Students enrolled in hybrid traditional courses must participate in scheduled classroom and corresponding online synchronous sessions as well as log in to the course(s) on Blackboard and complete any assignment(s) or other academic related activities, to be determined by the instructor.
Attendance is required for all class weeks. In the case of hybrid traditional courses, “absences” shall be defined as “non-participation.” Non-participation may be defined as but is not limited to
- Not attending scheduled physical classroom sessions and online synchronous sessions.
- Not following the instructor’s participation guidelines as stated in the syllabus.
- Not submitting required assignments.
- Not contributing meaningful discussion in required chat rooms, discussion boards, or other online forums.
- Not participating in scheduled activities; or
- Failure to communicate with the instructor on academic related matters as required. Failure to attend as defined above constitutes an absence.
It should be noted that simply logging into the course does not constitute participation. Students must demonstrate that they are actively participating in the course by submitting required assignments, attending scheduled physical classroom, and corresponding synchronous sessions, contributing to discussion forums, etc. as outlined above.
Note: In addition to including the attendance policy statement above in the hybrid
traditional syllabus template and in the Start Here section in Blackboard, faculty will specify
what role, if any, class attendance plays in grading and the specific penalties for excessive
absences as the professor defines in the syllabus. In order to meet USDOE requirements
with respect to weekly participation in academic related activities, substantive and regular
interaction, and determining students’ last date of attendance, faculty will need to record
student participation or non-participation each week in Blackboard and be able to provide
supporting documentation if required. These records in Blackboard will be archived for
federal regulatory purposes.