R. Clayton (rclayton@monmouth.edu)
Mon, 9 Oct 2000 20:04:17 -0400 (EDT)
A number of people have asked about getting extensions to the programming
deadlines.
We went over my approach to granting deadline extensions on the first day of
class, and you can review it in the Late Assignments section of the class home
page. I developed this approach to cover the general run of tests,
assignments, homework and the like. However, this deadline approach is
particularly important when the assignments are progressive assignments, as
they are in this class.
With progressive assignments, it's important that students get their
assignments back as quickly as possible, because their next assignment is going
to build on their last assignment, and the students need to understand what, if
anything is wrong with their last assignment and fix it before they can go on.
In addition, I make my version of the assignment available so students can look
at sample code and learn some new tricks and techniques (I am a big believer in
the idea that good programmers become better programmers, in part, by reading
other people's code to learn new things).
However, I can neither return assignments nor make my own version available
until I've received all assignments. This is not an issue of me trusting or
not trusting anybody; rather it's the only way I know about to defend against
third party accusations of cheating, where A accuses B of cheating off of C.
With progressive assignments, not only does a deadline extension effect the
person receiving the deadline, but it also effects everybody else in class,
because of the delayed assignment returns. This is why I'm particularly
reluctant to extend deadlines for progressive assignments (this is also why I
usually up the late penalty from 5 to 10 points per day on extended deadlines).
On the other hand, things do happen, and they tend to do so at inconvenient
times, so I can't dismiss entirely the idea of extending a deadline.
Fortunately, however, there is an alternative to extending deadlines in such
cases. If you find yourself unable to complete an assignment by the deadline,
you should come to me with whatever work you've completed and, if you've gone
far enough to indicate you know what you're doing, I'd be willing to waive the
requirements for the rest of that assignment and grade it as if you've handed
in a completed assignment.
Under this scheme you won't be penalized for unfortunate circumstances, you'll
still have time to finish your work, and everybody else won't be effected by
what happens to you. There are a few points to keep in mind about this scheme,
however. First, you actually need to have done an appreciable amount of work
at the time you encounter your unfortunate circumstances. This may penalize
people who encounter lengthy unfortunate circumstances early in an assignment,
but I'm guessing such cases are going to involve more than just simple
adjustments to a single deadline anyway. Second, this scheme only determines
what happens if we agree that you've suffered an unfortunate circumstance; you
still have to make your case that you have, in fact, suffered an unfortunate
circumstance.
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