Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean (Academic),
I am requesting a grade appeal for the final assignment in the Fall 2023 online course IDIS 173, History and Philosophy of Health and Healthcare, taught by Dr. Jeremy Butler.
I was unaware I could appeal my mark until I spoke with an academic counsellor, who encouraged me to state my case for your consideration despite missed the 15 business day deadline. I am an Arts and Science Online degree student majoring in Psychology and plan to apply for graduation for the Fall convocation.
In IDIS 173, my final assignment, worth 15% of my mark, entailed writing an online blog opinion piece on health policy. Professor Butler's assignment instructions stated that we must post our work on the online blog platform and through the OnQ Dropbox in a Word document to be accepted. I successfully posted my assignment on my blog; however, I mistakenly submitted the wrong Word document to Dropbox due to mislabeling my document. The TA did not open the Dropbox to grade my assignment before the final late-submission date, so I was unaware of my mistake.
Upon emailing Professor Butler immediately after being alerted to my mistake, he informed me that my assignment would not be accepted implying I would receive a mark of zero because the Word document was past the final due date - which indeed was the case. I subsequently made an informal email request to Dr. Butler, soon after final marks were posted in Solus, that he reconsider my grade since there was evidence that I posted to my blog appropriately and attempted to submit to the Dropbox. Dr. Butler did not reply and my mark remaind. In my final email, I informed him I only needed approximately three marks out of the 15% of the assignment's value to receive an A- instead of the only B+ on my transcript. I also informed him of my consistency as an A student. Since ASO online only grants three-year degrees, I have attempted to maintain my grades in an 'A' range to be competitive for applying to master's degree programs in counselling or psychotherapy. In IDIS 173, most of my marks were above 90% going into this final assignment. I assure you of my commitment to my studies and future academic pursuits.
Although I acknowledge that my submission was faulty, it was not a result of failing to do my work but a clerical error. I understand the importance of following the rules and the impact of my mistakes, however, a grade of zero seemed unduly severe considering my mistake was a labelling mistake, and I had posted to my blog appropriately. I will also add that this error occurred within the context of my being a mother of two children with a full-time job while taking three Queen's University courses. I earned an A+ in the other two courses I took that semester. Here is the link to my online submission, which is time-stamped: https://courses.cherylcline.org/rebekahrimsay/wp-admin/index.php?page=msreader.php (please let me know if you need a password to access it). You can also email me for screenshots of my assignment including the time stamp.
I respectfully request that you reconsider my grade for the IDIS 173, History and Philosophy of Health and Healthcare course. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Rebekah Rimsay
Student # 10167156
Email: 14rcr1@queensu.ca
I am requesting a grade appeal for the final assignment in the Fall 2023 online course IDIS 173, History and Philosophy of Health and Healthcare, taught by Dr. Jeremy Butler.
I was unaware I could appeal my mark until I spoke with an academic counsellor, who encouraged me to state my case for your consideration despite missed the 15 business day deadline. I am an Arts and Science Online degree student majoring in Psychology and plan to apply for graduation for the Fall convocation.
In IDIS 173, my final assignment, worth 15% of my mark, entailed writing an online blog opinion piece on health policy. Professor Butler's assignment instructions stated that we must post our work on the online blog platform and through the OnQ Dropbox in a Word document to be accepted. I successfully posted my assignment on my blog; however, I mistakenly submitted the wrong Word document to Dropbox due to mislabeling my document. The TA did not open the Dropbox to grade my assignment before the final late-submission date, so I was unaware of my mistake.
Upon emailing Professor Butler immediately after being alerted to my mistake, he informed me that my assignment would not be accepted implying I would receive a mark of zero because the Word document was past the final due date - which indeed was the case. I subsequently made an informal email request to Dr. Butler, soon after final marks were posted in Solus, that he reconsider my grade since there was evidence that I posted to my blog appropriately and attempted to submit to the Dropbox. Dr. Butler did not reply and my mark remaind. In my final email, I informed him I only needed approximately three marks out of the 15% of the assignment's value to receive an A- instead of the only B+ on my transcript. I also informed him of my consistency as an A student. Since ASO online only grants three-year degrees, I have attempted to maintain my grades in an 'A' range to be competitive for applying to master's degree programs in counselling or psychotherapy. In IDIS 173, most of my marks were above 90% going into this final assignment. I assure you of my commitment to my studies and future academic pursuits.
Although I acknowledge that my submission was faulty, it was not a result of failing to do my work but a clerical error. I understand the importance of following the rules and the impact of my mistakes, however, a grade of zero seemed unduly severe considering my mistake was a labelling mistake, and I had posted to my blog appropriately. I will also add that this error occurred within the context of my being a mother of two children with a full-time job while taking three Queen's University courses. I earned an A+ in the other two courses I took that semester. Here is the link to my online submission, which is time-stamped: https://courses.cherylcline.org/rebekahrimsay/wp-admin/index.php?page=msreader.php (please let me know if you need a password to access it). You can also email me for screenshots of my assignment including the time stamp.
I respectfully request that you reconsider my grade for the IDIS 173, History and Philosophy of Health and Healthcare course. Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Sincerely,
Rebekah Rimsay
Student # 10167156
Email: 14rcr1@queensu.ca