As an online instructor, you may hear things like "clearing your roster" early in the semester and reporting the "last date of attendance" when a student drops.

Clearing your course roster and dropping students who aren't participating will open space for others to be added and start the class without being too far behind. In addition, supporting the census process Cal. Code Regs. Tit. 5, 58004 to clear rolls of inactive enrollment for students that are a no show, withdrawn or dropped from the course.

Be wary of inactive students who do not participate in your courses early in the semester, as these student accounts have the potential of being used for financial aid fraud.

Steps to contact and verify intent for the student to participate in the course is possible. However, a lack of online academic attendance via an academically related activity in a distance education program should result in that student being dropped from the course.

Reporting the last date of attendance of students who withdraw is a requirement of federal financial aid.

Examples of acceptable evidence of academic attendance and attendance at an academically related activity in a distance education program include:

student submission of an academic assignment,
student completion of an assessment or exam,
student completion of a quiz,
student participation in an interactive discussion,
student participation in an interactive tutorial, live streaming meeting, or other interactive computer-assisted instruction,
student participation in a study group, group project, or online discussion that is assigned by the institution,
student interaction with the instructor about academic matters, and
an email from the student or other documentation showing that the student-initiated contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course.

Attendance for distance education consists of further substantive actions of the student demonstrating engagement in an academically related activity. Student activity such as only logging onto the online class (Canvas) is not sufficient to meet academic attendance standards. Federal financial aid regulations (see p. 5-65) state that:

In a distance education context, documenting that a student has logged into an online class is not sufficient, by itself, to demonstrate academic attendance by the student. A school must demonstrate that a student participated in class or was otherwise engaged in an academically related activity, such as by contributing to an online discussion or initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a course-related question.

It is recommended that many instructors require participation in an introductory discussion forum or completion of a syllabus quiz within the first few days of class and drop students who do not participate.

Upon withdrawal of a student or drop of a student. The instructor will be responsible to report and determine the last time a student had completed any of the academically related activities listed prior. For more details on the process visit the Faculty Resource Handbook (Section D) and Administrative Procedure 5070 for the definitions of college class attendance at the SDCCD.

Instructors are also required to manage an attendance policy for their online classes. This policy can be flexible to suit the needs of the course and students, but should be clear to what constitutes attendance, regular substantive contact requirements, and equity-mindedness. The sample syllabus provides an example of what an attendance policy should entail.