DS's professor saying assignment submitted at 11:59pm is late

[Anonymous]

I just went back and checked because I was coincidentally posting assignments to Canvas (like Blackboard) today for an upcoming class I'm teaching. If you choose a due date, the automatic default due time, at least in our system, is 11:59pm. Is it a little odd? Yes. But apparently it's the normal due time for assignments so I would assume students who have taken multiple classes are mostly aware of this. Either way, it says right in the assignment link what the due time is, so it's not like it's some kind of secret setup to ruin students' lives.

[Anonymous]

On the one hand
Students should turn assignments in on time
A professor with dozens of students and lots of assignments and tests to grade would have too much to deal with if multiple students expected extensions and special treatment etc.

On the other hand
Everyone messes up and there should be some flexibility. I do think however that it should be upto the Professor to decide how to handle the situation.
OP if your child is still trying to decide what to do I would recommend writing a respectful email to the Professor explaining what happened, acknowledging that he should not have waited until the last minute to submit such an important assignment and asking the Professor for some leniency

I have a strict no late assignments rule but I drop 2 of the 10 assignment grades and 2 of the 10 quiz grades. I am more flexible with the term paper but I expect students to ask for an extension a couple of days before the deadline. I dread having to grade late term papers because I usually have so much grading at the end of the semester. Between review sessions, writing exams, fielding questions about the term paper, grading term papers, grading final exams and calculating grades the last two weeks of the semester are incredibly grueling and stressful. I don’t think students realize how disruptive it can be to deal with late assignments and make up exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just went back and checked because I was coincidentally posting assignments to Canvas (like Blackboard) today for an upcoming class I'm teaching. If you choose a due date, the automatic default due time, at least in our system, is 11:59pm. Is it a little odd? Yes. But apparently it's the normal due time for assignments so I would assume students who have taken multiple classes are mostly aware of this. Either way, it says right in the assignment link what the due time is, so it's not like it's some kind of secret setup to ruin students' lives.

Is the last second at 11:59:00 or 11:59:59? At least, that seems to have been the issue for OP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just went back and checked because I was coincidentally posting assignments to Canvas (like Blackboard) today for an upcoming class I'm teaching. If you choose a due date, the automatic default due time, at least in our system, is 11:59pm. Is it a little odd? Yes. But apparently it's the normal due time for assignments so I would assume students who have taken multiple classes are mostly aware of this. Either way, it says right in the assignment link what the due time is, so it's not like it's some kind of secret setup to ruin students' lives.

And there you have it: "It says right in the assignment link what the due time is."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just went back and checked because I was coincidentally posting assignments to Canvas (like Blackboard) today for an upcoming class I'm teaching. If you choose a due date, the automatic default due time, at least in our system, is 11:59pm. Is it a little odd? Yes. But apparently it's the normal due time for assignments so I would assume students who have taken multiple classes are mostly aware of this. Either way, it says right in the assignment link what the due time is, so it's not like it's some kind of secret setup to ruin students' lives.

Is the last second at 11:59:00 or 11:59:59? At least, that seems to have been the issue for OP.

I can't speak for every university's Canvas settings, but my guess is that it's set this way pretty much everywhere given that Canvas is highly standardized. The default due time in my system is 11:59. Not 11:59:59, but 11:59:00.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stop comparing this to speeding or filing taxes. It's neither of those things.

The student has probably heard "don't wait until the last minute" hundreds of times in their life, but they've just finally learned the lesson.

Of course, he shouldn't have waited until the last minute. No one is arguing that. The question is - what is the last minute? Does it end at 11:59:00 or 11:59:59? And clearly people interpret that differently. Otherwise there wouldn't be 15 pages of responses.

Even if the deadline were 11:59:59, posting after 11:58:59 is the literal definition of waiting until the last minute. Anything after 11:59:00 would be last minute anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Here's a counterexample for OP's situation. I am professor who also posts a midnight due date on my final class project. All these years I did not realize that it really was an 11:59pm due time (don't ask how I got confused on that). The only reason I ever realized it is that last year, a student e-mailed me that they had submitted the assignment one minute late, got the notification that it was a late submission, and wanted to make sure I knew it was their fault and not the fault of their other group members. They volunteered to personally take the full grade penalty for the entire team.

Well, little did the students know that I don't care at all if the assignment is a few minutes late, or really even a few hours late. I didn't penalize the student or the group. BUT, I quite admired this student for accepting responsibility, reaching out to me immediately and volunteering to take one for their team without any expectation or request for leniency.

