Classes involve active participation through discussions, small group or laboratory work; attendance is expected whether classes are meeting online or in person. Instructors expect students to be responsible for attending class on time. Consistent tardiness may be considered an absence. When students enroll in a course, they are accountable for all course requirements. For online, asynchronous online courses, attendance is defined as working on meaningful and consistent academic participation at least once a week, comparable to the contact hours that are required for a similar face-to-face course of similar credits. Attendance does not include simply logging in. The student must participate in the required, or supplemental activity, involving course content (e.g., a discussion, submitting an assignment, or completing a quiz) within the Alverno Learning Support System. Students must meet the deadlines set by their instructors to complete the work.
When extenuating circumstances arise, students are expected to contact the instructor regarding making up missed work. The Academic Advising Center serves as a contact point for students with exceptional circumstances such as surgeries, extended illnesses, jury duty, etc.
Instructors may advise students to drop or withdraw from a course, or may decide that the student is ineligible to continue attending a course, if attendance has not been regular or the student missed the first class. If students drop a course, they must officially drop the course by contacting the Registrar’s Office. Graduate students should see the course syllabus for any additional attendance requirements.
Because learning is socially constructed, attendance and active participation is expected in all scheduled classes, skills labs, and clinical practica, whether taught face-to-face on-campus, synchronously online, or in the clinical setting. Online classes delivered asynchronously may require students to participate in interactive online learning activities including, but not limited to, asynchronous online discussions with peers, faculty, or community members. It is the student’s responsibility to notify the course faculty, via email, of an impending absence from a scheduled class, skills lab, or clinical practicum prior to the scheduled start time. When extraordinary circumstances lead to an absence and prior notification is not possible, it is expected that the student will communicate with the course faculty and/or the clinical preceptor (as appropriate) about the absence as soon as possible.
Upon enrolling in a course, the student is accountable for all the requirements of that course. Consistent and active participation is essential to students’ achievement of course outcomes; therefore, students are expected to attend all scheduled classes, skills labs, and clinical practica, arriving on time and actively participating for the duration those meetings. Consistent tardiness, lack of participation, and leaving early may be equated to absence by a course faculty. Opportunities for make-up assignments and alternative clinical experiences may be limited and determined by individual course faculty on a case-by-case basis. Students should be aware that missing more than two scheduled classes, skills labs, or clinical practicum days puts them in jeopardy of not meeting course outcomes and thereby, unsuccessful course completion and the administration of an unsuccessful “U” course progress code for the course. This is particularly true for absence from clinicals because a student cannot successfully complete a clinical course without participating in the clinical experience in the clinical setting sufficient to demonstrate course outcomes. Clinical practica provide “situated learning experiences” critical to the development of professional nurses because they provide the opportunity for students to learn and “do” what they “know.”
Faculty have the responsibility for reviewing and determining a student’s progress in their courses based on course outcomes. Students have the responsibility to contact course faculty to learn whether additional requirements must be met as the result of their absence from a scheduled class, skills lab, or clinical practicum day. Faculty have the responsibility to inform a student whose absence from a class, skills lab, or practicum has jeopardized their continuance in a course. Faculty may deem the student ineligible to continue in a theory or clinical practicum course if the first scheduled class or practicum is missed, expectations regarding communication about absence(s) have not been met, participation has not been regular or timely, and/or multiple absences have negatively impacted the student’s progress such that the course outcomes can no longer be met.