<p>Pooh,
I don’t think anyone would expect the prof to investigate anything. The burden of proof would be on my D. She provided that to the prof by offering the name of the IT person she spoke with who was willing to vouch for her. I’m sure IT could provide a login time, etc if need be. Nobody asked the professor to look into it. That would be unreasonable.</p>
<p>I think this has gone on so long because online classes are really uncharted territory for most people and we’re just not sure what’s acceptable and what’s not… yet…</p>
<p>People like new and uncharted territory.</p>
<p>^ college is new and uncharted territory for freshmen.</p>
<p>Not meant to be sarcastic, just that it is learn as you go.</p>
<p>Gee, PoohNDisney (post #180), you’re awfully cynical, given your user name.</p>
<p>Since the OP has embraced a wide-ranging discussion, here is a thought: what if the student had been kicked out of the program not because of the multiple-log-on problem but because the school’s wireless system went down?</p>
<p>This is a problem I have actually encountered, several times. In a given semester, I have five or so assignments that must be submitted on-line by a certain time. On several occasions, students have told me that they could not submit their assignments because the school’s wireless internet was down.</p>
<p>On one hand, it is the school’s internet–so is this like the locked building? On the other hand, the internet going down is not an unexpected occurrence. (In these cases, the wireless internet was down for a matter of hours; IT has said–I think–that students using wireless printers overburden the system and that accounts for some instances, but weather too can cause the wireless system to go down.)</p>
<p>Thoughts?</p>
<p>ETA: The assignments are not on-line; the assignments are essays that students compose as Word documents and then upload on-line. So the on-line portion just takes a few minutes at most. Again, I recognize that this is different from the OP’s D’s situation, which was an on-line exercise.</p>
<p>
Not really. Fall of 1977, the dark ages, computer programming 101 for engineers. We had weekly week-long assignments and were dependent on school key punch machines, school card readers, and school printers. If the assignment was due at 9:00 there was NO slack in the due date (points off not a zero) even if the one of those 3 school supplied resources failed at the last minute. And then did fail regularly at the last minute mostly driven by the long line of procrastinators trying to squeeze their assignment in on time. Pretty darn similar situation to me. And what we were told is you had a week to do the assignments and knew there was a good chance of technology issues at the last minute and should have allowed for them. I was a procrastinator who got burned and I think the penalty was fair enough. The essence of life as a procrastinator is things work out fine as long as there are no unexpected glitches … but those glitches have a funny way of showing up … and 30 years later I still get burned by them occasionally.</p>
<p>BTW - I responded to the thread because I believe the profs position is much closer to work expectations than giving the student a break in this situation. Tropical Storm Sandy comes through and the company loses power for days is one thing … however (real life example) … working late on a presentation due the next day and having the company owned color printer die gave my ZERO wiggle room on my assignment … I needed to produce the work in a timeline that allowed for minor hiccups not of my making.</p>
<p>I think, in general, that when there are issues like this the prof SHOULD be flexible. I mean REALLY SHOULD BE EXPECTED to be flexible. But the truth is that all are not.</p>
<p>We have driven to a fast food restaurant in the middle of the night to use their free wireless to turn in assignments before because the internet at our house was down! LOL</p>
<p>They always advise you not to use wifi during online exams. Every online or hybrid class I have taken every prof has always strongly advised using Ethernet bc of how unreliable Uni wifi can be. </p>
<p>Sent from my iPhone using CC</p>
<p>*advice</p>
<p>Sent from my iPhone using CC</p>
<p>Crom, just because you are the most recent to say it: what’s so holy about flexibility? It’s true that “humanity” greases the wheels in real life, is an important trait. But isn’t performance ultimately about how one meets and exceeds goals?</p>
<p>I love the line in Dangerous Liaisons: * it’s beyond my control.<a href=“From%20a%20particular%20context,%20ok.”>/i</a> But, don’t the wise not leave so much to hope and crossed fingers? Isn’t part of rock solid performance being able to anticipate what might get in the way? And including that in his planning? Awareness of Murphy’s Laws #1 and #2? Not always counting, one might say, “on the kindness of strangers?”</p>
<p>A problem with flexibility is that it invites at least the perception of unfairness. Is being late because the school’s wireless internet was down the same as being late because the school-sponsored sports team did not get back when it was supposed to or because a roommate needed a ride to the hospital?</p>
<p>I adopted my drop-the-lowest grade policy because I was spending too much time and mental energy determining first whether these things warranted an extension and then whether the things had really happened.</p>
