students who declare that they won't show up to class

[rabbitandfox23]

I have a small, once a week seminar that's discussion based and really requires that all of the students show up, read and prepare in advance. Yet it happens that for almost every class there is one student who writes to me the day before, saying that s/he is sorry that s/he will not be in class (no excuse or reason provided). I put a lot of work in prepping for this class, as does a good portion of the class that shows up regularly. I can't help but feel frustrated that students think emails stating straightforwardly that they won't show up is justifiable or doing their classmates a favor.

Maybe I should be more sympathetic in these covid times and give them a benefit of the doubt, but I've noticed an uptick in nonchalantness and casualness with which students simply declare that they won't be present.... Anyone else notice this trend and somewhat annoyed about it?

[Parasaurolophus]

I'm more annoyed by getting the email, since it takes some of my energy for the day to open it up. And besides, most of the time the reasons cited aren't any of my business anyway. I don't spend any of my energy noticing or remembering who hasn't shown up for the day.

[spork]

If there are N classes, give N quizzes that are auto graded on the LMS. Students have to be physically present to take the quiz. Set the LMS to ignore the X lowest quiz grades (perhaps 1). Delete the emails without reading.

[arcturus]

My school will not allow us to use attendance as part of our grading this semester (due to COVID), so I expect that you also cannot force attendance (and, really, you do not want sick (or potentially sick) people thinking that they have to come to class...). However, you can add a graded "reflection" paper. Set aside 5 minutes at the end of class. Everyone who is there can write a brief summary of the discussion. People who are not there can earn the same points by handing in a one page summary of the main points of the reading. You should grade these on the "did it/did not do it" scale so that your grading load does not increase (you don't have to tell them that that is your grading scale - they will be happy to get full credit every time).

[Caracal]

I have a small, once a week seminar that's discussion based and really requires that all of the students show up, read and prepare in advance. Yet it happens that for almost every class there is one student who writes to me the day before, saying that s/he is sorry that s/he will not be in class (no excuse or reason provided). I put a lot of work in prepping for this class, as does a good portion of the class that shows up regularly. I can't help but feel frustrated that students think emails stating straightforwardly that they won't show up is justifiable or doing their classmates a favor.

Do you really need the students all to show up because there are only four of them or something? Do you require students to prepare questions to lead discussion or something? Is this a situation where you are frequently teaching with less than 2/3rds of the class there?

It really doesn't do any good to be constantly frustrated with students for not meeting your expectations. I get the impression that sometimes instructors think of students as employees and feel like they aren't meeting expectations. The problem is that they employees and you don't get to fire them. You give them a grade at the end of the semester and then they move on.

You can do things to shape their behavior in ways that will help the course run well. That can be about reinforcing or creating social expectations that they show up to class. (For example, at many SLACs if you just don't show up to class, your professor will send you an email wondering if you are ok) If that isn't feasible, you can have part of the grade be determined by attendance, either directly or indirectly in some fashion. 

No matter what you do, however, you can't actually make your students show up to class or do the reading, so there's no point gnashing your teeth about it. If too many people aren't coming to class and it is causing problems, change the incentives in some way next semester. Don't waste your time this semester worrying about disrespect.

[RatGuy]

For my upper-level seminars, I do an alternate assignment for students who do not want to attend for covid/flu/strep/mono reasons. I make it clear that seminar discussion is critical for learning, even in COVID times. I don't ask for a note, since even a "my roommate has covid and I'm not feeling so hot" means that the student has to enter the robust COVID protocol. That means they monintor the student's quarantine and provide return to class dates.

All this to say: I send students a rigorous assessment on the missed material. As of yet, none of the upper-level students have required that alternate assignment, though some of my lower-level classes have. The covid sophomores have dropped upon receiving the assignment, suggesting to me that they didn't want to take a face-to-face class this term anyway.

[polly_mer]

This isn't about the instructor.  Repeat that as many times as necessary to get over the "I worked so hard and it's now ruined by those rotten so-and-so's".

If many individual class sessions can't run with the people who show up regularly, then redesign the course using some of the suggestions on this thread.

Adults miss standing meetings all the time and the standard etiquette is to give the meeting organizer a heads up.  People who routinely miss meetings or show up unprepared face natural consequences...if their presence at the meeting were truly necessary.  For a course, that natural consequence should be a lower grade based on demonstrated performance.  If the only natural consequence is missing a discussion that doesn't build towards anything, then that's a poorly designed course.

