Common Description:
Read the following scenario and answer the question that follows.
Comprehension: An online submission portal glitches, displaying a deadline of 11:59 PM on Sunday for a major assignment. However, the official course syllabus and the professor's Week 1 email both explicitly stated the deadline was 11:59 PM on Friday. 20% of the class submits their work on Sunday, relying on the portal's displayed time. The professor discovers the portal glitch on Monday morning. The syllabus rule states: "Late submissions lose 10% per day, up to 3 days, after which they are not accepted."
What is the MOST appropriate and defensible administrative action by the professor?
B
Step-by-Step Solution
Key idea: This is an exam-pattern recognition question, testing the balanced approach expected in fairness dilemmas involving systemic or institutional errors.
Step 1: Identify the conflict. A technical rule violation (late submission) occurred, but the root cause is a systemic flaw (portal glitch), not student negligence.
Step 2: Evaluate the students' position. They acted in good faith, relying on an official university system (the portal) that displayed the wrong information.
Step 3: Evaluate the extremes. Strict enforcement (Option A or C) is unfairly harsh on students who are not at fault. Offering a harder assignment (Option D) is arbitrary and punitive.
Step 4: Identify the balanced approach. The fairest action addresses both the immediate injustice (waiving the penalty for those affected by the flaw) and the root cause (fixing the system to prevent future issues).
Step 5: Conclude. Option B perfectly balances immediate fairness with long-term systemic integrity.
Answer: Accept all Sunday submissions without penalty, and send a department-wide notification to fix the portal's displayed deadline for future assignments.