Recently, there has been a push to allow students more freedom in the online classroom. Some instructors would like to allow students to turn in their work at any point during the course – essentially, there would be no deadlines and therefore, no late penalties. If a student chose to turn in all of their work on the last day of the course, the instructor would grade it and give the student the grade they have earned – even if they did not turn in anything or participate in the course up to that point.
Personally, I think this sounds like a recipe for disaster – not only in the online classroom – but for the future of a civilized society. Maybe that’s a bit dramatic – but I have to admit that when this idea is discussed in my presence, I am not a proponent. I firmly believe that students, as well as instructors, need deadlines and late penalties.
- No prior feedback from Instructor – If a student waits until the end of the course to turn in all of their discussions and assignment, they will not have received any feedback previously from the instructor. Perhaps a student misunderstands the instructions or makes the same error in all 10 discussion responses – there is no opportunity for the instructor to instruct the student and remedy the issue.
- Difficult to return grades and feedback in a timely manner – Grading final papers and assigning final grades is, in and of itself, a daunting task for instructors when a course ends. To add multiple students turning in work for the entire course would be a complete disaster. For many instructors, it would be virtually impossible to provide adequate feedback on all materials and have grades submitted by the school’s deadline.
- Easy for student to become overwhelmed and not pace themselves throughout the course – We all know people who are procrastinators and unfortunately, this is the case for many students. If they know that they have until the end of the course to complete the work, I think more and more students would wait as long as possible to start the work. This would lead to several issues including students not completing all of the work by the end of the course, as well as students becoming quite overwhelmed when they are faced with the daunting task of completing an entire class the night before the course ends.
- Lower quality of work overall – I also think that student work would be of lower quality overall in a course without deadlines and late penalties. Student motivation would be lower as a result of the lack of structure and expectations and therefore the work submitted would also be lower caliber overall.
- Negative results when students enter the real world – If students feel that they can turn in assignments whenever they want in a classroom and still make high grades, they may slip into bad habits that will cause issues when they obtain a job. Most bosses will not allow work to be submitted late or there will be consequences – some bosses might even fire someone if they are perpetually late.
Perhaps I am naïve, but I still feel that one of the most important lessons we can teach students includes the value of hard work, organization, and timeliness. These are all traits that carry over into the workforce and can help students to be productive in the long run. By eliminating deadlines and late-penalties, I think education would be taking a large step back in the realm of preparing students for the real world that lies ahead of them after graduation.
About the Author
Jamie Weitl is a WAHM teaching for several online universities and raising three precocious little ones. In her spare time she enjoys writing, baking, and running. For more info, see my Google Plus Profile.