<p>Amesie: Love the idea of the lowest grade policy because everyone has on off day and may have an emergency or health issue.</p>
<p>There is a difference between wifi down vs internet down. If wifi is down then they could still hard wire it. If the school’s internet goes down a lot then I don’t think requiring students submit anything online is a good way to go.</p>
<p>While the students had a week to do the quiz, there is an issue that hasn’t been addressed yet: Had all of the material tested on the quiz already been covered when the quiz was assigned, or was material relevant to the quiz presented during the week? </p>
<p>Problem sets in science courses sometimes contain material that will be covered before the set is due, but hasn’t been covered when the set is handed out.</p>
<p>Someone used the “locked door on a building” analogy. It’s just my opinion. I think a reasonable person makes some provisions. Amesie says drop the lowest grade - I think that’s a reasonable flexibility that would cover a “one off” situation.</p>
<p>In general, I think that if the deadline is at a set time, and the school’s network is not operating at said set time the professor should be flexible.</p>
<p>In real life, as others have said, there are options, usually…other avenues.</p>
<p>For example, if I have a bill due and my banking online is down, I can call the 1-800 number, talk to someone, pay the bill and have them note the file.</p>
<p>If I have a client that has an online interface, and it is malfunctioning, I can call them, email them, let them know and hand deliver a thumb drive with whatever they need on it.</p>
<p>When there is only ONE avenue for getting an assignment done, an avenue that is not controlled by the assignee, and that avenue is not functional - I believe the professor should be flexible. Since there’s no flexibility in mode of submittal - some level of flexibility should be applied. Just my opinion. That’s all.</p>
<p>I understand the professor is not BOUND to be flexible. But I think he/she SHOULD be.</p>
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<p>Yea, in 1977. When you were paying less than 5,000/ year to attend and live on campus. And the technology was failry new and undependable. </p>
<p>In 2012, when we are paying sticker prices of over $50,000/year, and with the technology advances, I expect the infrastructure to be MUCH better than it was 35 years ago. Nothing irritates me more than to hear that X campus has bad wifi, or other connectivity issues. That should be a fairly top priority on the campus, as it is with most businesses that require it to do business. And yes, they should have some type of back up or plan for students if the connectivity fails. </p>
<p>I find it unacceptable for a campus that depends on, and even teaches courses in technology to have this kind of problem.</p>
<p>In real life, there are acceptable reasons for things to be late. There are unavoidable reasons for things to be late. Including taxes, FAFSA, and other very important things. And MOST people do not treat situations as black and white as this is being treated.</p>
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<p>Speaking of technology and costs, computers back in that era cost tens or even hundreds of thousands in their dollars and would be magnitudes greater if adjusted to 2012 dollars to account for inflation. From looking at old ads and older relatives who used the first PCs and Macs…they recalled paying as much as $5000-$10000 for a personal computer that’s far less powerful than some pocket calculators/cell phones today…and much more prone to breakdowns/crashes. </p>
<p>One post-college roommate paid over $2300+ for one of the first pentium desktops in the early '90s which not only crashed often…but also overheated due to cooling issues with the very first generation of pentium processors. Just imagine how many tricked out current macs he could have bought with that amount if adjusted to 2012 dollars.</p>
<p>Cobrat, I’ve heard it put this way: that the processing power of a room full of IBM 360/370’s was less than that of the average PC today. </p>
<p>Crom, I don’t disagree. I just think many look at this through one side of the lens only- the kid or the “needer.” What the kids wants and needs. Wants to take it at 6pm, wants to do well, needs someone to accept her timing decision and allow the blockage to yield a consideration. One teacher, x classes, each with how many students? </p>
<p>This thread, with a few minor shifts, could have sparked outrage over a consideration given some other kid. Say, some rich international kid who got the prof to accept his reasoning. Would we be saying, well, my kid [made this sacrifice] to get it done earlier? Or, if OP had said, this is the umpteenth time D has done this, how would people react?</p>
<p>Vlines, would you put perfect technology ahead of other priorities students expect? At what cost?</p>
<p>Just for the record, I asked Dh and he said he’d be flexible, if he wasn’t in his own time bind. If the particular kid wasn’t a known headache.</p>
<p>My son just started high school and they are using a 1-1 computing model. The first quiz in a particular class was an online quiz, and the teacher required that they do it in class to make sure it was working properly. It wasn’t and had to be discarded.</p>
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<p>Only to her parents.</p>