Take the lead from late days

A basic late days policy works like this: Each student gets a set number of late days (seven, in AI’s case) to spend throughout the semester. All assignments have classwide due dates. Handing in an assignment on or before the due date costs a student no late days, while each additional day a student takes to complete the assignment costs one late day. Work handed in after all the late days are used is penalized at a predetermined rate, with exceptions made in extreme circumstances.

This system is simple and elegant. It addresses almost all situations when a student may wish to hand in an assignment late. A problem set taking slightly longer than expected? No problem, go to bed, take a late day, finish the problem set the next night and start earlier next time. Planning to write a paper over the weekend but have to go home for your cousin’s bar mitzvah? Stay up a little later in the beginning of the week and take three late days. Orgo exam the same day your COS assignment is due? Study for the exam and start the program afterwards — you can finish in two days, no problem. Your professor can only meet a few hours before the assignment is due? Great, go to office hours and do not worry about being able to incorporate the feedback in time.

Late days can be extended to courses with at least two of any variety of assignments. If there are three papers, or six programming assignments, or 10 problem sets and eight lab reports, the appropriate number of late days can be set accordingly. The value of late days can also be adjusted, whether counting a weekend as one unit or every two calendar days as one late day during midterm week or for a particularly hard assignment.

I see few drawbacks. First, the late-days system requires additional bookkeeping by instructors and students, but as long as students’ grades are recorded somewhere, the number of late days can simply go in the next column. Putting them on Blackboard would assure that students know their standing, and if they are unsure, they can adhere to the class deadline. Second, using late days means that it may not make sense to start grading assignments right away — this practice might delay the return of assignments. However, because few students will use more than four late days on one assignment, graders can delay grading by a few days and return the assignments only slightly later than they would have before. I think most students would prefer the flexibility in submission of assignments over a speedy return. Third, for classes with problem sets, it means that answers to the problem set, whether in class or online, cannot be revealed until the end of the late day period. In this case, set a limit on the number of late days a student can use and release the solutions after that period. For a class that reviews homework the day it is due and returns it two days later, late days may not make sense, but only a small fraction of courses fit this description.

Using late days removes the difficult interaction of asking for an extension. Students do not want to ask for extensions too close to the deadline or for assignments they have known about for too long. Professors do not want to grant all requested extensions, yet they wish to make allowances in reasonable circumstances. Allowing students to grant their own pre-allotted extensions streamlines the process and allows students to determine when extra time is most necessary. Using late days can also encourage additional effort on assignments and allow for the opportunity for better work. A student who wanted to try the extra credit on the COS project but who was tripped up by a missing equals sign for eight hours can allot himself one late day to work on the extra credit. This way, he or she can turn in extra credit rather than be satisfied with his or her completed basic version. A student who uncovers an interesting article the day before the paper is due can take the time to rework his or her argument and include the new source without worrying that he or she will not be able to construct a conclusion by 11:59 p.m.

The use of late days is not particularly intuitive, so it is greatly overshadowed on campus by the individual extension or standard penalty-for-lateness formula, but I think it does the best job of balancing flexibility and accountability with minimal additional costs. It would be a shame to see such a well-crafted system stuck in the COS department.

Simon Fox Krauss is a computer science major from Havertown, Pa. He can be reached at skrauss@princeton.edu.