uni AND friend lost coursework?

so one of my friends submitted coursework on a usb in march. this was the day before lockdown, and their lecturers couldn't get the usb from reception until the august resit period.

in early september, when they were trying to mark it, they were having software issues. finally, last week, they figured out that the usb that they've had for half a year has been corrupted. so a few days ago they asked my friend to resubmit online asap.

my friend has been having so many technical issues, particularly with not being able to access uni computers, and has lost the exact assessment they handed in. they've found bits and pieces of it but not the final one. (it's game programming, so it's not very easy to just finish it again/combine pieces.)

we understand that my friend should have made sure to keep a copy of it somewhere, but it's been literally half a year and the usb stick corrupted while in the care of the university. if my friend can't find the actual assignment and submit it (they don't want to have to redo it, since we have other deadlines and it was a subject they found incredibly difficult while they were learning it, let alone now), is it really their fault for not keeping a copy? would the university not be at fault somehow, and if they were to say that my friend failed the module, would we be able to argue against this?

so one of my friends submitted coursework on a usb in march. this was the day before lockdown, and their lecturers couldn't get the usb from reception until the august resit period.

in early september, when they were trying to mark it, they were having software issues. finally, last week, they figured out that the usb that they've had for half a year has been corrupted. so a few days ago they asked my friend to resubmit online asap.

my friend has been having so many technical issues, particularly with not being able to access uni computers, and has lost the exact assessment they handed in. they've found bits and pieces of it but not the final one. (it's game programming, so it's not very easy to just finish it again/combine pieces.)

we understand that my friend should have made sure to keep a copy of it somewhere, but it's been literally half a year and the usb stick corrupted while in the care of the university. if my friend can't find the actual assignment and submit it (they don't want to have to redo it, since we have other deadlines and it was a subject they found incredibly difficult while they were learning it, let alone now), is it really their fault for not keeping a copy? would the university not be at fault somehow, and if they were to say that my friend failed the module, would we be able to argue against this?

so one of my friends submitted coursework on a usb in march. this was the day before lockdown, and their lecturers couldn't get the usb from reception until the august resit period.

in early september, when they were trying to mark it, they were having software issues. finally, last week, they figured out that the usb that they've had for half a year has been corrupted. so a few days ago they asked my friend to resubmit online asap.

my friend has been having so many technical issues, particularly with not being able to access uni computers, and has lost the exact assessment they handed in. they've found bits and pieces of it but not the final one. (it's game programming, so it's not very easy to just finish it again/combine pieces.)

we understand that my friend should have made sure to keep a copy of it somewhere, but it's been literally half a year and the usb stick corrupted while in the care of the university. if my friend can't find the actual assignment and submit it (they don't want to have to redo it, since we have other deadlines and it was a subject they found incredibly difficult while they were learning it, let alone now), is it really their fault for not keeping a copy? would the university not be at fault somehow, and if they were to say that my friend failed the module, would we be able to argue against this?

This is very odd. The university thought waiting 6 months was an acceptable; surely they had to pass the credits before the exam board...

Also your friend should have kept a submission copy;

The problem is that they submitted a corrupted file, so if they cant find the bits & pieces then all they can mark is a corrupted file... which presumably would score 0. Id say try and find the submissions, or piece together what you can. If they cant then complaining to the SU might get you some support but who knows.

But the idea the lecturer thought leaving it from March to November (nearly December) is acceptable is ridiculous. Why back in March/April they didn't set it to submit a zipped folder on moodle or something.

yeah, we're trying to piece what we can together. it's just going to be super difficult.

they submitted on usbs because of the pretty large file size, and the uni, i assume, hasn't had problems like the pandemic before.

i agree with the waiting for six months being ridiculous. that's mostly what i'm angry about. the usb might not have been corrupted if it had been marked earlier (but who knows?), and it means the resubmission is right next to a bunch of unrelated deadlines way past when they were actually learning the module. thanks for the idea to talk to the student union - i hadn't even thought of that. i'll see what they can do. thank you!

I think its basic security anbd your friends responsibility to keep a back up.
Have some proper IT experts had a go at recovering the data?
Is it normal to submit on USB?
The uni would have no guarantee the USB contained a completed work just a USB was handed in.
I would make an extenuating circumstances claim. Ask for an extension to resubmit and make it several months away.

Simply crazy he doesnt even have the copy tranbsferred to the USB. Irrresponsible.

Why are you angry?

because it seems kind of ridiculous that it took six months to properly attempt to mark the assessment, mostly. the not picking it up during lockdown i can mostly understand, but then they had it for another three months and have only just realised it's corrupted. obviously i don't know what's going on with the lecturers but i feel like my friend had a right to have it marked as punctually as possible to avoid a situation precisely like this.

we're going to be talking to their lecturers about what to do in such a weird situation.

Yeah but, like why do you care so much? Your freind dropped the ball, its their problem. So why are you angry?

because i am invested in my friends' lives and try to listen to and help them with their problems? im angry for them because it's a tough situation that i feel like could've been handled better and prevented them being as stressed about it as they are