How one approaches student attendance may vary from instructor to instructor. Some might place considerable weight on attendance and calculate it into the grade. Others might calculate it according to the grade but not weigh it as high. Other policies might not calculate attendance into the grade at all. Regardless of your policy, you must have a description of that expectation outlined in your syllabus. Once you establish that expectation, adhere to it when evaluating your students. Demanding more or less of any one student when it comes to attendance is an issue of equity.

Regardless of whether you factor attendance into grades, you are still encouraged to keep track of student attendance in one form or another. In certain circumstances (e.g., you must enter an F or NF grade) you will need to know when a student last attended your course. You can take attendance in a number of ways. You can use the Roll Call feature that is built into Canvas. This makes it easy to calculate attendance as part of the grade. You could also use an Excel sheet or form of your own. The method you use is up to you.

Adverse Weather and Attendance Makeup

Per USU Policy 507 (University Closure), teachers are not responsible for cancelling class due to weather. Rather, the Director of Facilities and the Director of University Police, in consultation with the Provost and VP for Finance and Administrative Services, make that decision. This means that if university officials decide to keep campus open, you are expected to hold class as scheduled. You may not excuse class for adverse weather on your own.

However, in the event of any absence—related to adverse weather or not—you as an instructor are permitted to allow students to make up for missed class. You can decide how you would like to do this, whether it be offering extra credit or requesting that students schedule office hours. It is up to you to address situations when students are not able to attend class.