As a faculty member at University of Kansas, I had the opportunity to talk to someone involved in the one-strike decision. Here's how he described the process of reaching their decision, paraphrased by me:
Originally, KU adopted a three-strikes policy, and a few years ago, it seemed effective, as some students, when confronted with their first or second strike, pleaded to misunderstanding the policies of ResNet regarding filesharing. Basically, the three strikes allowed for learning to occur.
Recently, however, the attitude of students when they received their first or second strike was, "eh." Students were aware of the policy, and they were simply ignoring it because they knew they had two "get out of jail free" cards in their pocket.
Because no learning seemed to be occurring when implementing a first or second strike, the school decided such warnings were ineffective, and thus the one-strike-and-you're-out policy we have now.
I'm not arguing for or against the new policy, but I thought folks would find the rationale KU used to reach their decision interesting.
I teach a large lecture of introductory material at a large state university. My attendance policy is: there is none. Come if you want, if you don't want to attend, then don't.
However, I do ask students to accept the consequences of their actions. If they miss a lecture, they're responsible for getting the notes from a fellow student, reading the material covered, etc. As the instructor, I will NOT re-teach material that a student doesn't understand due to lack of attendance. I will, however, spend as much time as necessary answering detailed questions about a topic, provided the student has made a good-faith effort to understand the material beforehand.
Also, I do have extra credit opportunities, prizes, interesting trivia, funny videos, guest speakers, etc. provided in class throughout the semester. If a student doesn't attend class, they do miss out on all the extras. Again, it's entirely up to them.
In a class of 400+ students, I probably average around 75% attendance, and I can live with that.
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As a faculty member at University of Kansas, I had the opportunity to talk to someone involved in the one-strike decision. Here's how he described the process of reaching their decision, paraphrased by me: Originally, KU adopted a three-strikes policy, and a few years ago, it seemed effective, as some students, when confronted with their first or second strike, pleaded to misunderstanding the policies of ResNet regarding filesharing. Basically, the three strikes allowed for learning to occur. Recently, however, the attitude of students when they received their first or second strike was, "eh." Students were aware of the policy, and they were simply ignoring it because they knew they had two "get out of jail free" cards in their pocket. Because no learning seemed to be occurring when implementing a first or second strike, the school decided such warnings were ineffective, and thus the one-strike-and-you're-out policy we have now. I'm not arguing for or against the new policy, but I thought folks would find the rationale KU used to reach their decision interesting.
I teach a large lecture of introductory material at a large state university. My attendance policy is: there is none. Come if you want, if you don't want to attend, then don't.
However, I do ask students to accept the consequences of their actions. If they miss a lecture, they're responsible for getting the notes from a fellow student, reading the material covered, etc. As the instructor, I will NOT re-teach material that a student doesn't understand due to lack of attendance. I will, however, spend as much time as necessary answering detailed questions about a topic, provided the student has made a good-faith effort to understand the material beforehand.
Also, I do have extra credit opportunities, prizes, interesting trivia, funny videos, guest speakers, etc. provided in class throughout the semester. If a student doesn't attend class, they do miss out on all the extras. Again, it's entirely up to them.
In a class of 400+ students, I probably average around 75% attendance, and I can live with that.