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[mathspice]

My syllabus defines attendance as actively participating in the course at least 3 days per week. In order to be successful in this online math course, one really needs to log in, do homework, participate and/or view the discussion board postings on regular basis, etc. Low participation may result in up to 10% grade reduction per week. A student could be dropped from the course for continuous lack of participation (I've dropped a few already).

Unfortunately, after numerous kicks in the butts, about 1/3 of my students have a 5-15% grade penalty already in the 5th week of class. I feel sort of mean for doing this, but as usual, those with low participation are not catching on as well and are not performing as well on the quizzes and tests.

I'd love to hear about your online attendance/participation policies.

[zuzu_]

Disclosure: I teach English.

I do a holistic attendance/participation grade. On my rubric, logging in once per week is under "C-level" participation, whereas logging in more frequently falls into the "B" or "A" range for participation. When assigning this participation grade, however, I do balance the quality of participation with this the number of times a student logs in. So, for example, if a student does excellent work in the discussion forum but only logs on once per week, it is it possible for them to still get a B+ or A- for participation. Or, if a student logs in multiple times per week but contributes total crap to discussion, that person can get a "C" or "D."

You make a good point about how the infrequent participators often do poorly. So why not just let them accept those consequences? Frankly, I would de-emphasize this log on frequency grade. You should still recommend frequent participation, and point to trends in how student performance is tied to frequent log ons, (you could even dramatize this point with a graph) but overall it sounds like you're giving yourself an unnecessary headache over this issue. Let them learn their own lessons about the consequences of infrequent log in, and don't make yourself the log-on nazi.

[georgiaprof]

My attendance policy for online taught classes is based on an expected amout of work per week.  You must answer x discussion posts and complete the required assignment (homework/quiz/test/lab/etc.)  I post discussions throughout the week and I explain to them (using historical data) that students who have earned an A/C/F log in an average of so many times per week and post an average of so many times per week and etc.  I let them decide how often they want to participate.  Most of my A students participate (log in) at least 3-4 times per week (or more).  Not all do.  I had one student who earned a high A logging on only once per week.  She was, of course, an exception.

[desert_rat]

My "policy" is come or don't.  Do your homework or don't.  Miss a quiz? Tough.  Miss an exam?  Tough.  Then I structure the exams so that if you DO miss a lot of classes, you are NOT going to pass the course.

I see part of our mission as teaching children to become adults.  And that involves taking responsibility for your own actions.  So YOU (the student) decide whether to come or not.

[larryc]

My "policy" is come or don't.  Do your homework or don't.  Miss a quiz? Tough.  Miss an exam?  Tough.  Then I structure the exams so that if you DO miss a lot of classes, you are NOT going to pass the course.

I see part of our mission as teaching children to become adults.  And that involves taking responsibility for your own actions.  So YOU (the student) decide whether to come or not.

The question is about online classes.

[mathspice]

Disclosure: I teach English.

I do a holistic attendance/participation grade. On my rubric, logging in once per week is under "C-level" participation, whereas logging in more frequently falls into the "B" or "A" range for participation. When assigning this participation grade, however, I do balance the quality of participation with this the number of times a student logs in. So, for example, if a student does excellent work in the discussion forum but only logs on once per week, it is it possible for them to still get a B+ or A- for participation. Or, if a student logs in multiple times per week but contributes total crap to discussion, that person can get a "C" or "D."

You make a good point about how the infrequent participators often do poorly. So why not just let them accept those consequences? Frankly, I would de-emphasize this log on frequency grade. You should still recommend frequent participation, and point to trends in how student performance is tied to frequent log ons, (you could even dramatize this point with a graph) but overall it sounds like you're giving yourself an unnecessary headache over this issue. Let them learn their own lessons about the consequences of infrequent log in, and don't make yourself the log-on nazi.

I like that. I may have a new tag line... "don't make yourself a log-on nazi". Thank you all for your input so far -- as with my f2f classes, I let those students who miss frequently flunk themselves. I should do the same here.

Question: Does anyone drop students who disappear from the course? I have found that students who do not attend the mandatory orientation (I even supply a virtual orientation) or who have low participation seem to ask questions that were answered weeks ago via email or in the discussion board. I do think it's important to weed out the students that disappear for a couple weeks or so.

[georgiaprof]

We are required to drop students who never show up.  This happens at about the 2nd week.  After that - it is attend or don't at your own risk.  If they ask questions that were already answered, I refer them back to the answer.  I try to keep grades current (for discussions,etc.) and have a policy that to receive a grade the answer must be posted in keeping with the current unit.  Basically, I run discussions for about a week and then post a late discussions notice.  After that, I will grade them as late for about a week and then I close the discussions.  Mostly, I do this so that I don't have to keep going back to old stuff to make sure it is correct.  I had students in the past complain about the test grade because they posted an answer to a discussion and then used that answer to respond on a test because they didn't know it was wrong.  I tell them now that they are responsible for reading all discussions and that I may or may not specifically respond to every post.  I post my final summary/comments just prior to closing the discussion.

[erikjensen]

I make discussion board participation 10% of the grade. I do this because research indicates that discussion improves retention and success. I also drop students who do little or nothing in the first week. I let in a few extra students to compensate for this.

[spyzowin]

Sorry for the officiousness in advance.

The institution has a formal online attendance policy of one hit on two non-consecutive days during each one week period.

It was felt that just as the student could show up and put his or her head on the desk and still be counted as "present," the most we could demand was evidence that the course site had been visited twice per week.

The concept of participation points, on the other hand, is up to the individual professor.

