Can dogs still eat your homework in a digital world?

When life gets in the way of completing assignments

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“Can I get an extension on my assignment?” 

As a college professor, I hear this question repeatedly followed by a range of excuses: 

A car breaking down on the side of the road. 

An oddly specific Park and Ride accident. 

Dogs getting sick (not quite the same as eating your homework, but close). 

The loss of a loved one.

Being told in vivid detail about the many illnesses and bodily afflictions a student can get.

I was sympathetic at first and worked with students to figure out solutions based on their particular circumstances. For the Park and Ride accident, I asked the student to let me know once he was feeling better so we could figure out a reasonable deadline for him to complete his work. For the person whose dogs got sick, I suggested she take the weekend to complete her work instead of rushing to get it done by the original deadline. For the student whose dad just passed away, I excused her from some assignments so she could take time to focus on herself.

But a person can only receive these emails so many times before hitting a breaking point. Especially when all of the emails somehow follow the same format (students must be colluding on this…):

Dear Professor - Firstly, I have been really enjoying the course this semester! It’s truly unlike any other course I’ve taken in college (...obviously, they want something from me).

I am normally a very responsible student and I apologize sincerely for this delay, as it was never my intention to fall behind. Things have been out of my control lately because of [student shares deeply personal information about a recent setback] (why are they sharing so many details with me? we don’t know each other like that…).

I want to assure you that I am fully committed to completing all my outstanding assignments promptly. It is my utmost desire that my current circumstances do not negatively impact my academic performance. Due to these unexpected circumstances, I kindly request an extension on this week's assignment. I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and appreciate your understanding in this matter. Thank you for your attention, and I eagerly await a positive response. (what is even happening right now?)

I’m tired of reading these emails.  I’m tired of the power imbalance of students desperately pleading their case for an extension because life happens. I’m tired of dancing this dance. 

As luck would have it, as I was hitting my breaking point, my university was hosting a conference called Innovations in Teaching & Learning with a focus on equitable & inclusive teaching. I joined a workshop session about equitable grading where I was introduced to the book Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead) along with many real-world examples of the book's principles in action. Inspiration hit. 

I learned how first-generation students' grades are negatively and disproportionately impacted by missed deadlines because they don’t know they can ask their professors for extensions. I heard stories of how professors removed late penalties from assignments and students still completed the work. I learned that I can grade differently. I learned that I can change the dance. 

And I had the perfect class to try it out. I co-teach a 1-credit, asynchronous course that doesn’t count towards any graduation requirements (why do students sign up for this course? that’s a story for another day). With this asynchronous course, we never meet our students face-to-face (see why it’s so awkward for me to learn intimate details of their lives over email?). Students get their assignments at the beginning of the week and have until the end of the week to complete them at their own pace. With such a self-guided course, I wanted… no, needed to try out a new way of grading. 

I shared the ideas from the workshop and the Ungrading book with my co-instructor and together we took the first steps of our new dance. 

We removed late penalties. We created regrade deadlines every 5 weeks in our 15-week course for students to resubmit any missing or partial credit assignments without needing to ask for permission or provide excuses.

We were excited to try this out but we were also wary of making a misstep. We didn’t know if students would take advantage of the flexibility or lack of late penalties and inadvertently create bigger problems. We quietly debuted the regrade period by simply outlining it in the syllabus but we didn’t draw attention to it. The result? Students still asked for extensions, but not as many. 

Our dance picked up speed. 

The following semester we changed tactics and decided to announce the regrade period early and often, and we even sent reminders about it. We went from quietly experimenting with the regrade period to making it as obvious as possible. The main reason for the tactical switch was that we were seeing positive results and wanted to fully embrace more equitable grading. 

We created a dance that everyone could enjoy. 

Our students gained more ownership and agency over their work. They could submit assignments when they were able and even decide to wait until the regrade deadline to submit everything. They didn’t have to worry about falling behind in class when life happens.

Now there are (almost) no more emails asking for extensions. More students pass the class. Students love the regrade policy. And I’m enjoying finding other ways to fill my time now that I’ve gotten out of the twisted tango of assignment extension requests.