Unfortunately, it's very rare to see people taking personal responsibility anymore. More commonly, we have people like OP

Even though your student shouldn't have submitted so close to the deadline, it sounds like they were taking responsibility for your mistake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The deadline was 11:59pm. DS submitted it at 11:59 and the website marked it as late because it was set to put anything later than 11:59:00 as late.

DS emailed professor, and he said that because the website marked it as late, it was late.

DS takes full responsibility for submitting last minute and told me that he has learned from this experience. He wasn't able to work on the assignment for several days as he was experiencing symptoms of a chronic illness and did not ask for more time to finish the assignment.

Other students in the course experienced the same thing and are going to higher-ups in the professor's department.

Usually I would let him figure this out on his own. As the assignment being graded as late may significantly affect his final grade (which is important for admission to grad/professional schools), should he also go to higher-ups in the professor's department? Or should he just accept what happened?

Learning curve for DS to submit his assisgnments on a more timely manner. You need to stay out of this. If he cannot submit his assignments he should probably not be thinking of grad/professional schools.

DP. The last sentence is ridiculous. Because someone turns an assignment in late they shouldn't be thinking of grad school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OMG...you can't be serious. From the thread title, I thought we were talking about a high school student.

Stop. Really. Stop.

The title says "professor," why would you assume high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The deadline was 11:59pm. DS submitted it at 11:59 and the website marked it as late because it was set to put anything later than 11:59:00 as late.

DS emailed professor, and he said that because the website marked it as late, it was late.

DS takes full responsibility for submitting last minute and told me that he has learned from this experience. He wasn't able to work on the assignment for several days as he was experiencing symptoms of a chronic illness and did not ask for more time to finish the assignment.

Other students in the course experienced the same thing and are going to higher-ups in the professor's department.

Usually I would let him figure this out on his own. As the assignment being graded as late may significantly affect his final grade (which is important for admission to grad/professional schools), should he also go to higher-ups in the professor's department? Or should he just accept what happened?

Learning curve for DS to submit his assisgnments on a more timely manner. You need to stay out of this. If he cannot submit his assignments he should probably not be thinking of grad/professional schools.

DP. The last sentence is ridiculous. Because someone turns an assignment in late they shouldn't be thinking of grad school?

I have no idea if this is a pattern or not for the student about whom this thread is written...but yes, in general, my experience is that a student who waits until the literal last minute to submit assignments, or regularly submits assignments late, are not often top candidates for graduate school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The deadline was 11:59pm. DS submitted it at 11:59 and the website marked it as late because it was set to put anything later than 11:59:00 as late.

DS emailed professor, and he said that because the website marked it as late, it was late.

DS takes full responsibility for submitting last minute and told me that he has learned from this experience. He wasn't able to work on the assignment for several days as he was experiencing symptoms of a chronic illness and did not ask for more time to finish the assignment.

Other students in the course experienced the same thing and are going to higher-ups in the professor's department.

Usually I would let him figure this out on his own. As the assignment being graded as late may significantly affect his final grade (which is important for admission to grad/professional schools), should he also go to higher-ups in the professor's department? Or should he just accept what happened?

Learning curve for DS to submit his assisgnments on a more timely manner. You need to stay out of this. If he cannot submit his assignments he should probably not be thinking of grad/professional schools.

DP. The last sentence is ridiculous. Because someone turns an assignment in late they shouldn't be thinking of grad school?

I have no idea if this is a pattern or not for the student about whom this thread is written...but yes, in general, my experience is that a student who waits until the literal last minute to submit assignments, or regularly submits assignments late, are not often top candidates for graduate school.

From earlier post, it was his first time missing a deadline in college.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, OP, for this thread! I explained the topic to my senior DD, who’s taking a summer course. She said she was unaware that 11:59 PM meant 11:59:00 and not the seconds until 11:59:59. She’s occasionally turned things in, quite literally, last minute. It’s not my approach, but she struggles with classes and sometimes has pushed the time envelope.

She has an assignment due today at 12:30 PM and now she knows to submit it by 12:29.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh, sweetie. Your precious would not last one day at West Point or the Naval Academy.

Not.
One.
Day.

DP. So what?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, sweetie. Your precious would not last one day at West Point or the Naval Academy.

Not.
One.
Day.

DP. So what?

I bet some USMA and USNA students would struggle at Reed and Oberlin too. Which is not a knock on the academies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, sweetie. Your precious would not last one day at West Point or the Naval Academy.

Not.
One.
Day.

DP. So what?

I bet some USMA and USNA students would struggle at Reed and Oberlin too. Which is not a knock on the academies.

I doubt it. Everyone else looks like lazy slackers.