It’s final exam time for most of us in higher education. We are scrambling to give final exams, grade student work, submit grades, and leave for the winter break with just a little bit of sanity and a few working brain cells. Then it hits: the excuses for missing or late work.
In June of 2009, Scott Jaschik of Inside Higher Ed noted that the old excuse “the dog ate my homework” has been replaced by a new student excuse for late or missing class work. Today, tech savvy (or not so tech savvy) students blame technology for their lack of, um, achievement in the classroom.
Here are a few examples:
- the student’s flash drive is corrupted or lost
- the student’s computer crashed
- the student says he/she absolutely emailed it to you so you must have it
- the student’s home computer has Windows Vista (or XP or is a MAC) and is not compatible with the systems on campus (and she can’t print, access, email ….)
- the student can’t access the university email account and that’s where the document happens to be and he can’t remember password or log in information
- the student can’t print (no paper, no ink, no money….)
- the student can’t convert .doc to .docx files (or has used a file type that you can’t open)
- the student says the printers in the library (or computer lab) didn’t have any paper (or the printers were broken…all of them), and the student couldn’t print out the work to turn in
For some faculty, as Jaschik’s article notes, the “technology excuse” is a clear example of academic dishonesty (when the student lies about such technological disasters and thereby receives extra time to complete an assignment). For other faculty, however, technology problems are almost a certainty in any semester, and they have planned accordingly by outlining clear and concise “technology excuse” statements on their syllabi. These statements explain what professors will or will not accept from students in terms of technological problems.
In August of 2009, before the fall semester began in most locations, Natalie Houston wrote a ProfHacker post about making over your syllabus for a new term or a new class, and she provides a wealth of helpful information. At the end of the term, however, when problems and successes in your current courses are still fresh in your mind, thinking about next term’s syllabus becomes important. And as much as we might not want to think about next semester in the midst of final exams, this is a good time to do so.
In this new recurring series, ProfHacker will examine syllabus statements, we will share the statements that we have, and we will ask for samples from you. The statements will cover a broad range of policy issues: attendance, technology in/out of the classroom, late work, etc. Today’s post is about the technology excuse. As with other ProfHacker articles, we are not proposing to provide the definitive answer about how to handle issues in your classroom. And this post isn’t an invitation to rant about students’ lack of ability, their dishonesty, or how it was, you know, back in the day when we only had to deal with household pets destroying our homework. We hope to open a conversation that will allow us all to discuss the effectiveness of policy statements on our syllabi. We hope to learn from you.
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Some examples of these statements are short and to the point; others are a little more detailed. This is an example of one such policy statement about technology excuses from Teach the Web.
Let’s face it: technology breaks. servers go down, transfers time out, files become corrupt. The list goes on and on. These are not considered emergencies. They are part of the normal production process. An issue you may have with technology is no excuse for late work. You need to protect yourself by managing your time and backing up your work.…
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Here is one short and simple statement (similar to many others found on the Internet):
No papers will be accepted via e-mail and computer problems are not an excuse for late work. No late work will be accepted.
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How about you? What kind of technology policy do you have on your syllabus? Have you found such a policy to be effective in slowing the rate of technology-related excuses for late work? Please leave suggestions or sample policy statements in comments below.
[Image by Flickr user puppinurss. Licensed under creative commons.]
21 Comments
Here’s how my tech policy reads (I teach film/video production, hence the reference to lights and cameras):
Thanks, Chris. This is the type of syllabus policy we were looking for. I wonder if others have similar types of policies? If so, post them here!
Well, I have had to make excuses a few times to students for my own tech breakdowns, so I am relatively sympathetic. I don’t distinguish too much among various reasons folks may be unable to complete assignments, from death to something less, since I too have gone through these crises relatively recently myself and know only too clearly how debilitating they are. Nor do I like to police and document these. I do permit folks to hand things in a bit later and make things up. But they have to do a bit extra also: usually something that requires social work and collaboration of some kind. I think such additions are valuable in themselves, contribute to actual intellectual community, but also are not usually something students will do on their own. I think this makes for a kind of feedback loop that somewhat discourages these sorts of evasions, but allows one to be truly sympathetic for real life, and also are activities that have value in themselves.
