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[thundering_m]

I have to say I'm surprised by the extended dialogue of this thread. It's not just me, which is reassuring. I was surprised by the difference between three sections of the same course that met this week. Two out of three had only a few absent, most of whom had contacted me in advance. But the one section was missing almost half, few had contacted me beforehand and almost none since. At this point, they are all going to have to scramble to do the standard compensatory assignment for absences that they know (or will be reminded when they see their grades) is part of the syllabus .
Those present got attaboys for professionalism (and a teachable moment about the profession they are preparing to enter). As far as the difference between the sessions, it is interesting that the high absentee group happened to miss the closing activity the session before in which I asked them to identify a) what they felt they needed in order to successfully complete the final project, b) what time, resources, and conditions they needed in order to successfully complete it, including c) what class session information and activities would be helpful. The sessions who had that closing discussion then reached a consensus on what the next class would include (which was what I had planned to include anyway). So perhaps their attendance was greatly influenced by their conscious goals.

More than one student commented that it was a helpful session for preparing their final projects. As one mentioned, the same amount of time could have been spent on it by himself but it wouldn't have improved the draft. As far as its value for giving feedback, etc., this begs the question of whether they have matured to the point of thinking through complex projects far enough in advance to benefit from feedback. If they are still assuming they can pull it out of a hat the night before, they are unlikely to realize what rich resource they are squandering by skipping class.

Anyway, I am going to pay close attention to the calendar I put in the syllabus next term, anticipating the high risk days.