Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Can I Dump the Due Date Too?

The great thing about participating in the TELS 9x9x25 Challenge is this: not only do I allow myself the time to reflect on and share aspects of my own teaching experiences, I've also been inspired to see what my colleagues are up to (and 9x9 gives me an easy way to do that).  Over the past week, I've spent a lot of time pondering YC Humanities Instructor Sukey Waldenberger's recent blog post regarding why she dumped the due date.

I had never even considered dumping the due date.  Not once.  When I put together my very first syllabus at YC in 2010, my policy took the form of a hard line: no late work.  No exceptions.  Period.  The rationale, in my mind, was that it would be better to take a firm stance on the front end and then grant exceptions as needed.  And so my syllabi for this semester's classes look largely the same as all of my syllabi have since with regard to the issue of deadlines.

"But," to quote Sukey's post directly, "that’s not REALLY the way it is, in most cases, is it?" 

No, it's definitely not.  Over the past 16 terms, I've granted more exceptions for visits to urgent care, out-of-state funerals, volleyball games, and court dates than I can count.  And a funny thing happened when I thought about what it meant to ask for and receive an extension: I started to remember what it was like to be an undergraduate student, holding my hat in my hand as I meekly asked for another week, hoping whatever my excuse was, it was good enough to make the cut.

Even still, my natural reaction was to reject the idea that due dates don't matter.  I mean, how much more work would it mean for me as the instructor if assignments started coming in willy-nilly?  What about the fact that without a due date, many students could fall so far behind it could be all but impossible to catch up?  Also, I paid my dues.  I had to do it when I was in college, after all... and it benefited me later during the eight years I worked as a victim advocate, where meeting inflexible due dates for grant proposals and updates was an essential component of the job. 

Upon more consideration, though, I realized that the majority of my initial objections relied on the type of paternalistic, intuitive (non-evidence based) argument for which I would gleefully nail one of my students to the wall.

I decided to toss this around with Jason, who is a professor in Sukey's department, and he pointed out that like so much in academia, most deadline policies are based heavily on very old traditions; if we were to sit down and reconstruct policies and procedures based on what we now know about teaching and learning, they'd likely look very different.  But, he cautioned, each instructor's due date policy fits into their broader approach to each class and subject, as well as their own individual style, and it might not be possible to implement a "no due date" policy without making other major structural changes to the course, which may or may not be a step that a given instructor is ready to take.

It was a decent point.  I like the way my classes are structured.  I pride myself on websites, syllabi, and assignments that are clear, unambiguous, and visually appealing (hey! perhaps that'll be my next blog post!).  I don't want to tear it all down and start over... yet.  So maybe I'm not ready to jump in head first.

Still, I'm tossing ideas around in my head.  For my part, I'm tired of judging excuses too, especially since they're all-too-often intensely personal and realistically, I'll grant an extension for almost any reason.  I also like the idea of treating students more as they'll really be treated in the workforce, where if a deadline involves true penalties it must be met, but if something comes up, a little common courtesy is usually enough to get an extension.  With all of that in mind, I'm considering a spring policy that looks a little more like this:

  • Topic-specific grading measures (attendance, discussion board posts, peer reviews, etc.) must be submitted on time or will be subject to a 50% late submission penalty.
  • All other grading measures will have a "suggested deadline" with a 24-hour grace period.  Any student who contacts me within 24 hours of the suggested deadline will be granted an extension with no penalty.  No excuse is required, just provide a reasonable date (not "sometime around July of 2017") by which the assignment will be submitted.

I feel like these measures also more closely approximate the standards to which I hold myself.  As an adjunct, I am not allowed miss a class without losing some pay - certain requirements are time sensitive and must be met.  But if I'm going to miss the 7 day grading turnaround I typically offer my students, which is a flexible deadline, I usually make (or post) an announcement to that effect, and include when I expect the grading to be completed.

Common courtesy.

Is this change going to mean a lot more work for me for me as an instructor?  My natural reaction is to say yes, but the truth is, I don't know... which is precisely why I'm going to try it!  

If it doesn't work, I'll have a tough semester and go back to my old hard line.  And if it does, maybe I'll say good-bye forever to hearing about students' explosive diarrhea or feeling guilty about the fact they're begging for extensions from their iPhones in the ER waiting room.

Because when it comes right down to it, students who lack discipline and motivation are not going to change along with my deadline policies.  They're already asking for extensions, and more often than not, I'm already granting them.  Students who care about their learning and want to succeed won't change either.  I rather expect they'll get their work in "on time" as they always have, only with the knowledge that this time around, the choice is in their own hands.

2 comments:

  1. I have to admit, I did modify the free-wheeling "no due dates, no problem" policy after one semester because I found that so many students procrastinated that I was swamped by work at the end of the semester. Not fair to me! Only students who are up-to-date at certain points in the semester can submit the optional work that will lead to a higher grade. So chronically late students can never earn better than a C in my class, because they never have the opportunity to do anything but the required work (and only doing the required work in my class results in a C final grade.) An A or a B therefore indicates that you kept up reasonably well and managed your time as you progressed through the class.

    I look forward to hearing how your spring classes go! And you should read Mark Shelley's first or second 9x9x25 post, where he details his grading and due date policy, something like mine but modified to suit his classes and expectations. And I agree, it's been GREAT being able to read what other teachers have to say about what's on their minds!

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  2. Such an amazing post,enjoy to read this article,like the way you write, helpfull and informative post,Thanks for sharing this content
    keep posting.
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