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[dr_dre]

I lower the grade one-third per day on papers. So a paper due Monday that would have been an A is a B- by Friday. This is good for everyone. Slacker students lower their own grade, letting me give out more high grades to others, yet no one thinks I am a meanie. Win-win. As for quizzes, I do 15 in class, then drop the lowest 5, no makeups, no excuses.

[amlithist]

I do 10% off per day/portion of day late (I have papers come in via Dropbox in Blackboard, so there's 24/7 access), and after 5 days from the deadline it earns a zero.  No real problems in the past with this.  And if there are truly extenuating circumstances (major illness, etc.), and IF the student hasn't played me in the past, I negotiate on an individual basis.  As many have said, this gives them some control--if the paper is due Tuesday and they have a major exam that same day, they can choose to study/cram for the test and take a bit lower grade on my assignment.

[leighleigh]

This will make me sound like a complete pushover, and maybe I am, but while I state a fairly strict late policy in my syllabus, I generally don't penalize assignments that are turned in late--this includes both small and major assignments.  The stated policy prevents late assignments from becoming a widespread problem, and over the years I've found that chronic lateness produces its own ultimate penalty--students who are habitually late with their assignments either turn in shoddy work in the end or turn in nothing at all, which means they end up doing very poorly in the course anyway.  They aren't invested in the course from the start, and no amount of penalization would change this.  Students who are invested turn their work in on time, and if they don't, they turn it in just a little late and generally have a decent reason for it.  There's a sort of karma at work, I think.  It works the same way with absences--I lower students' participation grades if they are absent a certain number of times (if they are there, they can't participate), but I don't dock their final grades.  Again, students with chronic absences generally end up with a crap grade anyway.

I'd certainly change my tune if late assignments were a huge and widespread problem in my classes...but they really haven't been.  Is this unusual?

The only exception tends to be the grades for group projects--if you aren't there the day your group presents their project, you get a 0 and can't make it up unless you can document an emergency.  This is because other people were depending on you and you flaked out, which I find unacceptable.

When I first started teaching a number of years ago, I was much more of a hard-ass in many respects.  Then I discovered karma.

[dept_geek]

Mine is pretty straightfoward, and works very well. The major advantage is it shifts almost all of the decision making to the student. I am no longer the harda$$. They must be responsible for their actions.

No late assignments. Period. Well. Almost. You can submit one and only one assignment up to a week late. No penalty. I don't care why you are late. No, don't tell me. There are a few simple words (specified in the syllabus) that must be at the top of your assignment. I'll grade it without penalty. No, please. Don't tell me why.

(Yes, I also have the documented medical & work emergency exceptions. Documents must be presented at the same time as the assignment.)

[oldadjunct]

This will make me sound like a complete pushover, and maybe I am, but while I state a fairly strict late policy in my syllabus, I generally don't penalize assignments that are turned in late--this includes both small and major assignments.  The stated policy prevents late assignments from becoming a widespread problem, and over the years I've found that chronic lateness produces its own ultimate penalty--students who are habitually late with their assignments either turn in shoddy work in the end or turn in nothing at all, which means they end up doing very poorly in the course anyway.  They aren't invested in the course from the start, and no amount of penalization would change this.  Students who are invested turn their work in on time, and if they don't, they turn it in just a little late and generally have a decent reason for it.  There's a sort of karma at work, I think.  It works the same way with absences--I lower students' participation grades if they are absent a certain number of times (if they are there, they can't participate), but I don't dock their final grades.  Again, students with chronic absences generally end up with a crap grade anyway.

I'd certainly change my tune if late assignments were a huge and widespread problem in my classes...but they really haven't been.  Is this unusual?

The only exception tends to be the grades for group projects--if you aren't there the day your group presents their project, you get a 0 and can't make it up unless you can document an emergency.  This is because other people were depending on you and you flaked out, which I find unacceptable.

When I first started teaching a number of years ago, I was much more of a hard-ass in many respects.  Then I discovered karma.

