How do I override or extend assignment deadlines?

For students who need extra time to complete standard or differentiated assignments, there are several ways to override their deadlines.

Extend a specific assignment for one or more students

Navigate to the Assignments panel on your course home page.

1. Click to select the particular assignment.
2. Click Extended deadlines.
3. Click to add a new row, select one or multiple students from the list, and enter the new deadline.

If you have multiple students who share the exact same extended deadline, they will automatically be grouped into a single row for easier management!

Extend multiple assignments for a student (or bulk students)

If you want to extend deadlines across multiple assignments at once, or for multiple students simultaneously:

1. Navigate to the Students panel on your course home page.
2. Choose your selection:
   • For a single student: Open the menu on the student's row and click Edit deadlines.
     
   • For multiple students: Check the boxes next to the students' names, open the Select multiple menu at the top, and choose Edit deadlines for selected.
     

3. An Edit deadlines table will open, displaying all standard and differentiated assignments.

4. Check the box next to the assignment(s) you wish to extend and set the new deadline using the date picker.

   • Checked: The selected date will be applied as an extension to all chosen students.

   • Unchecked: Clears any existing extensions.

   • Dash (—): If you are editing multiple students who already have different existing extensions, the checkbox will display a dash. Leaving it as a dash ensures their current individual overrides remain unchanged.

5. Click Save.

Pro tip 
You can even extend deadlines after the fact; Perusall will automatically recalculate scores to make them consistent with your updated assignment settings.

Course-wide deadline extensions & settings

If you prefer to grant flexibility to the entire class rather than managing individual overrides, you can configure global assignment rules under your Scoring templates or Advanced settings.

Late comment period (partial credit)

Instead of a hard cutoff, you can allow students to continue submitting comments after the official deadline for partial credit.

• How it works: Credit automatically and linearly declines over the specified late period (e.g., from 100% value at the deadline down to 0% at the end of the late period). You can enter any custom duration (in minutes, hours, days, weeks, or months) instead of choosing from a fixed list.

• Where to set it: Go to Settings > Scoring templates, click Edit on your template, open the Comment content options, toggle Score late work, and define your late duration.

Post-deadline reply window (full credit for replies) 

You can encourage ongoing discussion by allowing students to reply to existing threads after the deadline without penalty.

• How it works: Students can continue to reply to already-posted comments or questions for full credit during this designated window. They cannot start new standalone threads for credit. Like the late comment period, you can specify any custom duration unit.

• Where to set it: Turn this on within the Comment content options of your active scoring template under Settings > Scoring templates.

Do not enforce assignment deadlines 

If you want a completely self-paced course where deadlines are purely organizational guidelines, you can disable them completely.

• How it works: When checked, assignment deadlines will have no impact on whether student work counts toward their score. Every piece of submitted work will count as on time.

• Where to set it: Navigate to Settings > Advanced > Scoring and check the box for Do not enforce assignment deadlines.

Cap credit for late comments (excessive lateness penalty) 

To ensure students do most of their work before class, you can prevent them from relying entirely on late windows.

• How it works: You can restrict students from earning more credit (for comments) after the deadline than they earned before it. If a student submits nothing before the deadline, they won't be able to earn any late credit.

• Where to set it: Go to Settings > Scoring templates, click Edit on your template, open the Comment content options, toggle Score late work, and enable Cap credit earned for comments submitted after the deadline.

Looking for other assignment types?

If you are working with Peer Review-Based assignments, they cannot be extended from the Students panel edit deadlines menu, as those deadlines flow differently. To learn more, check out the following articles to manage late submissions and penalties for review-based coursework. 

• How do I create a peer review assignment?
• How do I create an instructor review assignment?
• How do I create a Fishbowl review assignment?