CS315 Game programming project report failure and recovery

A few weeks ago, I wrote about how I removed a cyclic dependency from my CS315 class by moving the project report from a git repository to a GitHub wiki. This solution was clear, simple, and wrong. It turns out that GitHub wikis are only available to public repositories when using GitHub Free. Over the weekend, a student working on the first project reached out to me, pointing out that the wiki feature didn't seem to be available. I confirmed the problem and set about seeking a new solution.

After some consideration, I decided the simplest solution was to remove the checklist item that says that a student has submitted their work on time. This item was the crux of the problem, since it forced someone to either leave it unchecked at the time of submission or to check it prematurely. I did not want to change actual course policy, however, so I had to add a general clause stating that work has to be turned in by the deadline to receive credit. This is a little less elegant, since now a student's grade is determined by a combination of checklist items and a general policy. However, it's a familiar kind of policy, and so I hope students don't mind the inconsistency.

It turns out, this is actually a change in policy, although I didn't think about it until writing this blog post. Previously, someone could use a Save Point to resubmit work that was late, since the deadline itself was in the checklist. Now that it is not in the checklist, the course plan gives students no option to earn credit for submitting late work. This was not quite my intention, since the whole idea of having a Save Point is to deal with unforeseen circumstances, and such circumstances do sometimes lead to the inability to submit work on time. I suppose I better get back to editing the course plan to add another general rule, that Save Points can additionally be used to submit work late. That is even more inconsistent and inelegant, but I have not found another approach to fill the bill.

Incidentally, the first "easy" solution I came up with was to have students just submit two things on Canvas: a link to their repository and a separate project report. Unfortunately, Canvas does not seem to support this. Even though the teacher's interface makes it look like you can require a student to submit both items, what students see is that they can only submit one or the other.