How much of an extension grantable before late penalty kicks in?

[MProust]

In the flurry of activity and illness before Thanksgiving, a temporarily hospitalized (flu) student requested an essay extension in advance and I hurriedly agreed without specifying a due date. Today in class, he submitted the paper. It is 13 days late. He asked whether I will assess a late penalty, pointing out that I never said exactly when I wanted him to submit the paper. I told him that I would think about it, but am stumped as to the best course of action.

[mr_spicoli]

I would grade it as is, with no late penalty, then I would remind myself to be more aware next time.  This avoids the student complaining and running this up the food chain and creating a bureaucratic nightmare.  I'm not sure how I would address this in future syllabi, maybe one day extension for every day missed?

[nescafe]

I would grade it as is, with no late penalty, then I would remind myself to be more aware next time.

I agree with this. I give a five-day extension usually, but specify that to the student in writing, and apply a penalty of 10% per day last after that (and I don't accept work more than 3 days after the extension).

But it's critical to set the tone in writing. In this case, I'd let it slide and grade the work as it is. The kid got lucky (though it feels wrong to say it that way, given their hospitalization).

[Caracal]

In the flurry of activity and illness before Thanksgiving, a temporarily hospitalized (flu) student requested an essay extension in advance and I hurriedly agreed without specifying a due date. Today in class, he submitted the paper. It is 13 days late. He asked whether I will assess a late penalty, pointing out that I never said exactly when I wanted him to submit the paper. I told him that I would think about it, but am stumped as to the best course of action.

Given the circumstances and the time of year, it isn't really that long an extension. If you end up in the hospital with flu, you probably felt pretty bad even before it was acute. I know that the last time I got the flu, I couldn't do any more than email everyone and tell them that class was cancelled. I'm guessing that if things were bad enough that you needed an IV, you don't waltz out in any condition to write a paper. Add in Thanksgiving and it would make sense that he probably couldn't really get back to work till Sunday. At that point he's probably swamped with all of the work he's missed and trying to get ready for finals. Two weeks seems like a perfectly reasonable extension under those circumstances.

Again, I think all of this gets simpler if you don't think of extensions as "extra time." Students all are making choices about how long to spend on papers and we assign them in ways that allow everyone more than enough potential time to do it well. Students who request extensions might be showing poor time management skills, but they aren't getting some advantage over the students who turn things in on the due date.

[spork]

I would grade it as is, with no late penalty, then I would remind myself to be more aware next time.

I agree with this. I give a five-day extension usually, but specify that to the student in writing, and apply a penalty of 10% per day last after that (and I don't accept work more than 3 days after the extension).

But it's critical to set the tone in writing. In this case, I'd let it slide and grade the work as it is. The kid got lucky (though it feels wrong to say it that way, given their hospitalization).

+1

If there is no consequence specified a priori, it's not good form to impose one ex post.

I have ended almost 100% of the hassle associated with missed deadlines, late penalties, make-up exams, etc. by building in an overhang of assignments -- all assessments combined are worth more than what is needed to earn an A, so if a student does not submit a few assignments, or does badly on some that were submitted, the A is still possible. Typically the overhang comprises about half a letter grade worth of stuff. This gives me the rationale of saying "nothing accepted/graded after its deadline has passed." I do make exceptions for true emergencies -- like if a hurricane comes through and campus is evacuated, or if I'm notified by the dean of students that Joey has been sent home after contracting Ebola -- but for everything else I don't have to pay any attention to student excuses ("I was sick," "my alarm didn't go off," "I had a panic attack," "is there extra credit?").

(Feel free to criticize my attempt at Latin, which I've never studied.)

[ergative]

I'm with Caracal. The kid was in the hospital. Give him a week to feel crummy before heading in, a few days in there, and a few days to recover after he's sent home, and you're at two weeks already. Accept the paper with no penalty.

[Vkw10]

Agree with others, just grade as is. Consider adding guidelines about extension to your syllabus for the future. Mine is:

Assignments are due at midnight of the due date in the online syllabus. Students may submit one assignment up to fourteen days late with no penalty. After one extension, the grade will be reduced by ten points per day late for any future late assignments.

For summer courses, I change it to seven days. Students pay attention to due dates early in the semester because they like to save their extension. I don't make major assignments due in the last two weeks of semester. Very few students want to be working on a major assignment during exam week, so they seldom use the full time.

[ciao_yall]

In the flurry of activity and illness before Thanksgiving, a temporarily hospitalized (flu) student requested an essay extension in advance and I hurriedly agreed without specifying a due date. Today in class, he submitted the paper. It is 13 days late. He asked whether I will assess a late penalty, pointing out that I never said exactly when I wanted him to submit the paper. I told him that I would think about it, but am stumped as to the best course of action.

