Attendance warning system

TFU-LEG Attendance Warning System

In an effort to better alert students of “dangerous” absence situations, we invite all language teachers at TFU to participate in our Attendance Warning System.

• Although we describe our attendance policies in our syllabuses and inform students again when classes begin, some students “benefit” from a reminder, assuring them that we actually intend to follow these policies. 

• If you have a student who hasn’t shown up for a couple of weeks, or for whom you see a trend developing (e.g., misses 1 of every 3 classes), you probably want to give them a “heads up.” 

• Here’s what you do:

  • Submit an alert by going to the Google Form, TFU-LEG Attendance Warning,  on our TFU-LEG website and quickly entering a few bits of info (class, student name & number, # of absences, optional comment). 

  • That’s it; that’s all you do.

• Our full-time LEG staff will then contact the student with a warning of the serious situation they’re getting into and instruct them to contact you ASAP.

Timing 

• First 4-6 weeks: We hope everyone will take a look at the attendance situation through the first 4-6 weeks of the term and submit alerts for students who are getting into a worrying situation. A rough time frame would be the 2nd week of May (1st term) or last week of September/1st week of October (2nd term). 

  • A LEG member will gather the alerts that come in and send out warnings.

  • We hope this “wakes up” some students, or at least encourages them to communicate with you about their situations. 

• Ongoing alerts:  You’re also encouraged to submit alerts throughout the first and second term. 

  • Once every 1-2 weeks, a LEG member will check incoming alerts and send out warnings. 

Goals

• Fair warning: We’d like to show that we’ve made a reasonable effort to alert students to attendance difficulties. Besides helping students, this can help document and clarify the situation when students question the grades they receive.  

• Communication: Some students struggle with job schedules, family & health issues, etc., but hesitate to speak with instructors and/or just “hope” everything will be OK. We hope this system will encourage students to at least communicate with their instructors, and enhance understanding on both sides.

• Dealing with 4th year students: Between seminar-related activities, job hunt, circle responsibilities, etc., coursework and attendance often sink to the bottom of the priority list for 4th year students. Again, rather than just hoping things will be OK, we hope these alerts will focus students’ attention, and encourage communication on steps they can take to ensure eligibility for graduation.

This system in no way represents a “solution” to attendance difficulties, but we hope it’s a reasonable, efficient way to do what we can. 

Recording attendance on UNIPA

Another way to keep your students up-to-date on their attendance situation is by regularly entering attendance results on UNIPA. This is now mandatory (from 2023/04), so we appreciate your cooperation.