Attendance

Usually my posts deal with social media and technology, as that is the subject of our class and that's what the assignment is. Being as a blog is also an area for personal opinion though, I've taken one other time to offer suggestions to faculty and staff at IWC about e-mail, and I'm taking this entry to do so again but on the area of attendance policies.

I'd like to mention that this isn't meant as an attack, nor is it focused at any one professor. I've been at this school for five years, and these are my observations on how professors can improve their courses and create a positive learning environment.

I understand the importance of an attendance policy to freshman/sophomore level classes; there's a perception from various media outlets that you don't need to go to class and can hire the smart indian kid to help you cram for finals, and you'll be okay. But why is it an attendance that gets them points? Showing students that just for sitting in a chair, they get X number of points and improve their grade. That's it. Just for sitting there. Participation at this school is severly lacking in all areas (How many students on a regular basis answer questions in class? How many students attend on-campus events? How many students participate in Student Government?) because it's been reinforced that if they just sit there without a voice, it's okay. No opinion, just a body in a seat.

Another problem with an attendance policy is that it's a professors last ditch effort to give a meaningless class a meaning. If I can miss a week straight from a class and still do good on your test, your class is meaningless. You shouldn't post the Power Points to the portal, you shouldn't e-mail out notes, and you shouldn't let me make up work I missed. This all takes away from the meaning of the class, without assigning a grade just for sitting in a chair.

If you required students to voice their opinion and participate in the class, regardless if it's a discussion based course or a math class, giving a grade to their participation makes your class a lot more worth while. And all students are not created equal. Do not create advantages to equalize the course between a student who missed the last three weeks because of too many nights at The Alleys and the student who shows up every day.

If your course is truly meaningful and you need to attend class to get a good grade, that's an attendence policy in itself.