Katie, can you elaborate on what kinds of activities that “bit extra” includes? I’m really intrigued by this idea.
Well, I have a set up in my class that if you miss any work you must contact a couple of class buddies in order to find out what you missed, that everyone should be a class buddy to each other, share notes from class, and otherwise meet together as part of a range of collaborative activities: weekly book groups, twice a term poster sessions on class work, collaborative papers and such. So, for example, if you missed a conference you cannot just hand in a poster, but you have to meet with 3 other students, see their posters, show them yours, and write up a discussion of what you learned from their research and what responses they had to your work. You do this informally in the poster sessions, so having to write it up explicitly is a bit extra work, including the meeting together, but doing it is itself valuable, and is part of whole ethic of helping each other out, sharing work, and otherwise engaging in intellectual friendship that I attempt to cultivate in the course overall.
Thanks for the comment, Katie. This is a very interesting idea, as Tria noted. What do you teach? How have students responded to the additional “work”?
Well, the courses I taught this last semester doing this were Feminist Theory & Lesbian Communities (http://theosfems.blogspot.com/ & http://lescom09.blogspot.com/ ). I teach in a Women’s Studies department. The students who drew this extra “work” seemed to be happy to have the opportunity to make up what they missed, including the participation elements they had been previously assured would count as part of the grade. I emphasize in both classes that we are working to create intellectual community, and I am actually very sympathetic to what happens in people’s lives that make doing everything “right” sometimes quite difficult. I know how hard it is for me too.
Here’s mine; I’ve never had any trouble with it.
Sadly, technological excuses (“my printer died,” etc.) cannot be accepted under any circumstances. Always make back-ups for your work, and plan ahead so that you will have time to use the on-campus computers and printers if necessary. You may NOT submit papers by e-mail. If for some reason you feel you have to do this, you must ask permission first; furthermore, you may NOT consider an e-mailed paper to be submitted until you have received a reply from me confirming that I have received it.
Thanks, Rob.
I require essays both on paper and electronically, and I explain how that benefits them. One of the benefits is that it mitigates tech issues, since either one or the other counts as in on time. So the only technical excuse I have to pay attention to is on the level of “hard drive failed”, and I’ve only had one of those, which I forgave. But I’m pretty clear that e-copies of papers don’t count unless they are in a format I can open (though I probably got rooked once by not enforcing that). And I’m going to start suggesting backup habits like emailing drafts to yourself periodically. Late work is docked 3 points/day, so I can also just retreat to that, if I want to.
Dance, do you have a policy statement for your syllabus? How effective has it been (assuming you have one)?
That’s pretty much my statement, in different words. It’s listed under Papers, not set off as a technology policy, mixed in with file format, how to use Blackboard, margins, citations, etc. It’s probably not so much that the statement has been effective as that the practice of accepting both means I don’t have to worry about most excuses, and Blackboard repeats the note on file formats, and I do a test run with a low-stakes assignment in the very first week in hopes of catching the people not using MS Word. I mean, I still hear a lot of “printing problems so I emailed it”, and I say, “yep, no problem.” So it’s effective in that my prime objective is to eliminate any situation where I feel I need to be judging whether students are telling the truth or not.
PS. I’m with Kaitlin on this one, obviously. I do not get excuses about being unable to access email/Blackboard, partially I suspect because since I use them regularly, those excuses would be somewhat implausible. Again, in the first week I check to make sure messages from me are getting through on email/BB. And the syllabus includes a statement about “you need to check your email regularly.” (again, not under Technology, but lumped with things like my office hours).
Actually, I use technology as a way to avoid other types of excuses. If you don’t have a printer, your printer jammed, you don’t have money on your printing account on campus, etc., you can email me your assignment. I prefer it this way, because I hate managing piles of paper. It’s also a guarantee that I’ll actually get the paper – as an adjunct, there’s no guarantee I’ll find the assignment if they slip it under a door, nor will I pick it up if they hand it in on a Friday and I’m not back on campus until Tuesday.
