Hit the Pause Button: A New Kind of Late Work Policy

March 2020 was unlike anything we had ever experienced; it was a time of panic and uncertainty. I primarily teach online and had three children and a spouse sharing my work-from-home space. Like many, I suddenly found it challenging to find space and time for uninterrupted thinking and writing during the typical working hours (and often outside of those as well). It became harder to be productive and organize my days. Recognizing the universality of this challenge, in terms of our time and our space and the overall disruption of our routines, I began to think carefully about how this may be impacting my students. I thought more about the major stressors that students were experiencing because of my courses and what I could do to alleviate some of their stress. Deadlines and late work were one of the places I chose to focus on in order to address this issue. I borrowed this strategy from a colleague and have found its benefits to be innumerable. This is the message I sent my students about our new “late work” policy:

If you can’t get work completed on time, don’t panic. I want you to be happy with what you submit, and sometimes life takes over and school needs to be put on pause while we cope. For my class, hit the pause button if you need to. Just email me and let me know. You don’t have to share details, just “I need to hit the pause button this week” works. No penalties for late work. This lets me know you’re still out there and trying your best vs. just giving up on the class completely. I hope no one gives up.

I gave this grace to both my undergraduate and graduate students. My initial concern about implementing such a policy was that they would all “hit pause,” or stop completing their work and as a result I would end up with loads of incomplete students at the end of the term. But that did not happen.

I had a few students per class who had to “hit pause” due to a variety of valid circumstances —some worked in health care, some suddenly had several children at home 24/7, some were sick themselves, and some just had a challenging week or two. But you know what? Every single one of them completed their courses. Only a few students needed days beyond the final exam period to complete their final papers, but everyone else finished their work on time. Students expressed that knowing they had this option, even if they never used it, relieved some of their stress. The students who did take advantage of this late work option said it made a significant difference to them and that they were able to rest easier knowing that I meant what I said. They had the freedom and permission to focus on themselves and consequently they let me know when they were ready to “push play” again. Students also felt more comfortable asking me questions before they began completing their missing work.

The last year has pushed me to reconsider how and when to provide students with the grace and understanding needed to complete their assignments given real life challenges beyond their control. Ultimately, after much reflection, what I have realized is that for the most part, I prefer to read work that students feel confident about than work they hastily submit (even if I give them the option to revise and resubmit their work). I believe that the option to “press pause,” may also decrease students’ incentive to cheat on their assignments in order to submit them on time. Providing students with a level of strategic leniency, patience, and understanding builds a level of trust between them and their instructors.

I want students to engage with the course content in ways that feel meaningful and beneficial to them, and if having a “pause button” option supports that, which it has in my case, I am in favor of that. I made sure to be attentive to and critically think about how this policy impacted my workload, and the impact was minimal. Rather than monitoring students late or missing assignments and communicating with them or their advisors regularly, students took ownership of their own academic success and had the initiative to preemptively communicate with me about what work would be late. This was due in part to asking them to initiate a “pause.” As a result, there were fewer emails to sift through in my inbox and there was less tracking of students and their assignments needed on my end, which was a pleasant outcome.

I have continued this policy every term since then—Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021, and Summer 2021. And I will keep doing it! Of course, over time I may continue to tweak and reevaluate this policy, but as for right now, I am hopeful that it will continue to take the pressure off students because they may be less fearful of communicating with me about the status of their work and their capacity.

In the end, I learned that a little kindness and transparency go a very long way to creating a welcoming learning environment and building stronger relationships with my students. I look forward to continuing to take this humanity-centered approach and providing students with a little bit of grace, in all my classes.