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[quote=Anonymous]Been on both sides of this (prof, parent of college student, and now parent of a TA). Have always felt (a) goal is learning and (b) there are equity issues. FWIW, I think the equity issues are best handled through transparency (first-gen kids often don’t know extensions or incompletes are even possible). And wrt learning, depends on assignment(s).

I taught in humanities/social science in courses where almost all assignments involved essays and where assignments often covered different materials/didn’t rely on mastery of previous material/involved some choice of topics or texts.  The best strategy I’ve seen for dealing with lateness in contexts like this is one my PhD advisor used.  He announced (at the outset of the course) that all students had 3 days of extensions (one per paper) that they could grant themselves for any reason because we all need leeway sometimes. If you ended up needing more than that, you had to get approval and the reason had to be non-mundane.  In retrospect, what I appreciated most about this system (from a TA/faculty POV) is that I didn’t have to hear/compare/adjudicate excuses.

My DC TAs STEM courses where p-sets and labs often build on prior assignments. And where answer keys are often made available immediately after the assignment has been graded (in some courses immediately after it has been submitted).  Obviously, this complicates the extensions issue. And they handle it by have a separate makeup test when necessary and limiting extensions to the period during which grading is happening.

Basically, I agree with the posters who emphasize communication (both ways). And I’m fine with different policies for different courses or types of assignments within a course.  The world is full of deadlines and flexibility and different kinds of consequences (ranging from none to absolute disqualification) and it’s not my job as a professor to try to instill one right answer in my students (and if their parents think it is, well it’s been your job for 18+ years prior and if you haven’t persuaded /trained them to accept your answer by the time they get to me, then not much I can be expected to do to change that in a one-semester course).[/quote]

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