Analysis of 'on-time' and 'late' assignment submitter students

Abstract

Assignments can play a pivotal role for students securing higher marks. Each assignment has its due date for submission and missing this date without permission would require a penalty. Significant amounts of time and money are spent during the process of getting and granting permission, and verifying the approval of late assignment submitter. This study analyses three research questions: (1) Are the students who are seeking permission for late submission really motivated by the objective of securing higher mark?; (2) Does gender type of students play any role for late submission and for securing higher mark?; and (3) Does age group of students play any role for late submission and for securing higher marks? On the basis of an in-depth analysis of assignments and final examination marks of on-campus students for one of the courses at one of the Australian Universities, we concluded the following. Firstly, late assignment submitters were indicator of poor students in terms of performance. Secondly, the gender type did not play any role for ‘on-time’ and ‘late’ assignment submissions and mark achievement. Thirdly, the highest percentage (66.7%) of late assignment submitters was from the age group 20-25. Surprisingly, 100 percent of the dropped-out students among the late-submitters were from this age group. This could be due to several reasons but without further investigation, we could not determine the exact reason. Finally, the age group 20-25 was marginally poor in assignment performance but in the final examination they became marginally better than other age groups as the poorest students of that age group had already been dropped-out.