Attendance in a Distance Learning World

Thank you for all the hard work you have put in over the last two weeks preparing to conduct classes remotely. It has been a monumental task, and we look forward to the innovations that result from this unprecedented time. Now that your distance learning plans have been put into action, it’s time to begin looking at other policies that impact your ability to implement it. Today, we’d like to take a moment to highlight your attendance policy and the importance of reflecting on its compatibility with your distance learning policy.

Accurately tracking attendance and participation for live virtual classes can be difficult on its own. Even more challenging is accommodating technology and schedule flexibility demands in our current environment. Attendance and remote participation are well-covered in your distance learning plan and likely include several options for instructors from participation questions to tracking how long students are logged in to the learning software, or grading turned-in distance learning work. Based on availability hours, regular check-ins by teachers can be an additional measure of ensuring that students sustain and engage in their education delivered over distance. Whatever method is decided by the school and teachers, aligning attendance and distance learning policies clearly communicates requirements and keeps the board informed on school performance.