Last Thursday was the deadline for one of my assignments at university, and I had handed it in on Wednesday so it was over and done with. But at our university, not only do you have to submit a paper copy, you also have to submit an electronic copy on the internal hub, ebridge.
Well, I handed in the paper copy and got home, loaded up ebridge and uploaded the document. You are faced with a page which allows you to upload and tick a box which declared it's your own work. Then you hit submit, and it comes up with a preview page, where you can view the file again and hit submit once more to make sure the right file is selected. I clicked on the file to make sure it was the right one, and it was the latest copy. I closed the file, and swear that I pressed the final submit buttom before closing off the web page.
As it turns out, on Saturday I found out that it hadn't actually gone through. Fearing the late penalty would apply, I emailed the course office to ask what would happen seeing as the paper copy was in early. They said that unfortunately both copies have to be in at the same time. The penalties are -10% if it's up to 24 hours late, and -10% and a cap at 40% if it's 24 hours to a week late.
So for an assignment I worked my ass off on, handed in early, and because of the -blam!-ing stupid electronic submission, I'm capped at 40%, which is a bare minimum pass. Now, if this were a small assignment which wasn't worth much in the module I wouldn't mind, but it's 33% of an entire module, and the last 33% is on an exam which I fear I will not be able to get a good mark in. Essentially it's an entire module lost. There goes my aim of getting a first in my first year.
Has anyone else got similar stories or hatred for electronic submissions?
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Looks like you're at fault here. Sucks for you, but it would not have been any different if, for example, you had to submit the hard copy at mailbox X, but you accidentally left it in mailbox Y. Yes, electronic submissions can be a bitch, although there's ways to counter that (whenever I have to submit something electronically, we get an immediate confirmation email that serves as a reminder and as proof you submitted it on time), but this seems to be a human error. I always double check to make sure I received the confirmation email and that I actually submitted my paper. It's a good safeguard. The -40% is a pain though.