Retention
The concern we have on campus is attendance students must not be ignored. attending the first day is very important. due to certant amount of hours missed is a failing grade.
What does that mean to you and how you do your job? What can you do to improve the situation?
Prob the most over looked is the fact they have been handed everything though their lives. Now it's time to grow up.
Good point, Keith. What's the appropriate attendance policy? The same as industry? A bit more relaxed? Should it be the same for every course?
If we as instructors take the time to define attendance as part of the training that leads to successful employment, our attendance rates should inmprove. If you don't show up for class, you are wasting a valuable reasource. If you don't show up for work you are wasting an opppurtunity to continue as an employee.
There are a whole lot of factors that play into the retention situation, attendance being only one of them.
I agree, the students are granted too many tardy hours per phase, then boom! when they need the time off for a legitimate reason then they time out.
This is a good question. I think the roles are different. Facilitators were marking attendance and judging whether an absence could be excused. Eventually, it became a norm that if a student gave an excuse, this was accepted. Soon the students believed this to be true as well, and attendance deteriorated. Greater accountability seems to exist if the attendance advisor is at arms length, particularly if the person has counselling skills or life coaching skills. Ours does. This has made a huge difference in the way students are now responding. Accountability is rising and counselling is helping. The pay is different. An attendance advisor would be paid half of what a facilitator would be paid in our system, yet the results are really good.
How is it determined whether a department has a facilitator or attendance adviser? Are they paid at a different level? If so, do the results justify the difference?
Attendance is always a concern. We have students sign an attendance policy that emphasizing their commitment to coming to school. If a student does not appear on the first day, the chair of the program will call the student, so responsibility lies with the head of the department. Facilitators are required to notify the chair. In other programs we have an attendance advisor (newly createad) to handle attendance and in particular, deciding on what can be considered an excused absence. The advisor has counselling background, so we are moving toward counselling for attendance as opposed just notification that attendance has been breached. So far, this seems to be working. The right person in that position is critical.
How many hours can a student miss before failing the course? Is the individual instructor responsible for connecting with students who have attendance problems?
