This document discusses the challenges that instructors face with late student work. It explores different policies that instructors have for accepting late assignments, from zero tolerance to more lenient approaches. It also provides examples of emails that instructors receive requesting extensions or explaining late submissions. The document suggests that instructors must determine how much responsibility they have to remind students of deadlines. While some prompting may be helpful, too much could enable procrastination. Procrastination in school can negatively impact careers long-term by leading to lower salaries and unemployment. Potential solutions include assignments about time management or accepting late work with added reflections.

1. Wrestling the
Ongoing Dilemma
of Late Work
ELLEN BREMEN, M.A.
COMMUNICATION STUDIES FACULTY
HIGHLINE COLLEGE

2. About Ellen
19-year tenured faculty, Communication Studies (Highline
College, Darton College/Albany, GA)
◦ University of Nevada, Las Vegas graduate (Bachelor of Science, Post-
Secondary Ed; Master of Arts, Communication Studies)
Author of “Say This, NOT That to Your Professor: 36 Talking Tips
for College Success” (2012: Pearson Education; 2016: Cognella)
Three-times nationally recognized for teaching innovation in the
face-to-face and online environment (NISOD, NCIA, Sloan-
Consortium)
CrossFit addict, flatwater kayaker, “penguin” jogger, serene
crocheter, wife, mother of a 16 and 11 year-old in Seattle.

3. I would love to say that I have a zero tolerance policy

4. But am I really?
But am
I really?
Why
don’t you
just e-
mail it to
me? End-of-
term in-
box mess
What do I
grade
first?
Equity
Enabling
Buried

5. Colleagues say 1…
Dropbox open for three
days, points increase each
day, after third day, not
accepted.
Dropbox stays open one
extra week, no penalty.
No late work. Points are
dropped at the end of the
term for “recovery.”
One free pass on any
assignment throughout the
term
Colleagues
say…

6. Colleagues say 2…olleagues say 1…
Open up assignments at
the end—submit what
you can.
Late work carte
blanche…
Zero tolerance… for real “It’s a developmental
skill.”
Colleagues
say…

7. Where do you stand on the late work
spectrum??
?
Where do you
stand on the late
work spectrum?
Tolerance? Zero
tolerance? In
between? What is
your policy?

8. Example emails
4:32 p.m. Don’t know why it does
not let me turn in the revision, I
was waiting all day to see if a
submit button came up but I did
not see one so I decided I’ll just
email it to you instead.
11:32 p.m. Professor Bremen, I am
unable to view the video in this
assignment. I have tried to view it
through my phone, laptop, and
other computer.
12:45 a.m. I am still in Idaho for
my wrestling tournament.
May I please submit my topic and
research on Monday please
because I have not had much time
to work on it.
1:50 a.m. Turned this
assignment late because I
didn't have an audience until
later in the day... and video
took about an hour to two to
upload.
5:22 a.m. I literally left for 2
seconds to copy the MLA cite
and when i came back to the
canvas page, not only did i lose
everything i wrote but i couldn't
reply to the discussion. :/

9. What types of e-mails do you receive??
?
What types of
e-mails do you
receive?
When? What is
your response?

10. No late work message example 1
I am so sorry for your loss. I can’t imagine what a difficult time
this must be. I trust students to prioritize their time, and you
did what was most important for you: you took care of your
mom.
This is one of the reasons I drop the lowest of these scores. I
don’t want you to spend your time trying to catch up; you have
enough stress in your life right now. Forget about this
assignment as it will be the one that will be dropped. Instead,
put your energy into working on the next one.
Thinking of you and your family,

11. No late work message example 2I totally understand being away and having a tech snafu. I also
ask you to consider that these assignments have been
available, and I worry that backing up against the deadline for
submission (even if you think all is 100% covered) created an
issue here. I am resistant to late work because I do provide
the assignments so early in order for students to set their
schedules. I also drop points at the end in assignment
categories so that way we can take care of any issues that
may arise (such as this).

12. How much are we allowed to be late?
How much are we, as
professionals “allowed”
to be late? How much do
we allow ourselves to
procrastinate? What are
the ramifications?

13. Helpful or enabling messaging?8:30pm on the evening I have an assignment due
online by midnight: From my phone's Canvas teacher
app, I clicked on the circle showing me the students
who have yet to submit the assignment, and then I
clicked the envelope/mail icon (what does this do?),
and all those students' addresses appeared in a
Canvas email message (!), and I pasted the following
message for each class: "I'm with you in spirit as you
complete this assignment, my friends. You've got
this!! 💚". This is the most cool thing I've ever found
that the mobile Canvas app enabled me to do. Nice!!!

14. Remind messaging

15. Is this enabling?
(A boss wouldn’t
do it)
OR... Does this
replicate
colleagues who
may remind you
before a project is
due?
(The colleague
who messaged
students had
100% submission)
Is this enabling?

16. How much responsibility do we have? you
receive??
?
What do you
think? How much
responsibility do
we have to
remind? Are we
enabling? Or
being helpful?

17. CERI Research Brief, 2007 Michigan State University

18. Procrastination at work
“Even if the reasons for procrastinating vary, the
results for a person's career are consistent: a
2013 study of more than 22,000 people by
academics at the University of Calgary showed
higher levels of procrastination were associated
with lower salaries, shorter duration of
employment and a greater likelihood of being
unemployed or underemployed rather than
working full-time.”
"It can mean managers are less likely to assign
important, time-sensitive tasks to that person.
Someone who procrastinates could lose out on
the opportunity to work on tasks that could
give them a lot of exposure in the
organisation," she says.
Source: Don't procrastinate at work: Procrastinators are more likely
to be on lower salaries and have a greater likelihood of being
unemployed Smith, Gordon. Irish Times; Dublin [Dublin]02 Oct
2015: 7.

19. Solutions?
?
?
What are
the
solutions?

20. Ideas?
An assignment on
procrastination/time
management.
“Trick” students to self-
assess how they would
feel if they didn’t
procrastinate.
Accept late work once
but require an
additional reflection on
how to resolve the
problem. ?
Ideas?

21. Contact information:
ELLEN BREMEN, M.A.
COMMUNICATION STUDIES FACULTY
HIGHLINE COLLEGE / EBREMEN@HIGHLINE.EDU

22. THANK YOU!
Unless otherwise specified, IGNIS content is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.