Kaitlin, thanks for the response. Receiving student work via email is a way to actually get the work from them. Have you had experiences where the student had email problems? couldn’t log in to his/her account? send you a file you couldn’t open? On rare occasions (and I mean really rare), I’ve had students email me things, but even then I can get the excuses. How do you handle that kind of scenario?
“… Email your paper to me as an MS Word 2003 or 2007 file. When submitting any assignment electronically in this course, you are responsible for any email or technological problems (e.g., internet connection difficulties, corrupted files, etc.). To prevent email problems along with the associated lateness penalties, you should 1) email papers well before the deadline, 2) cc yourself and check that the file is intact, and 3) use the “Request a Read Receipt” option.”
When I do get a “my computer ate my homework” excuse, I simply tell the student that the paper is late and will be penalized as such, and that the student should consult the syllabus. If the student argues, I can always ask whether the 3 steps in the syllabus were followed, but it’s never even come to that.
My syllabi normally stipulate that only hard copies are acceptable. Here’s an excerpt: “Hard copies of papers are due at the beginning of class. If you will miss class the day a paper is due it is still your responsibility to turn in a hard copy of that paper before class. “
On occasion, such as final papers due during exams, I do allow (or require) students to email assignments. Here’s a recent excerpt to that effect: “I will respond to each of your emails, thus insuring that you know that I have received your paper. Take some advice from someone who has had technical difficulties in the past: please do not trust your computer to function correctly at the last minute. Instead, send your paper a bit early if you can. I’m going to judge when papers are late based on the email’s time stamp in my inbox. You don’t want to be late, and technology failures do not count as an excuse.”
This is from our department’s common senior thesis syllabus:
“Computer Crashes: Hard drive crashes and other computer woes will not be accepted as excuses for late submission. Students should, given the complexity of the research task they will pursue, be sure that they maintain adequate backup copies of all aspects of their work.”
Here’s the statement I just drafted for my spring course syllabus:
“This course relies heavily on access to computers, specific software, and the Internet. At some point during the semester you WILL have a problem with technology: your laptop will crash, a file will become corrupted, a server will go down, or something else will occur. These are facts of life, not emergencies. Technology problems will not normally be accepted as excuses for unfinished work. Count on ’stuff’ happening and protect yourself by doing the following: • Plan ahead – start early, particularly if scarce resources are required • Save work often – at least every ten minutes • Make regular backups of files in a different location from the originals • Save drafts of work at multiple stages • When editing an image, set aside the original and work with a copy • Practice safe computing when surfing the web and checking email • On your personal computer, install and use software to control viruses and malware”
In the past year, my technology policies have been basic: 1. they must use and check regularly their university email account and Blackboard for announcements, 2. they are responsible for knowing their username and password and resolving any related technological issues with the University help desk, 3. they should use computers on campus if they cannot get their home computer to work or don’t have a fast internet connection, 4. they should submit papers to me electronically via Blackboard, not email, and not in hard copy. When I teach solely online courses I include a clause that they must have an adequate internet connection and computer to work on at home.
This fall we had several issues with Blackboard crashing at crucial moments when papers were due, and in the middle of the semester our IT department changed servers for student email so I had several instances of reasonable ‘the computer ate my homework’ excuses. I am not sure if/how I will change my policies for spring, since it was pretty easy to give extensions.
I only accept assignments submitted through the University’s Learning Management System (currently Moodle) as this receipts successful submissions and all access can be tracked and verified by the University technical staff.
I only accept technological faults if it is the University’s hardware or software at fault. Again, these faults can be verified by the University technical staff.
I warn students that if they choose to use their own computers rather than the University’s, they carry the risk of technology failure. However, I teach students how to make proper backups and how to manage technology risks.
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[...] Technology Policies on Course Syllabi As a professor, you’ve probably heard them all – what used to be “my dog ate my homework” has become “my computer crashed” or “I can’t access the files on my jump drive”. How do some instructors save themselves from doling out extensions to students who, with such perfect timing, experience technology disasters? Read all about it in this article. [...]
[...] I have had several faculty approach me with questions and concerns about such excuses. In “Technology Policies on Course Syllabi,” Billie Hara of ProfHacker offers some very helpful statements that can be inserted into a [...]