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[destination]

Have you have ever had a student in your online classes who want register and start the course in the 3rd, 4th and even 5th week of semester?  If any, how do you deal with them? I have a couple of them  this semester.

[fosca]

I don't let them in.

If they get in anyway, they have to keep up with the rest of the class and can't make up what they've missed.  Which usually doesn't end well, and they almost always wind up dropping after a few weeks.

[erikjensen]

I teach on a quarter system and second week additions are at the discretion of the instructor. Here is my typical response to a plea:

“Thanks for your interest in joining my class. Attached please find the syllabus and the assignments for the first two weeks. To obtain my approval, complete these assignments at an A or B level and submit them to me by e-mail by Friday.”

This separates the few serious students from the many not so serious ones who try to add late.

[destination]

I didn't give the permission to a student to join the class in the 4th week of semester. The student visited with the dept. chair and complained about that. The chair emailed to me appr. the following: The goal is to get as many students through the class as possible without giving them a grade.
So, the student joined the class.