Three major assignments are due on Sunday. On Monday, your calendar still contains classes, meetings, and preparation. Somehow the grading was supposed to fit in the spaces between them.
The handbook recommends staggering substantial assignments across courses. The useful move is to plan the feedback work when you set the deadline, rather than discovering the time it needs after the submissions arrive.
Put your courses on one calendar
List major papers, projects, exams, and presentations across the sections you teach. Add the fixed commitments and institutional dates you need to work around. A schedule that looks manageable one course at a time can become impossible when the courses are combined.
Estimate the grading time honestly
Consider the number of submissions, the complexity of the task, and the kind of feedback students need. Use experience from a similar assignment where possible. Include time to review patterns and communicate common issues.
If the estimate doesn't fit the week, change the plan before the course begins where you can.
Work backward from the next learning decision
When will students need the feedback? A draft returned after the final paper is due misses an important opportunity. Allow enough time for you to respond and for students to use the response.
The best due date isn't always the one that looks most familiar on a weekly schedule.
Stagger substantial work where it serves the course
You might place major submissions from different classes in different weeks or adjust a sequence of checkpoints. Keep the schedule aligned with learning goals and course requirements. Explain the pattern clearly so students can plan.
You can't control every deadline students face in other courses. You can avoid creating an unnecessary collision within the work you organize.
Make any flexibility clear and manageable
If you offer a submission window or another permitted option, explain how it works and how feedback timing will be handled. Check that the arrangement fits the course policies and your grading capacity. Flexibility can become confusing if its limits remain unwritten.
Once the semester is underway, follow the applicable process for changes and consider the effect on students who planned around the original dates.
Reserve the response time before you promise the return date
Take the estimated grading hours and place them beside your actual commitments. If they don't fit, decide whether the assignment design, timing, or feedback approach needs adjustment within the course requirements. A promise to catch up over the weekend isn't much of a plan when the weekend already contains the same overflow from another class.
Consider which feedback needs to be individual and which recurring issue could be addressed through a shared explanation. The choice should serve the learning task and preserve appropriate privacy. A general class message can't replace a specific response students need to revise their own reasoning.
After the first grading cycle, compare the estimate with the time used. Keep a short note for the next offering. If the task consistently takes longer, use that information when planning the next schedule. Better estimates come from observing the work, not from assuming you'll grade twice as fast next time.
Open next month's calendar and mark every large submission plus the time needed to respond. Identify one collision you can still prevent. Planning the feedback alongside the task makes the schedule more believable for you and more useful for students.
Adapted from The New Faculty Handbook by Zafer Unal, pp. 45-46.
