Help students keep on track with coursework by establishing clear expectations, deadlines, and consequences, while offering support.

This week’s “Be a Strong Student” message to students asks them to do the work on time. Here are some strategies instructors can implement to help support their efforts:

Have a clear late work policy

• Balance compassion with high expectations:
  • Recognize that there may be special circumstances warranting extensions, and send the message “extensions on deadlines are for exceptional circumstances.”
  • Acknowledge that allowing students to turn in late work all the time will impede their learning (while also increasing your grading workload).
• Inspire students to complete their work by deducting points or offering other consequences but do not by themselves catastrophically sink grades.
  • Use Canvas’s “missing submission policy” to set Canvas to post a default grade at a defined time.
• Make explicit that coming unprepared makes it harder for students to succeed in the class session.
• Be clear about make-up classwork: establish whether and how students can make up missed classwork.

Offer clear assignments

• Provide students with clear assignments (see template and other tips).
• Scaffold major assignments, helping students to work on the assignment in pieces rather than rushing to complete them all at the very last minute.
• Provide rubrics: rubrics help students understand expectations and requirements (and help instructors grade).

Encourage and support students

• Remind students of options for help, including student/office hours, CAST, the CWE, and Sprague librarians.
• Offer clear, timely, and actionable feedback; returning assignments within two weeks, for example. See tips on planning for grading.
• Encourage students to regularly check the Canvas gradebook to gain an accurate idea of their grade.

• Remind students that being on time with their work is a skill that will transfer to the workplace.

• Redirect them to the time management skills highlighted in a previous week of the campaign.

• Encourage them to revisit and revise (or complete) a time management activity. See these examples provided by CAST:

Time Management Activity (opens as PDF)

Time Management Handouts (opens as PDF)