Flashes of Panic

This semester was the first time I ever needed to think about stating a late policy, and I didn’t think of it until too late.

I’ve seen a few variations on the late work policy. Prof β this semester simply refused late work, because of the nature of the class. Last spring, her policy was 10% off for the first day an assignment was late, 50% for the second (and after that, why bother.) Another professor this fall gave us three “late days” to be used as we found necessary through the semester.

I’ve been liberal in my own grading. Labs tend to be graded on a ten point scale, but there are really only three places on that scale: 10 for excellent, 9 for good but not great, and 6 for incomplete (and, of course, 0 for nothing.) I accepted late labs for full credit until the last day of classes, yet there are still a lot of 0s in the grade book. The written assignments, graded on a 100-point scale, are trickier. Most students didn’t bother submitting them late, but when the first seriously late one came in, I made up a policy on the spot: five points off for each day late.

This turns out to be a bad decision. See, you can be a week late and still score (potentially) 65 points. (Nobody does, of course, because if you’re a week late you’re not turning in a perfect paper, either.) That’s a lot better than 0, so it doesn’t discourage the perpetually tardy terribly much.

What I need is a function over days late which starts small, increases by healthily large chunks per day and exceeds 100 somewhere around 5 days. 20 points per late day might be sufficient, but it’s too linear; I’d like some curve in there.

What would really be perfect would be if I could express the late policy as a function which requires greek-letter variables.

Now Playing: Starman by Dar Williams

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