Reframing Assessment #2

What is a deadline?

Considering the notion of deadlines in the context of the purpose of assessment almost seems an ironic contradiction... but let's just look at what a deadline is - or isn't:

What a deadline is not:

• it is NOT when you start your submission
• is NOT to be ignored
• you do NOT wait until after it's passed to request an extension
• you will NOT die if you do not submit on time (you may get penalised - but it's not fatal - probably!)

Who are deadlines for? A couple of perspectives:
Students:

• deadlines provide milestones to manage progress through subject matter,
• feedback to encourage,
• guidance for further development
• must be adhered to for your marks to be processed and submitted to the greater administrative systems

Lecturers:

• deadlines allow us to manage our time allocations / workloads (that's when assignments are submitted on time)
• provide the lecturer/educator some feedback on how students are grasping the content being studied
• is a compulsory part of the adminstration tasks

So - why do students not submit assignments on time?

• too busy? (doing.. something more interesting?)
• conflict between workloads - work versus studies
• lazy?
• not motivated?
• fear of failure? Or not achieving?
• don't understand the task clearly enough?
• not engaged with the content of the subject?
• don't care?

When was the last time you, as an educator, heard a student say how much they enjoyed an exam?
Although - I have had some students admit to really enjoy some of their projects that are assessable at the end of semester...
But - the final answer to the original question is clearly more complex than some of the tongue in cheek comments I've observed here! ;-)

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