Making Good Use of the Grace Period

In the weekly schedule of assignments, you will have assignments that are due on a specific day (Monday, Tuesday, etc.). That means exactly what it says: an assignment that is due on Monday should be completed on Monday.

There is, however, a Grace Period that extends until the next morning at noon. The Grace Period is to help you in case of UNEXPECTED emergencies. So, for example, if your computer crashes late on Monday night, you still have time on Tuesday morning to go to campus and use another computer (in a computer lab, in the Library, etc.) and finish an assignment. The grace period deadline is what you will see in D2L as the final day/time on which you can do each Declaration.

You should use Grace Period for emergencies and unexpected life problems. If you start treating the Grace Period as if it were the actual due date of an assignment, you will get yourself into trouble because you will have no room to maneuver if something does come up unexpectedly at the last minute. So, it's perfectly okay to use the Grace Period whenever you need to, but don't plan on using the Grace Period. Instead, use it for times when something unexpected disrupts your plans.

Design your own schedule. The best solution is not to put off assignments until the day they are due. instead, design a schedule that allows you to complete the work without even having to worry about the deadlines, based on when you have time available every week. This can be a MWF class, a TTh class, a weekends-only class: it's totally up to you. Here is how that works: Designing Your Own Class Schedule.

Extensions for medical reasons and other emergencies. If you face an unexpected illness or other emergency (extended power outage during an ice storm, for example), please contact me as soon as you can, and we'll strategize about the best solution. Online classes are very flexible, and if you check with me I will outline some different make-up options. For situations where you know about the event in advance (scheduled surgery, for example), you can take advantage of the option to do your work early and/or do extra credit to make up any assignments you think you might miss. The key is communication, so please let me know what is going on, and that way we can find a good solution!