I set it differently at each level. For freshmen and sophomores, I award up to 5% each learning unit for salient discussion board posts. Usually, one student will receive 5/5 and the others less. If at least one post has been made, I will give the student a maximum F of 2.5/5. I usually use 8 learning units per term, so that means participation could be as high as 40%

For juniors, I award up to 20% for the term for participation in the discussion boards.

For seniors or above, I do not reward participation.

[yatchie]

Mathspice -- what level math do you teach online?  I teach algebra, and I don't have a "participation" requirement.  I just have homework and quizzes due one or two times a week.  Most of my students work full time and have families, which is why they are taking the course online.  I'm pretty satisfied that they learn the material and complete the work in a timely manner.  They learn early on that I do not give extensions.  I do, however, email them if the homework deadline is drawing near and they have not logged on and/or started the assignment in several days.  I don't grade on participation -- only on work completed on time.

Now honestly, I could never figure out how to use the discussion boards constructively.  Particularly for learning algebra, I couldn't really think of a good enough topic to involve seventy people in.  Do you mind sharing some sample discussion topics?

[mathspice]

Mathspice -- what level math do you teach online?  I teach algebra, and I don't have a "participation" requirement.  I just have homework and quizzes due one or two times a week.  Most of my students work full time and have families, which is why they are taking the course online.  I'm pretty satisfied that they learn the material and complete the work in a timely manner.  They learn early on that I do not give extensions.  I do, however, email them if the homework deadline is drawing near and they have not logged on and/or started the assignment in several days.  I don't grade on participation -- only on work completed on time.

Now honestly, I could never figure out how to use the discussion boards constructively.  Particularly for learning algebra, I couldn't really think of a good enough topic to involve seventy people in.  Do you mind sharing some sample discussion topics?

I teach Intermediate and College Algebra online. Currently, as for the discussion boards, I post 2-3 questions per chapter in the discussion forum; students are to post their answer to one of them and reply to a classmate's posting (must reply to a different question). This way, I know they have thought about and processed at least 2 of the questions.

This semester, the discussion began with Review Questions. As with the chapter questions, I want to post questions that touch on, what I feel are, some of the most important concepts I want students to get from the reading. The questions are asked in a way that students must use the course terminology, too. Many of the postings I have seen could be published! I am so proud of what students have posted -- sometimes I couldn't have said it better myself.

I had one student tell me that hu has learned more this first month in this online class than in all her life. That makes me happy. <tears>

Here are some of the discussion questions I have asked so far in Intermediate Algebra:

Review Question

 What are the differences between an algebraic expression and an algebraic equation? Provide examples.


Others from 2 different chapters

1. A student is given the problem:

Simplify  (3x - 5y)^2   

The student's answer is   9x^2 - 25y^2

You don't think that's correct. Why is this not correct? Use the correct course terminology to explain what they did wrong, the correct way to do it, and provide the correct answer.


2. Think of 3 terms that all have a GCF (for example: 3, 6x and 9y all have a GCF of 3). Do the following with the 3 terms:

a) Put the terms together to form a trinomial, you choose their signs;

b) Factor out the GCF out of your trinomial;

c) Use the distributive property to check your factoring.

[shyviolet]

I require my online students to answer discussion questions by Monday and respond to at least two of their classmates' comments by Wednesday. I do not grade based on the number of logins, though I have found that most students login at least twice a week to fulfill the participation requirements. Unfortunately, my university does not have a procedure for dropping students who fail to participate/attend classes.

[yatchie]

Thanks, Mathspice.  I may try something like that next time around.

With my classes, I have two to four scheduled in person exams.  Since the tests are a very high percentage of the overall grade, I drop them if they do not show for tests and do not contact me.  (In most cases it will be impossible to pass the class with a missed exam.)

[zuzu_]

Disclosure: I teach English.

I do a holistic attendance/participation grade. On my rubric, logging in once per week is under "C-level" participation, whereas logging in more frequently falls into the "B" or "A" range for participation. When assigning this participation grade, however, I do balance the quality of participation with this the number of times a student logs in. So, for example, if a student does excellent work in the discussion forum but only logs on once per week, it is it possible for them to still get a B+ or A- for participation. Or, if a student logs in multiple times per week but contributes total crap to discussion, that person can get a "C" or "D."

You make a good point about how the infrequent participators often do poorly. So why not just let them accept those consequences? Frankly, I would de-emphasize this log on frequency grade. You should still recommend frequent participation, and point to trends in how student performance is tied to frequent log ons, (you could even dramatize this point with a graph) but overall it sounds like you're giving yourself an unnecessary headache over this issue. Let them learn their own lessons about the consequences of infrequent log in, and don't make yourself the log-on nazi.

I like that. I may have a new tag line... "don't make yourself a log-on nazi". Thank you all for your input so far -- as with my f2f classes, I let those students who miss frequently flunk themselves. I should do the same here.

Awwww....no one's ever said one of my comments was tag-line-worthy before.
<blushes>

[melba_frilkins]

In terms of grades, I have no grades for online "attendance". But there are always three things due throughout the week (discussion posts, quizzes, and discussion replies). There's some wiggle room for make-ups on those, but not a lot.

For a flat out "attendance" policy, I am trying something new this semester. Students must log in at least once a week. If I run a weekly report and see no-shows, I send out an email to those students. They have 5 calendar days to reply to me AND successfully complete at least one quiz or discussion else I will drop them.

I thought this policy might help to rescue students who have gone astray, but so far no one has come back. I've just had to drop all the no-shows. So, I don't see much benefit to the policy in terms of student success or avoiding hassle on my end. Though it will avoid me having to deal with students who have been long absent and are dying to make-up their missing work. If they're dropped from the class already, it's a done deal. And perhaps seeing the attendance policy in the syllabus motivates one or two students to stay on track when they would not otherwise.