Student hasn't logged into CMS

[toothpaste]

I've never taught an online course, but I'm starting to use more and more features of my U's CMS. A new thing I've just discovered is that I can see the last time a student logged in and the total time that they've been logged in.

So I can see that one of the students in my class has not yet logged in to the CMS, and, I can only assume, also hasn't done any of the reading.

Two questions:

1. Do students know that instructors have this level of surveillance over them?

2. Suggestions for how to handle this with the unlogging student? Generally my demeanor with students is supportive, helpful, and friendly. I'm not sure in this case even whether to handle in person or by email message.

[Parasaurolophus]

1. Do students know that instructors have this level of surveillance over them?

In my experience, they mostly do know, yes.

2. Suggestions for how to handle this with the unlogging student? Generally my demeanor with students is supportive, helpful, and friendly. I'm not sure in this case even whether to handle in person or by email message.

I'd send an email, and then forget about it.

[bacardiandlime]

Is the student showing up in class?

[toothpaste]

Is the student showing up in class?

So far, yes.

[Caracal]

I can tell too, but I can't say I ever really look. I'm not sure I'd do anything. After all, a student can log in, see there's some reading and not do it. I'm sure you have some students doing exactly that. If you want to create accountability around readings, have quizzes or response papers. If you've decided not to do that, then you've decided to let students just reap the natural consequences of not doing the reading.

I suppose you could just mention at the beginning of class that students need to make sure to check the CMS and do the reading if they want to do well in the class, but I wouldn't address it with the student individually. It just feels a little invasive to me.

[dr_codex]

My students sometimes print out a copy of a reading and pass it around. Or, they get the link from somebody else and read it. Blackboard is so bad that these stories are plausible.

At least, they tell me they do these things. They also tell me that they've done all the reading when, well, not so much. One of many reasons that quizzes/discussion questions/etc. are in our pedagogical tool box.

As for the surveillance in the CMS, I posted on another thread that I'm starting to put a big bold statement on my syllabi that nothing written in our CMS is private. (For that matter, nothing in our email is, either, no matter how many "Confidential" disclaimers people slap on the bottom.) If my administration is going to use the CMS for all kinds of other purposes, I'm going to warn the students that this is happening.

The one thing that monitoring log-ins is useful for is financial aid, and the government reporting that comes out of it. I had an online student stop taking my course this summer; being able to pinpoint student's last activity was very useful in determining how it would influence the student's financial aid. But that's for pure online courses; web-enhanced ones with class meetings are, of course, different.

[ciao_yall]

I'm taking Spanish this semester and have not been logging into the CMS because all the activities are just optional worksheets. But I'm showing up to class and doing the required work.

[wwwdotcom]

Why does it matter?  The student had made a choice not to complete the readings in the CMS which is no different than a student who buys the textbook but never opens the cover.  If they don't read, then it should be reflected in their grade. 

[hungry_ghost]

2. Suggestions for how to handle this with the unlogging student? Generally my demeanor with students is supportive, helpful, and friendly. I'm not sure in this case even whether to handle in person or by email message.

As someone else said, why does it matter? What change do you want?
If you want students to log in, sending an email will do it. But that won't get the student to do the reading or engage with the material. It will just get her / him to make sure s/he has that "check in the box" so the instructor will see that s/he is "doing the work".

If you want the student to read or otherwise engage with the material, you need some kind of regular reading / engagement checks. There are tons of options. Setting up a system can take a lot of time initially, but maintenance is straightforward.
I use frequent, low-stakes in-class writing (following John Bean, Engaging Ideas), and I would estimate that about 90%-95% of my students do the reading and whatever else I tell them to do to prepare for class. I have colleagues who use online quizzes before class (then they'd have to log in!)  or in large classes, clickers, and they are also happy with the results.

[Hegemony]

Is this an all-online course you are teaching, or hybrid (online and in person)?

If hybrid, just mention it to the student after class — "I see you haven't been logging in to the CMS — I worry that you haven't been able to do the reading.  Have you fallen behind?"  Then the student says, "Oh, uh, yeah, I've been a little behind, I meant to get to that," or "I haven't figured out how to get to the right site" (in which case you show him kindly) or "Actually I don't have a computer at home" (which happens legitimately more often than you'd think), in which case you tell him some places to find free computers — the library, the computer lab, etc., and urge him to visit them and catch up.

If it's all online, in my experience you send the student a nice and encouraging email, and you never get a reply, and halfway through the semester the student drops the course, but at least you can reassure yourself that you tried.

[downer]

If it's all online, in my experience you send the student a nice and encouraging email, and you never get a reply, and halfway through the semester the student drops the course, but at least you can reassure yourself that you tried.

Quite a few places have an alert system for students in trouble, so that their advisor and other people in support services, and maybe their coaches, all get to know that the student is on the road to F-ville.

[toothpaste]

Good points, everyone. It is a face-to-face class.