By: Saije Rusimovici, Staff Writer
Have you ever woken up physically or mentally incapable of going to class that day? Mental illness, physical disability, and chronic illness may make it difficult for students to attend classes regularly. Even students with other responsibilities, like work or taking care of family, can struggle with attendance. Forcing students to show up for an arbitrary attendance grade disproportionately affects those who have disabilities and illnesses. It brings down their grade when it’s not necessarily an accurate assessment of whether or not they understand and keep up with the material.
No student’s academic journey is the same, nor are the challenges they face — which makes it so much more important that the education system supports students’ needs rather than hinders them. First, grading attendance itself should be scrapped entirely. Factoring attendance into “participation,” also shouldn’t largely weigh on a students’ grade. While there may be circumstances where attendance is mandatory, like exams or quizzes, in-person participation should account for meaningful participation that isn’t just based on whether or not students attend class every week.
Instead, participation marks should focus on the quality of students’ comments as opposed to quantity. Writing activities or online discussion boards can be alternatives to simply showing up. It could also be beneficial for students to participate by spending time working on their academic projects with their teaching assistants or instructors. From my experience, I find it significantly more helpful when tutorials are centred around the assignments we’d be graded on. Not only do I find that this improves my overall grade, but it also betters my understanding of the course materials. This shifts the need to just show up to class every week onto genuine engagement, which can give more flexibility around attendance. The education system is evolving and with it should also be the assessment of students’ knowledge. Simply attending every class shouldn’t make or break a grade.
Further, support for students who may have difficulties in regularly attending class must be offered. This can include participation in activities that can be completed outside of the classroom that are relative to one’s learning.
The University of Connecticut (UConn) offers a comprehensive guide for instructors collecting grades without taking attendance. However, many of these include brief in-class quizzes, polls, and assessments — solutions that still require a student to be in class. In my experience, these sorts of quizzes count for such a small portion of one’s grade that they aren’t necessarily helpful and put a lot of stress on an individual to come to class even when they aren’t feeling well. This is bad for sick students and can delay healing, while risking the transmission of illnesses to others.
UConn urges instructors to be mindful of participation grades, as many students may not be comfortable speaking during class. This can include reasons like anxiety around participation and language or not wanting to discuss triggering topics in class. This is another reason why it’s so important to provide students with options beyond showing up to class if participation is going to be graded.
Ultimately, there are a wide range of alternatives to offer students that don’t punish them for missing some classes or tutorials. A student’s ability to attend every class is not reflective of their knowledge. Engagement with course materials and meaningful contributions to the course can be demonstrated in other ways, and it’s time universities integrate them.
