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[vardahilwen]

I don't care for teaching online, but I've learned to take some precautions.

First, you can set up tests/quizzes on Blackboard.  At the beginning of the term, set up a quiz that takes them through the course rules/regulations in the syllabus.  Their completion of this quiz is their ticket to begin the course material.  They will carry a "zero" on all subsequent assignments until they complete this quiz first.

Be EXPLICITLY clear about due dates and consequences in your syllabus, and stick to them.  Remind them that Blackboard date/time stamps everything they turn in.  My deadline for submissions was midnight, and if their post came in at 12:01, it was a day late (this, of course, is barring any technical difficulties with Blackboard).

Have a section in your syllabus that talks about what to do in case of emergencies (and put this stuff on your quiz).  If there's a medical emergency or similar, they must provide documentation, same as the "face to face" students - they can drop it off at your office, fax it, PDF it, whatever.  Tell them what is and is not an emergency.

I remind them at the outset that online classes are more, not less, work than face to face classes.  To take an online class, you must be organized and self-disciplined.  If you do not post by the due date/time, you receive a "zero" in the gradebook for that assignment.

I also set up my assignments so that I can drop a couple of grades.  For example, in a 15-week class, suppose you are requiring 15 posts on the readings.  You might want to offer an option to drop the two lowest scores.  This way, if they miss an assignment, it can be dropped.  The good students who post every time have the option of omitting the last two if they wish, or posting all of them to try to improve their grade.

Be consistent and firm about your rules.

I have found that doing this stuff on the front end saves me a lot of headaches later on.  I can say "I'm sorry to hear that your goldfish died - that assigment can be one of your dropped ones."  I can say, "you read the course policies at the beginning of the term and agreed to abide by them (again, the quiz), so the consequence is a zero on this assignment."

I'm not heartless - I do make exceptions in special circumstances.  But I find this method cuts down on the whining and excuses.

 

[bamabound]

I want to echo Vardahilwen. 

I make my syllabus pretty bulletproof.  I have deadlines for the quizzes, and there is one quiz per chapter.  I tell them up front that I drop the 3-4 lowest quiz scores.  This is intended to cover illnesses, "the dog ate my computer" and any other excuse and further that I will not extend the due date on any quiz to cover an individual's situation under any circumstances.  If there was a system-wide crash (I hate Blackboard) then I do extend but only if my uni verifies the outage. 

I also state that any posts made late will have points taken off.  They have a week to complete it so if their internet connection goes "poof" at the wrong time, too bad.  The syllabus also states to technical difficulties are not a valid excuse: All students should find a backup computer (e.g. the local Kinko's, public library, friend/family). 

I do not accept late papers.  I learned early on that doing so would get me several papers turned in at the time the final grades were due and as an adjunct who has a "day job" I learned that that lateness would impact me and my grading, causing me to be behind and lose sleep.

A strong, well-designed syllabus will keep students from attempting to get excused for the ill dog by preempting their excuses. And it should keep complains to the chair to a minimum.

Regarding the parents, I'd put a note in the syllabus about FERPA and state that you will only accept email through Blackboard or the relevant course software.  Then you can be pretty sure that you are talking to the student and not some anonymous "other" parent or person.

Regarding the unsupportive chair:  If it were me, I would rewrite my syllabus and then send it to the chair like so: Chair, I've attached my syllabus for the upcoming class X.  Please let me know if you have any suggestions or changes.  I am trying to avoid the situation that happend last quarter regarding late papers. 
 

[melba_frilkins]

I really can't stand dealing with student excuses (are they true? are they valid? do they really excuse the student? blah, blah, blah), so over the years I've gradually developed a system that is basically don't ask/don't tell, no excuses involved. This is especially important for an online class where (as many of you have noticed!) you seem to get double the number of excuses.

My general philosophy of teaching online is to assume that life happens for students and they do need some flexibility and leniency. I don't need to hear their excuses. If the built in leniency I have isn't enough, well then too bad.

Here are my specifics, just for an example:
-Online discussions: no make-ups available once they are closed. But at the end of the semester, there is some extra credit discussion, that allows the student to make-up for about 10% of the discussions.
-Quizzes: closing dates are hard and fast. But there are three "catch-up" weeks built into the schedule, when students can go back and take missed quizzes from the last few chapters. Students who don't need to make-up any quizzes can work ahead.

This seems to work well. I still do get a lot of emails along the lines of "I missed X because of Y, can I make it up this week?".  When I get those emails from students I'm not sure if they are unaware of my existing policies or are trying to push the boundaries, but I guess that doesn't even matter, because my reply is always a quick summary of the make-up policies and that suffices.

[queenofstarwars]

I sometimes build in a "grace period" of 24 hours.  This covers the loser excuses such as headaches, connection problems, etc.  If a student doesn't get the assignment in on time (ie after the grace period), I say, well, your assignment was actually due blah, but you still didn't get it in by later blah.  Unfortunately, you missed the deadline and let the grace period expire, so F grade to you, kiddo.