Overview
Students in your online courses must be held to attendance and participation requirements, but given that you may never set eyes on them, how do you determine if enrolled students are "attending" your course?
The easiest way to see student activity in your online class is to look at the Grade Center. You can see whether students have logged in and if they have, their last access to the course. Also, you can see whether they've accessed and completed your syllabus quiz or posted an introduction.
Typically, these two activities are enough to keep students in the course beyond Wednesday of the first week.
If students haven't logged in or completed the syllabus quiz or introduction by Wednesday, you might find it appropriate to drop them to add wait-listed students. The sooner you bring in wait-listed students, the more likely they are to succeed in a course.
Use the links along the top of this page to learn how to add or drop students from an online class.
Attendance Reporting
Online Verification of Student Attendance
In order to comply with federal regulations, MHCC must confirm the presence in class of students receiving financial assistance through federal and state student assistance programs. To meet this obligation, faculty are required to submit an attendance and participation report by the end of the first week of the term for 10-11 week courses, and earlier for accelerated 5-8 week courses.
Attendance: More than submitting the Syllabus Quiz
Measuring "attendance and participation" in online courses means students take part in course activities. One way to ensure students have a clear understanding of participation requirements and course workload expectations is to assign several activities in addition to a syllabus quiz and ice-breaker (introduction post) the first week. Your first lesson content does not necessarily have to be as rigorous as what comes in subsequent weeks, but you can include a "lite" version of what students can expect to encounter. Completing a short reading, watching a video or listening to a podcast can introduce important content, and when paired with discussion questions, a worksheet or other assignment can help students process and apply concepts critical to your course outcomes.
Guidelines for Attendance Verification
- Assign additional course activities or work beyond the introduction and syllabus quiz
- Include a question in the syllabus quiz about other first-week activities
- Send announcements and messages to students reminding them they must complete all week 1 activities to be considered "participating" in your course.
- Ensure due dates for any first week activities fall one day before attendance is due-for most 10-11 week courses, Sunday night. This allows you to reach out to late adds or others who've not completed work.
Adding Students to Online Courses
Students on the wait-list are not automatically added to your courses. You must complete a Schedule Change form to add students. NOTE: you must track your enrollment to ensure you don't exceed course limits. Exceeding enrollment limitations requires administrator permission.
Preferred Method to Add Students to Online Courses
If a student requests a late add into an online or hybrid course, the quickest and preferred method is to use the Schedule Change Form located in My MHCC under Faculty Main.
- Log into My MHCC and click on Faculty Main.
- Under Faculty Main click on Schedule Change Form located under Electronic Forms. (Click image for larger view)
- Fill out the form and then click Send to Records Office. (Click image for larger view)
Students will automatically receive access to the course in Blackboard 1-2 hours after being registered.
Adding Students via Paper
If a student brings you a paper add slip, it is still best to transfer the student and course information to the electronic form, however AR&R will accept the original document. Please remember keep an eye on your course enrollments and not exceed caps set between you and your Dean.
TIP:
When you add students, it's helpful to give them an idea of the work they'll need to complete, and a time-frame for posting or submission. They're already behind, and the sooner they get up to speed, the more likely it is they'll be successful in your course.
Keep in mind the college's administrative processing restrictions detailed above as you establish work expectations and due dates for late-added students. Further, you should be aware of the risks inherent in adding students after the first week. These students often end up failing or dropping the course.
It helps to speak with the student and to ensure he/she knows what is in store by explaining your expectations, providing them with a checklist and a timeline to catch-up. This allows a late-adding student to make an informed choice rather than a desperate stab to meet financial aid/program/other requirements.
Dropping Students
You must log into MyMHCC to drop students from your course. This process is different from your mandatory attendance and participation report due Sunday (for standard-length courses. Accelerated courses have different report deadlines - check your email.)
Steps to Drop
- Ensure you have the student's full name and ID number
- From the My Courses page, select Faculty Main
- Scroll down to Electronic forms
- Choose Administrative Drop
- Complete and submit the electronic form