptions would be made, I imagine, in the case of sickness)

 

We also have used an online class that didn’t have a policy for late assignments. As the year went on students turned in assignments later and later. This was discouraging to those who did do the work, as it changed the whole level of rigor for the class. (I imagine it was also very frustrating for the teacher).

[EKS]

It seems to me that your problem isn't that you want to figure out consequences for the students who submit late work (because then you have to manage those in addition to dealing with the late work).  It is that you don't want to be grading last month's assignment today.  I'd write up something explaining that it takes quite a bit of time to provide the level of feedback that you provide and that the students can't move forward in the class without that feedback.  Then say that because of this, you will not accept late work, period.  Make sure that families can see this before signing up for the class.  And then stick to it.

An alternative might be to allow students to submit late work for a fee, say 1x whatever your hourly rate is.  Whatever you decide, make sure it is enough to make it worth your while.  The idea here is to compensate you, not punish the student.  If there is no amount of money that will make it worth it to you, then don't accept late work.

I know it sounds mean, but if you let people take advantage of your flexibility, they will keep taking advantage of your flexibility.