MCC Daily Tribune
Student Attendance Taking Process Update
Thank you for your participation with the new student attendance taking process. As a reminder, this semester is a "soft rollout" of the process and will not result in students being automatically withdrawn from your classes. We have received feedback that some students were told by their instructors that they would be automatically withdrawn from class. Please make sure to reiterate the current process so that students have the information they need to make informed choices about withdrawal.
As we continue to review the processes associated with the recording of student attendance, we have some updates to share in response to questions or issues that have been raised.
The first batch of email notifications to students who have missed 10, 20, and 30 percent of class meeting times for a course were triggered based on faculty attendance reporting. Unfortunately, students who had previously been dropped or withdrawn from a class received the absent notification emails, too. We are correcting this process to include only those students who are still enrolled in a class and sending an e-mail to dropped students who received the message in error.
The calculations for missing 10, 20, and 30 percent of a class are based on class scheduled meeting times in Banner coupled with faculty attendance records in Starfish. There are a number of variables involved in calculating the 10, 20, and 30 percent thresholds that present technical challenges to the implementation of the attendance policy. These include whether the class is a lecture versus labs/studios, whether it is online, and the length of the course counted in weeks. Our goal during this soft roll-out is to identify these issues and streamline the process as much as possible.
Depending on the course meeting schedule and duration, a student may have received a notice they missed 10 percent of the classes and then soon after another notice that they have missed 20 percent. The 10 percent notice includes students who missed anywhere from 10-19 percent of the class meeting times and 20 percent includes students have missed anywhere from 20-29 percent of the class. The student may have jumped from the 10 percent to the 20 percent by missing just one class thus the back-to-back nature of the email notifications.
We have had a few concerns from faculty that the email language is too encouraging to students and could mislead them into thinking they can still be successful in their classes, which might not be the case. In the email, we pointedly state the student needs to contact their instructor; the instructor is the one who will have conversations about whether the student can be successful and how. In addition, we have "tweaked" the messages to avoid creating unrealistic expectations.
Based on feedback received about the process, we have updated instructions posted in the Starfish site and added sections to the draft protocol that will be available soon. These updates include instructions for deleting a class, for example for Labor Day, from a faculty's meeting schedule.
We appreciate your patience. It is our hope that our shared efforts with this new initiative will support our students' success in your classes.
If you have any questions about the attendance policy, please continue to send emails to withdrawal@monroecc.edu and for technical questions about Starfish or how to record attendance, please contact starfish@monroecc.edu.
Attached Files:
Fall 2019 Attendance FAQs.pdf
Andrea Wade
Academic Services
10/02/2019