Introducing a Late Bank in Online Graduate Courses: The Response of Students

Abstract

In post-secondary education, students must demonstrate strong time-management skills while they navigate several courses in a semester. When students struggle to meet due dates, they can accrue late penalties, which exacerbates a stressful situation. In response, two graduate programs integrated a late bank system into their online courses. Students could submit one of two assignments up to five days after the due date without penalty. After each assignment was due, a survey was used to measure students’ levels of stress, the perception of the late bank, and reasons for using it. This study found the late bank was utilized by students, was positively regarded, and improved student attitudes toward their instructor. Reported levels of stress were similar for students who used the late bank compared to those did not. The results suggest that incorporating a late bank into the course design is an effective method of promoting student well-being.

Replacing Power with Flexible Structure: Implementing Flexible Deadlines to Improve Student Learning Experiences

“…The second most frequently mentioned benefit of extensions by students in this class was the ability to better manage their time in connection to other academic responsibilities. This was also observed in other studies (Nickels and Uddin 2003;Pitt et al 2018;Schroeder, Makarenko, and Warren 2019). The ability to better manage multiple assessments may also support more students in completing assigned work.…”

“…In our course, completion rates for assignments were high, with only 2% (7/344) of assignments not handed in. Furthermore, the reduction in stress that students commonly described in this class in connection to the flexible deadlines has also been observed by others (e.g., Pitt et al 2018;Schroeder, Makarenko, and Warren 2019).…”

“…Students who responded to our survey unanimously agreed that the flexibility around deadlines was useful and that they would like to see this approach in other courses. Similarly, Schroeder, Makarenko, and Warren (2019) found that providing access to a one-time extension of up to five days increased positive attitudes toward their instructor. As described by these authors, this metric is connected to student satisfaction, learning, and behaviour and is a relevant consideration in a system where student evaluations of instructors remain a common tool for evaluating teaching.…”

“…Taken together, this research suggests that flexible deadlines may increase student pass rates (Patton 2000;Withington and Schroeder 2017), improve participation (Miller, Asarta, and Schmidt 2019) improve student achievement (Kumar and Wideman 2014;Miller, Asarta, and Schmidt 2019;Wang 2011) reduce student perceptions of stress (Kumar and Wideman 2014;Nickels and Uddin 2003;Schroeder, Makarenko, and Warren 2019), increase student attention to work (Nickels and Uddin 2003), and improve assignment quality and student perception of the instructor (Schroeder, Makarenko, and Warren 2019). It is important to point out that flexible deadlines in these studies did not mean "no deadlines," or a lack of consequences for not handing work in.…”

“…Finally, Schroeder, Makarenko, and Warren (2019) examined students in an online Canadian graduate program. They looked at 78 graduate students across five different courses who could use a late bank of up to five days on one out of two assignments without self-disclosure or penalty.…”