It’s a day before a big class project is due. The power goes out, leaving a team incapable of finishing the project.
As a professor, should you take mercy on these poor students’ grades, or grant an extension?
I think leniency, generally does your students a disservice. Choosing to complete work at the last minute is a risk, and one that is unnecessary. Generally, if there’s the realization that stuff going wrong happens in the real world, brinksmanship is idiotic.
Better to learn in the classroom, rather than a high stakes situation where someone can get fired.
On the other hand, it’s important for students to ultimately end up doing the work. So, completely removing the incentive to continue trying also seems infeasible. Maybe a harsh penalty to day-late and more over time.
In general, I’m more sympathetic to technical “turn-it-in” issues, rather than “need-to-complete” issues because it’s not inherently risky to want to double check one last time.
Ultimately, I think about this because working at places where people have real deadlines that they’re expected to meet is a cultural choice. That choice involves sometimes punishing those we can be sympathetic to. Presumably, people are molded to norms, and over time, they adjust to the new normal.
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