@Datingandnoideahowto
You need to sit down and write out a timeline.
Or rather. Your son needs to.
You’re not answering the questions asked (which I understand because you aren’t the student).
As an example. The extenuating circumstances. Did he get the standard 2 weeks you don’t have to ask for. Did he ge t2 weeks because of his existing medical condition on. Or did he submit details (with proof usually required) of all the things that had happened including death of his mate etc and be granted an extension on those grounds.
He should have read that info you found online. Did he ? If not why not.
Exactly why could he not access the course materials? Was it his internet? If so, how did he do the rest of his modules this year.
I’m surprised that if he asked for extenuating circs due to his issues with friend and family member with cancer etc that he didn’t get an extension into the summer term. I’m actually astounded he only got 2 weeks standard with all that.
Yes, I’d be astonished if a two week extension were the maximum or only mitigation available to your son if he put in an extenuating circumstances request detailing the death of his friend and his family member’s illness. In fact I think that’s pretty much impossible in a U.K. university. The two week extension is far more likely to have been a blanket offer to all students during the COVID crisis, or to be a regularly available option for students who experience illness or similar but have no medical evidence to support a claim for a longer extension. In my view it was not an appropriate option for your son. What I would be looking into if I were you would be whether, when he contacted his personal tutor or other pastoral support about his situation, he was advised properly about 1) mental health support available through the university, and 2) what kind of extenuating circumstances mitigations to apply for and how to go about it. If he was not given proper advice about 2), and/or was only directed toward the standard 2 weeks extension, that might help in any appeal.
On the academic side I’m afraid I think your case is weaker. As others have said, it sounds as though the course was poorly run and badly updated for online delivery, but it’s very hard to judge that based on the (incompletely reported) experience of one student who may, for multiple reasons, have been unable to engage properly. I can see why you would feel very frustrated and angry about this course based on what your son has told you, but I think you need to take a step back. The course leader would either have been malicious or highly incompetent to have misinformed your son about whether the synoptic would contribute to the final grade. If it was the latter this would have affected multiple students and would likely have been picked up during moderation procedures, which probably leaves us just with malice. But can you be sure this was not a misunderstanding? There are a lot of ways that could happen, e.g. wires crossed about which assignment (synoptic or formative) was under discussion, confusion about whether ‘marked’ meant ‘assessed’ or ‘responded to with detailed feedback’. It also sounds bad that his draft wasn’t marked, but was it handed in on time? If not, how late was it and did he have permission to submit that specific piece of work (as opposed to the dissertation itself) late and a guarantee that he would receive feedback anyway? Did the time at which he handed it in realistically give the marker time to read and respond — for instance, if the draft was only handed in on Friday at 4.30pm and his final deadline dissertation itself was the following Thursday at noon, when exactly could the course leader usefully have read the work and provided feedback? You might think I sound suspicious and nit picking but this kind of thing happens regularly, particularly with students who are struggling. I think you said the course leader was on holiday when the draft was submitted — perhaps he or she had posted somewhere on the course site that this would be the case and that work handed in at that point would not be marked, but your son did not see this notification. Again, this is very common. I myself would usually mark and return the work anyway, but that would be out of kindness, not obligation — academics need time off too — and you don’t know the course leader’s personal circumstances or what that leave was being used for. This is why appropriate use of extenuating circumstances procedures is vital: your son’s situation was such that a longer extension and a renegotiation of terms around the draft would have been a reasonable outcome, but without proper engagement with the proper procedures on your son’s part there would be nothing the course leader could or should do.
I do not agree with some posters who have said special needs or neurodiversity are the only valid reasons for your son to have failed to do more to deal with the IT/internet/communications problems he experienced on this course. Grief and associated mental health issues in combination with isolation would seem to me very likely to hamper efforts to manage problems like this and to diminish motivation generally. I feel for him and I really don’t want to be picking holes in his story, and yes, it is possible that the academic in charge has behaved really poorly in which case the department may be grateful for a complaint on which to act. I’ve seen that before too. But it is very unlikely that an academic complaints procedure will result in any change to your son’s dissertation or degree result which is why I recommend exploring the extenuating circs appeal. At the very least I suggest your son make sure that any academic he asks to act as a referee for him in future is aware that his dissertation mark may have been adversely affected by personal circumstances so that this can be judiciously reflected in your son’s references.