Failed Submission of Online Assessment

[Violetparis]

Does anyone know if a student who has failed to submit an online assessment on time would get a chance to resit ? I am so annoyed at my DD who left it to the last minute to upload an assessment. She got some wierd error message while trying to upload (not from the university's IT system, from her own onedrive), panicked and had to upload again but at this point the time was up and the uni system wouldn't accept it. After a teary phone call to me she then emailed the support team in the uni with her work attatched. She needed to get about 20% from this test to pass her module and she needs to pass all her modules in her first year to be able to go into second year. Has anyone else been through something similar ?

I think the reality is she’ll probably be allowed a resit module in the summer, she’ll have to check. Did she take screen shots to prove what was happening, that might help her case?

It happened to a friends dd. She was allowed to do a resit. It was a lesson learned the hard way I’m afraid. I have two at uni, and one finished a year ago also. They’ll just think she didn’t submit unless she has proof, it’s brutal!
She needs to go to her module tutor, and hope they’re understanding

I agree. At my DD's university they take 20% from the final mark for assignments which are submitted late (not exams) and 5% for each day after that. So there is a system in place.

One of her friends is bound to know even if she doesn't. Hope it goes well for her. My dd is so unbearable sensible in every aspect of her life but she submits everything just before the deadline. I find it so strange because she isn't like that in any other part of her life.

Thanks Pinkypinkyplonk. She did email the work she had done and a screenshot of the error message to the support team and her module tutor. Hopefully that will help her case. Totally agree it's a life lesson but so frustating as a parent, going to spoil our summer as we're all in limbo now. Argggggghhh !!

Thank you, they do similar at my DD's uni with 5% off for every day a normal assignment is late. Just not sure of the process for timed assesments and I totally understand why they need to be strict on this.

For exams it was zero if you failed to submit and then a capped resit was allowed later on.

Just emailing it to another person wasn't considered sufficient if it was AFTER the cut off time.

As we had 24 hours to do it and get it in -so leaving it to last second wasn't an excuse.

The assessment was a 3 hour one and I agree it should have been submitted on time. If a capped resit is allowed then that's ok.

For anyone else reading this, my DH who is an academic is frequently reminding students that online assessments are X + Y minutes with Y intended as time to submit, not X+Y time to complete them. This sort of last minute oh somethings going wrong is not uncommon hence you should have some spare time up your sleeve.

I hope any other parents trying to convince their students to plan their time carefully have more success.

OP, I hope you daughter gets what she needs and doesn't have to wait too long to find out what will happen.

@LuckyOrMaybe that is so right.

@Violetparis my son (1st year) had one online exam after Christmas (the rest were in person). Deadline for submission was 12 noon. He pressed submit a couple of minutes before the deadline 😯. It didn't go through (said "pending" or similar), finally went through 15 mins later. Official email receipt said 12.16. He took a screenshot at 12 luckily showing it "pending" and contacted the helpline immediately (about 12.05), then followed it up with an email about 12.20. The support team said he would have to wait for the result and then submit a mitigating circumstances application. He got 0% when results were published. Submitted the mitigating circumstances application, with the screenshot, also a screenshot of the document properties that showed when it had last been saved etc, a record of the phone call and the email following it up. It was quite a long wait until appeals were heard (mid March) but his application was accepted as valid, and the 0% was replaced by his correct result. He obviously won't have to do a resit in summer. Really important lesson for him.

Can your DD look up the process to appeal and got through it? Contact student services / her tutor if she is unsure, get all the supporting "evidence" together to showed that she tried to submit it on time.

Thanks Fiftiesishard. My DD did contact the support services and module tutor with a screenshot of the error message she got on her laptop. I'm not sure if it will have shown the time or whether it was her not uploading her work correctly. I am expecting her to have to do a resit. So annoying as a parent !!

At my place, that would incur a late penalty, and there would be no way of appealing that because of equipment /software confusion at the student's end. If the student doesn't submit by 2 weeks after the deadline, then it's a "referred" assessment, and capped at 40%.

Our online submission system is set up so that students can submit, then re-submit right up to the deadline. We advise them to upload a near to final version of their submission on the day before the deadline, then re-submit their finished piece by the deadline.

It means that equipment failure etc etc won't count against them or incur a late penalty.

Your DD should have submitted as soon as she'd sorted the software error/computer malfunction and the assessment might only incur a 1 day penalty (at my place, that's 5% off the mark).

@YourPithyLilacSheep I think there's a difference perhaps between assessments (which are done over a period of days / weeks / months even) and short exams or assessments of a few hours. If its say a 2hr exam you're not going to waste time submitting a partially complete paper etc and i think universities do need to ensure their systems can cope with 300 students all submitting a minute before the deadline!! I think the proposal of submitting various drafts sounds very sensible though for other submissions.

In my degree it was online exams -34 hours to do and submit.

First round you could submit as often as you wanted and whatever was there at deadline was it.

So I'd upload a 95% done version before I went off to bed then do final amends in the morning to submit say 9.30 for 10am deadline. Essays same -could upload many times before deadline (and nothing after deadline)

Then they changed it after I left to only one submission. Not sure why as it just led to last minute issues and made no difference to the marker who only got to see final version anyway.

My DDs assessment was a 3 hour online one.

Can she apply for an extenuating circumstance ? Does she have proof pf the failed it message ?

She got some wierd error message while trying to upload (not from the university's IT system, from her own onedrive)

I think this might be the problem. Certainly at my place, we don't give mitigation for a student's equipment failure.

(If it's a university malfunction, then of course, mitigation is applied).

She could also check it was the right file type she was uploading as the system only allows for certain file types. They should be well aware of that though.

Thanks everyone, I think the error was on my DDs part, she does get easily flustered when technology goes wrong. Just grateful she has a chance to resit and hopefully it will be alright in the end.

There should definitely be a process to deal with this, such as a resit or a capped mark.

Our students are clearly advised that for timed exams online, say a one hour exam, that they have to upload within the 24 hours, but not to leave it to the last minute. Ultimately, they have had 24 hours to do a 3 hour paper, so you can't argue that they needed longer.

For essays, they are advised at least 2 hours earlier and to contact the helpdesk if this fails.

This is very common though, and the university will have a plan to help students who fall at this hurdle, she will either have to resit in August or will get a capped mark depending if they accept it this time around.

With sn exam it's generally a resit and the mark is capped to pass (so 40% for undergraduate)

Only an uncapped resit if it was things outside student control.