Given the circumstances and the time of year, it isn't really that long an extension. If you end up in the hospital with flu, you probably felt pretty bad even before it was acute. I know that the last time I got the flu, I couldn't do any more than email everyone and tell them that class was cancelled. I'm guessing that if things were bad enough that you needed an IV, you don't waltz out in any condition to write a paper. Add in Thanksgiving and it would make sense that he probably couldn't really get back to work till Sunday. At that point he's probably swamped with all of the work he's missed and trying to get ready for finals. Two weeks seems like a perfectly reasonable extension under those circumstances.

Again, I think all of this gets simpler if you don't think of extensions as "extra time." Students all are making choices about how long to spend on papers and we assign them in ways that allow everyone more than enough potential time to do it well. Students who request extensions might be showing poor time management skills, but they aren't getting some advantage over the students who turn things in on the due date.

I had a very strict "turn in your notes or whatever you have" at the deadline. Usually they had enough at the deadline for a big paper to pull out a B-ish grade. Lesson learned? Don't wait until the last minute, kid.

If he was in the hospital, meh. I agree. Don't worry about what happened, just let him turn the paper in. It's not like he got the flu to have a few weeks in bed polishing his paper to get an A.

[FishProf]

If you feel you must apply a late penalty, use your smallest one.  In my class it's 10% off for late + 5% off for each additional day.  In this case, I'd assess the 10% and call it a day (and be specific next time).

But the advice to not penalize at all is pretty good too.....

[hungry_ghost]

I'm with Caracal. The kid was in the hospital. Give him a week to feel crummy before heading in, a few days in there, and a few days to recover after he's sent home, and you're at two weeks already. Accept the paper with no penalty.

Agree!
Think about how you would handle this for next time. If someone contacts you from a hospital bed, they may not in a condition to work out a late schedule.
What I would probably do is tell the student to focus on getting well, and to check back in after 3 days / within 2 days of discharge (or some specific date) with an update, and at that time to work out a plan for an extension and any other make up work.

Oh wait, just reviewed OP:

a temporarily hospitalized (flu) student requested an essay extension in advance

After reading this, I now assume he had already been discharged and was trying to catch up on all his classes when he requested the extension?

I would still say "no penalty" since you didn't specify a new due date initially, but, I would also consider how to handle this next time. I would probably tell the student that the request for an extension sounds reasonable, and when does he think he can submit it? If he says "3 days late", "Deal!" If he says "2 weeks?" then he needs to explain why he needs so much time.

Also, sometimes having a deadline makes people get to things faster. If you'd told him a shorter deadline, maybe he would have turned it in long ago. Hard to say.

[marshwiggle]

One thing I occasionally do when someone asks for an extension (laptop crashed, etc.) is ask the student when they think they can get it in by. Often they are fairly reasonable in the amount of time they ask for, and then it's on them.

[eigen]

One thing I occasionally do when someone asks for an extension (laptop crashed, etc.) is ask the student when they think they can get it in by. Often they are fairly reasonable in the amount of time they ask for, and then it's on them.

This is what I do, too.

And if they give me something less than reasonable, I explain what I think the issue is, and we discuss it.

But most of the time they're very reasonable with their suggestions, and as long as they're coming to me in advance, I work with it.

[Caracal]

One thing I occasionally do when someone asks for an extension (laptop crashed, etc.) is ask the student when they think they can get it in by. Often they are fairly reasonable in the amount of time they ask for, and then it's on them.

This is what I do, too.

And if they give me something less than reasonable, I explain what I think the issue is, and we discuss it.

But most of the time they're very reasonable with their suggestions, and as long as they're coming to me in advance, I work with it.

Ditto. My thinking is that if someone really just needs an extra day it doesn't really help them to give them three, the tendency will be for them to just procrastinate.

[eigen]

One thing I occasionally do when someone asks for an extension (laptop crashed, etc.) is ask the student when they think they can get it in by. Often they are fairly reasonable in the amount of time they ask for, and then it's on them.

This is what I do, too.

And if they give me something less than reasonable, I explain what I think the issue is, and we discuss it.

But most of the time they're very reasonable with their suggestions, and as long as they're coming to me in advance, I work with it.

Ditto. My thinking is that if someone really just needs an extra day it doesn't really help them to give them three, the tendency will be for them to just procrastinate.

Exactly. I also want them to have thought about a plan for what they're going to do when.

[larryc]

This student gets a freebie.