Distance Education Policies

Your attendance at the first class meeting is essential because instructors may drop students who do not appear for the first class meeting to make room for others who are present and want to take the class.

• It is very important that you attend the first class meeting of every class in which you are registered since a full period of instruction begins the first day of the semester.
• In the case where a class is taught entirely online, instructors may drop students who have not been in contact with the instructor by the end of the first day of classes for that semester or short-term session. For example, if the first day of classes for the spring semester is January 18th, instructors may drop students who have not been in contact with them by midnight on that date.

Absences in a Distance Education course are accounted for by monitoring academic attendance or attendance at an academically-related activity.

A student will be considered to be “present” in a course if there is evidence of weekly participation in an academically-related activity including, but not limited to, physically attending in-person sessions of a hybrid course, submitting an academic assignment, taking an exam, substantively participating in a course online discussion, study group, or other synchronous or asynchronous activity, or by initiating contact with the instructor in matters related to the course. It is the responsibility of the instructor to define grounds for dismissal in the Distance Education course syllabus.

• After a student accumulates more than a week’s absences in any class (more than the number of times the class meets per week), consecutive or nonconsecutive, an instructor may file a petition in the Admissions and Records Office requesting that the student be dropped from the class. When this request is approved by the Records Office, the instructor will be notified and the student will be dropped from the class.
• In the event a student is absent for a prolonged period of time it is expected that contact will be made with the respective instructors immediately to advise the instructor of this absence and the reasons for it. The instructor may then decide whether or not the student may continue in the class or withdraw. It should be noted that failure to make this contact and follow through with the decisions made at this time could result in the student receiving a grade of “F” in the class.

A student who must miss one or more classes because of a field trip or other authorized activity, such as athletics or music groups, will be issued an Authorized Absence Excuse (available in each division office) by the instructor under whose supervision the activity will occur. The student shall have this excuse signed by the instructors of the classes that will be missed before the absence occurs.

It is recommended that these transactions be carried out at least two days before the activity. The signed excuse must be presented to the instructor in charge of the activity, who shall in turn file it with the Admissions Office upon the conclusion of the activity. No absence excuses a student from making up class work missed. Students should realize that undue absences may adversely affect their grades.