Attendance Policy

Even though online students do not "attend" in the same way that students attend in a face-to-face classroom, online students must comply with the DCC attendance policy. The 2012-2013 DCC Catalog explains:

Class attendance is required; therefore, students should plan to attend every class session for all courses. Attendance for online students is defined as a substantive posting to the discussion board during the week assigned (emphasis added). ... Students in the online program cannot miss more than one week without automatic failure due to non-attendance. Class sessions missed during the late-registration period are counted as absences. At the beginning of the course, the professor may outline in the course syllabus additional attendance and participation requirements that may affect the grade.

Attendance requirements in flex classes may vary depending on the preferences of the professor. Please refer to your class site for more information.

In online-only classes, instructors will check for a substantive posting in the main discussion forum (the introductory forum does not count unless it is the only discussion forum that week) at the end of each week. If a student does not show a substantive posting during the assigned week, the student will be reported absent in the DCC academic database. Students will be informed of this absence through the Moodle email system. If there has been some mistake, the student should contact the instructor within 48 hours to rectify it.

In addition to receiving a message from Moodle, students will be able to check attendance in two places:

  1. The "Attendance" link at the top of the class site.
  2. The Student Portal

Warning after the first absence: Students should be aware that the DCC attendance policy states that a student cannot miss more than one week of an online class. If a student has one absence and then fails to post in any other week of the course, the student will face serious consequences:

  1. being administratively withdrawn from the course or
  2. failing the course based on attendance.

Either consequence will cost the student financially and possibly affect his/her GPA. To avoid this students need to post each week.

Consequence after the second absence: The instructor will notify the registrar in the academic office. Depending on the student's circumstances, the academic office will either

  1. Administratively withdraw the student (AW): This happens when a student is absent the first two weeks of a class. A non-refundable $250 fee is charged to the student's account.
  2. The student will receive an "F" in the class: This happens if the student attends during any part of the class, but is absent during any two weeks of the class. The student will also lose the full tuition for the class as per the DCC catalog.

Final Note of Explanation

This definition of attendance for online students emphasizes the importance of participating substantively in the weekly forums. Under this definition a student could do all the written work except the discussion assignment and still be marked absent and possibly be dismissed from the class for lack of participation.