No, you are not a push over.  You have found a way that works for you and for your students.  This is a course by course, professor by professor issue.

I teach a skills based course, composition, and am a very focused grader.  I want my students to do very specific things on a particular paper. Even one week later, the issue is moot.  I realize that sounds extraordinarily regimented, but it really isn't.

Also, my students write something every week.  I am more than willing to respond to up to ninety papers a week (1 to 5 pages), but I am also very pragmatic.  If some students demonstrate to me that they don't want to do the work, I want to focus my time and attention on those who do.

In my course and within my teaching style I simply can not give attention to students who are not committed to the process.  I choose not to be bothered with students who can't complete the work on time, though I actively engage every student to do so.

BTW, it takes till mid term, and often later, to get me to recognize that a student just is not committed.

[leighleigh]

BTW, it takes till mid term, and often later, to get me to recognize that a student just is not committed.

That's interesting to me, because at my current school--a community college in a very rural area--I can tell almost right away...the uncommited ones don't come to class and/or don't turn in assignments from the start.  Thinking back, though, this wasn't necessarily the case at other schools where I've taught, where it did take more time.  My current students are profoundly pragmatic in almost every respect, though--it's one reason I like them so much.  They may just feel it would be impractical to pretend to be invested when they really aren't.

What throws me now are the two or three students who come to class everyday, turn everything in on time, and do decent work, but who snooze through much of the class.  I may be forgiving re: late assignments, but sleeping in class gets me hot under my schoolmarm collar.  I have to count to ten and tell myself they may have just worked an all night shift at the Hy Vee.  But that's a topic for another thread.

[lemondrop]

I never accept late homework.  Ever.  For any reason.  I will accept late papers for any reason (a student can give me a reason, and I will empathize with the difficulty in the student's life, but there is no "good" or "bad" "acceptable" or "unacceptable" reason to turn in an assignment late.  I refuse to make moral judgments about their troubles).  However, the late essay loses one full letter grade for each day that it is late.

[nerdasaurus]

Good to hear these approaches. I do not take late papers, though I accept any in-progress work on the due date (and will give feedback and some credit) and allow as many revisions as students wish. It is a policy for my convenience--someone else mentioned that it's easier to grade when there's no more likelihood of things trickling in--but I do think it illustrates that there are timelines for tasks and consequences for not meeting them, just as there are for other responsibilities. I hate having to decide which excuse is better than another, and so having this flat policy actually, in my experience, causes less complaint than letting some people turn things in late and others not. My students have not complained about this. It's in very large, bold letters on the syllabus, too!

[ttguy]

I do not accept them after I have discussed the solution in the class or posted on the online blackboard. Sometimes preparing the solution takes sometime and during that time I accept them. I know this is not probably a standard procedure, but I don't mind giving them little break. I have found that demanding the homework dead on time does not always give better results; many students cannot meet the deadline and after a few assignments, they get really frustrated, even dropped out of class and complained to head. You can imagine all sorts of trouble from them and in fact I found that does not help me to achieve the educational goal.

[patchouli]

I agree with both of these below.  Not having a late policy invites "dead grandmother" stories and worse.  Having a reasonable and fair late policy (1/3 grade down per day, etc.) honors those who get the work in on time and respects the professor's time, too. 

1/3rd of a letter grade per day penalty.

Some people are going to tell you to have a policy of no late assignments will be accepted. This is both capricious and unwise. It encourages students to argue, devise fantastic excuses, go to your chair and complain. A sliding penalty encourages them to STFU and finish the assignment. Win-win.

I am going to bug out of this silly argument without much additional commentary.  It is clear that, as has been acknowledged by others here as well, profs' 'late policies' are just arbitrary, not real world things designed for their own convenience.  It is also clear that many kids today face unimaginable work pressures just to get through college at all, let alone in anything resembling four years.  But hey, Prof. Arrogant 'worked his way' through school 25 years ago, so if it was good enough for him....