after year end

This is was the most work I ever did to close up a class room. I have moved out and packed up for painting but nothing was this much grading. Many students rushed to finish and uploaded four test of writing - six months worth of work- in one day. There's no way they did all that work. There's no integrity to what they turned in. The students would say , I was working I just uploaded it at once. But if you look at the quality of the work. It does not match their earlier work and looks rushed. PF science grades went from A's and B's to D's and E's. LFK turned in four tests in one day. His persuasive essay was about how there are too many tests and too little time. The essay had large font, one sentence paragraphs, without logic. In May, I contacted him concerned about his pacing. His reply was that he was doing fine. He said everything was great. He was working three days a week and getting everything done. Another student, LC, also turned in four tests of writing. The first time she turned them in she did not include any composition just spelling and grammar. I followed up and she webmailed me the writing for all but one test. Then I received a message from her mother saying that LC assured her everything was in. LC said what was not in "would not be too detrimental to her grade". The end of the year was like students jumping off a sinking ship. Just tossing their bagage - tests at me without concern for grades.

In the traditional schools, things fall off too. Assignments and grades do dive. I have always said there was in inverse relationship between grades and temperature. When I taught high school, I had a policy that assignments could only be turn in two weeks late. And all late assignments were due the Monday of the last week of class. This allowed for makeups and did not over load me. A student could not walk in the last day of class with a semesters worth of work. 

But that's not what happens in virtual learning...

So what can we do? 

The programmer's answers " code the drop box is there is only a window that you can submit tests during."

The admin's answer "Deal with it. It's part of the nature of the beast"

The positive teacher's answer "Inspire your students to stay on pace"

The real solution ...........Mmmmmm