Category: Excuses (Page 1 of 2)

Background from Instructor: The final paper has been assigned since day one of the Fall semester. Drafts were due at different points in the semester, and the deadline for the final paper was set for the last class.

Email from student: I have been working diligently to complete my final paper although I still have work to do. I am about to head home for semester break to celebrate the holidays with family and was wondering if I could get an extension for my final paper. I will have it submitted to you no later than New Year’s Day (or shortly after). 

Background provided by Instructor: I teach an online class. The last exam was open for one week.  A reminder was sent out the day it opened, again mid-week, and then the day before it was due.  The exam closed at midnight on the last day.  At 11:00pm on the last day – with only one hour left – I emailed three students who had yet to take the class.  One of these students wrote back to me at 11:55pm (5 minutes before midnight when the exam and class were to close), after taking the exam in the final hour, to ask if I could reopen it for her to try again because she had not done well….. here is her email explaining her reasoning.  [I replied that I was not willing to reopen her exam.]

Student’s email: When taking the test on campus, I had an extremely difficult time staying focused on my exam due to a lot of noise being caused by a group of students coming in… resulting in my lowest prelim grade by far. I was wondering if it would be possible to retake it? I understand if it is not possible, but I’m sure you understand my frustration with at the situation. Thank you for all of your help.

Background provided by Instructor: I teach an online class. The syllabus and calendar are emailed to each student and are also posted online. Each week I send reminder emails about what is due. Since the prelim is open over the course of several days, I also send daily email reminders. For this exam, one student had not completed it by the deadline, so I extended the due date and emailed the student. It appears this student has not been checking email or his Calendar and forgot. The day after the prelim closed, I received this email:
Dear Professor:
I don’t know how, but somehow I completely missed prelim 2. I’ve been keeping extremely close track of the calender, but somehow that test completely slipped by me. I’m panicking right now. Professor, is there anything you can do for me? I don’t want to fail this class. You know I try really hard in it. This was just a brain lapse on my part, and I really don’t feel I deserve to lose out so much over it…I also didn’t see the email you sent about leaving prelim 2 open until the end of Sunday until 4:20 AM today. I didn’t think to check my email because I thought I had my entire schedule covered, and I thought Prelim 2 would be next week… I’m so very sorry. I really hope you’re willing to work with me on this…

Background provided by Instructor: I teach an online class which requires students to access the course regularly to post their reflection over the assigned lectures.  Due dates for these short reflections are clearly identified on the syllabus. I also send reminder emails.  On the night the assignment was due, a student wrote:

hi, i am at my parent’s house and they do not have internet so I won’t be able to do the assignment that is due by tonight. i thought i could just access the class via my cell phone, but it is impossible to listen to the lectures and view the video portion on my phone.  i’m writing to be sure it is okay if i do it tomorrow instead and just get it to you then. thank you for being so understanding.

Background provided by Instructor: The students are given a copy of the syllabus before the start of the course. It clearly states that the textbook is required and that all three exams will include material presented in the textbook. The book is for sale new or used, and is also on reserve in the campus library.   A student wrote to me 4 days before the last exam to say:

I’m worried because I  failed both exams so far in the course. I realize the textbook is required but I never bought it and now I am worried about passing the class. I have already gone home so I am not on campus to borrow the one on reserve in the library. Do you know if there is an online version I could look at before the last test?  I really want to pass the class.

Background provided by Instructor: I received this email shortly before the midpoint of a fully online course. This “student” had been emailing me with excuses for not completing assignments that ranged from not having the textbook to not understanding the syllabus. Finally, I learned the real reason she was not doing her work:

hello profesor i M JUST WRITTING TO INFORM YOU THAT as of this week i will have all the required items to pARTICIPATE IN THE CLASS FULLY. HONESTLLY I HAVE BEEN TAKING THIS COURSE FROM MY PHONE ANTICIPATING MY REFUND TO PURCHASE A COMPUTER AND INTERNET SERVICE I AM NOT ASKING FOR ANY THING EXTRA BUT I WILL BE PUTTING FORTH THE EFFORT THAT I NEED IN ORDER TO PASS THE CLASS. I HONESTLY JUST WANTED TO COMMUNICATE WITH YOU RATHER THAN TO KEEP YOU GUESSING AS TO WHY I HAVE NOT BEEN ACTIVE IN THE CLASS BUT THANKS FOR BEING UNDERSTANDING IN ADVANCE

Background provided by Instructor: The directions for a class writing assignment specifies that the student must refer back to material presented in the required reading. I inform the students that the book is on reserve if they are not able to buy it. It needs to be clear that the student read the book. When I emailed a student about his paper – questioning if he read the book and pointing out that he had not referred to anything from the required reading – he responded:

I do not own the book.  It was deemed by my parents who help me pay for school that it would be fiscally irresponsible to buy the books for class.

Background provided by Instructor: One of my students registered for 3 credits of fieldwork with the intention of working with a local youth agency. Two weeks into the semester, he informed me the position fell through but assured me he would find another placement. Two weeks later, he still hadn’t found anything…. and this continued into the next month and the next….. to the point where I was getting no response to my emails asking for weekly reports, forms from supervisors, etc.   It is now the last week of the semester and the student has appeared – he just sent me this email:

I want to know if I could just write a paper for my field work instead. I could not find a placement due to schedule conflicts and it was hard to be placed anywhere because I would be leaving at the end of the semester and they were looking for someone longer term.

Just wanted to let you know I fall asleep when not intellectually stimulated. There’s nothing I can do about it, it just happens. Thought you should know because I’ve had a lot of [course content] before so it’ll probably happen.

Email from a student who submitted a paper to the class folder which screens for originality/plagiarism….after the student got their originality report showing 100% match with the friend’s paper I got this email:

Hello Doctor X, i accidently sumited the wrong paper my friend sent me a paper to use as a guideline and without thinkin this morning i put my name on the top of the wrong paper and submited it can i plz submit the my paper as the paper i submited will be plagerism