Is Midnight the Beginning or the End?

This is a little point, but one which has burned many of us, myself included.  You have an assignment you want due on Sunday at midnight.  So, you write a News item telling your students the item is due at midnight Sunday and you set the Dropbox Folder with the restrictions of Sunday at 12:00 AM.  Of course, this is also included in your schedule.

Sounds good right?  Well, that depends on how you think of midnight.  You've set the assignment to close between Saturday night/Sunday morning.  While this might be exactly what you want, a group of your students will be confused and think it's the midnight between Sunday and Monday.  This is almost guaranteed.

To avoid this confusion, give the due date at 11:59pm.  I know it sounds trivial, but this one minute can make a big difference.  Besides, '11:59pm' only has 7 keystrokes and 'midnight' has 8.  :-)