Connecting students to knowledge
and its application
Southern Utah University
Lynn White, Ph.D.
Statistics Class
Missing and Late Work
Official Due Dates. Every assignment/quiz in this course has a single, firm Official Due Date listed in the course schedule and on Canvas. Due dates exist to keep you on pace with the course's scaffolding and to get you timely instructor feedback. That said, "life happens," which may necessitate a late submission. For most assignments and quizzes, the reason doesn't matter, because the flexibility is already built in.
Built-In 3-Day Grace Period (Universal Accommodation)
In alignment with Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a 72-hour grace period is automatically built into the Canvas lock-date of every eligible assignment and quiz. This 3-day window functions as a pre-approved, universal accommodation available to all students — for unexpected illness, family emergencies, and disability-related flare-ups alike. No explanation, request, or documentation is required to use it, and no late penalty applies.
Two things are excluded from the grace period: the final exam (addressed below) and video lecture quizzes. Video lecture quizzes still have a due date, but you can take them until the end of the semester. However, wizard-beware! If you don’t take them by their due date, you will quickly fall behind, and this will impact your success.
The Final Exam. The final exam must be taken on the scheduled day and time; the grace period does not apply. If you have an unavoidable conflict, you must arrange an alternative with me in advance.
A Word of Caution. Before you celebrate the built-in flexibility: submitting many things late can create an unmanageable pile-up at the end of the term. Use the grace period when you need it, not by default.
If You Need More Time Than the Grace Period Allows.
If you cannot submit an eligible assignment/quiz by the end of the 72-hour grace period because of an unforeseen, unavoidable, and justifiable reason that occurred on or before the Official Due Date, you may request an extension by email or Canvas message. Tell me which graded activity is affected and why; documentation will be required. Note that if the reason arises during the grace period rather than on or before the due date, it generally does not qualify — had you submitted by the Official Due Date, the later problem would not have prevented submission.
Students with DRC Accommodations.
Because a 3-day extension is universally active on all eligible assignments from day one, this course treats the built-in grace period as satisfying the DRC's standard recommendation for flexible assignment deadlines (typically a 1–2 day extension). For eligible assignments and quizzes, the grace period runs concurrently with — and meets or exceeds — that accommodation, measured from the Official Due Date rather than added on top of it. In practice, you already have at least as much deadline flexibility as the standard accommodation provides, and usually more, with nothing to request. Note that the final exam is an exam rather than an assignment, so deadline-flexibility does not apply to it. If your DRC-approved accommodation calls for more flexibility than the grace period provides, or if a disability-related need requires additional time on a specific eligible assignment or quiz, contact me by email or Canvas as early as possible. I will engage the DRC coordinator so that, through the interactive process, we can determine what is reasonable for that assignment.