[clean]

I have to meet 6 times in the term. 2 are test days, and the other 4 include quizzes (I drop the low quiz). However, the university wont allow me to require attendance.  (I am required to attend, but the students are not!! ) 
I had one student that missed a test day. I had scheduled an exam at the same time as the in class students, as the missing students were mostly athletes and knew ahead of time.  Well, as I was in class, there was a problem with Examity proctors not being able to enter the password (no idea still what the problem was), so I set up the exam for the next day.  The non athlete then announced that he could not attend as he had to work!!   I pushed back, "so you are too sick to take the exam on campus, but not too sick to work?"  he immediately replied that the university said not to come to campus if you had a sore throat, but that his employer did not! 

I learned from that exchange that there is nothing I can really enforce once the university imposed the policy.  I also agree that IF a student has even a fraction of a chance that he/she may be sick that they should stay home (away the hell from ME!!  I dont need to get sick even if it is just a 'sore throat'). 

In the end, this student abused the system enough and didnt do enough of the other required works that he failed the class!  So I am dealing with him again this term!  (though he is doing much better, especially as he has practiced all of the quizzes and exams once already).

The bottom line is that in the Days of Covid, dont expect that Everyone Will Attend!!  (Hell, Can you REALLY guarantee that YOU will be able to attend?)

[Sun_Worshiper]

I would be annoyed too, but you probably can't do much about it in these times. Presumably missing a lot of class will hurt the student's grade if (a) in-class discussion and participation is a component of the grade and (b) discussion of readings is critical to doing well on written assignments. If this is the case then students will face some consequence if they miss too regularly.

[lightning]

 ^ What Poly_mer said. ^

If someone does not consistently attend my class, they simply won't know the content enough to demonstrate proficiency on an assessment.

However, during these times of COVID-19, I'm obliged  to help them figure out a way to catch-up on their own, somehow. That's the really annoying part. I can't just flunk their lame a$$ because they all hold the COVID get-out-of-jail card.

[kaysixteen]

OK, but how is the exam supposed to be honestly given to any kid who can just sick out, without proper medical documentation?   Does he get to take the same exam that was given to the students who did show up on the announced exam day, or something else?

[FishProf]

Let the logical consequences roll.

I wish you could channel Emperor Palpatine "And now, young Student,..you...shall..fail."

[polly_mer]

OK, but how is the exam supposed to be honestly given to any kid who can just sick out, without proper medical documentation?   Does he get to take the same exam that was given to the students who did show up on the announced exam day, or something else?

In many cases, it doesn't matter.  One test alone is generally not the only assessment in the course so one perfect score means nothing.

Even if someone could know all the answers, someone gaming the system instead of learning the material is still likely to fail.

For example, in one gen ed course, I would always give the previous semester's exam as a study guide.  The exam was open notes and I'd tell students they can put anything in their notebook except photocopied full textbook; individual examples and returned homework were allowed to be stapled into the notebook.

One semester, I was so sick that I just ran double copies and gave the same exam as the practice exam.  A handful of students realized they were the same.  I still had nearly the same level of complaints about the exam being like nothing they had ever seen.  The scores were still about the same distribution as a unique test.

In a different course, I assigned as homework an end of chapter quiz in the textbook that had the answers on the following page.  The next week, we had an open-book exam that were the same questions in a different order.  The complaints went to the dean about how hard and unreasonable the exam was and I got to have a meeting to explain myself.

I frequently allowed students to resubmit exams after a week at home with any resources they like except their classmates and people still don't get everything correct.

I have posted answers on the board before exams (e.g., the answer to 3 is c) air), asked students as they turned in their exams if they read the board, and still had students get answers wrong on the front page.

The number of people who successfully cheat in some courses is vanishingly small, especially if they rely on half-remembered material from other students who probably also aren't great in the course.

[Ruralguy]

I find that there is a lot of low-level cheating by B- students who realize they are only one bad grade away from having even marginal hope for rather lofty goals. For them, the one really great test won't look all that weird to the professor (unless it really is perfect).

[waterboy]

So, when I get a student who is sick for an exam, I now have them do an essay and short answer exam instead of the (admittedly lazy on my part), Scantron exam. Word gets around.