Attendance

Online Class - Attendance

A week for online courses is Monday 12:00 am EST to Sunday at 11:59 pm EST.  Attendance is recorded for the day the action was completed regardless of the day a particular assignment or item was due.  In order to satisfy weekly attendance requirements, online students must demonstrate active weekly attendance by completing one of the following actions as directed by the instructor: (1) submit an academic assignment; (2) submit a quiz or an exam; (3) participate in a posted online academic discussion.  Additionally, some courses use labs to supplement a portion of their material.  These labs do not count for attendance unless noted in the course guide.  Logging into the online class without active participation (as described above) does not constitute official weekly attendance.  Participation must be within the class-specific online learning management system, such as Blackboard.  Work completed outside of the learning management system does not count toward attendance.  Additionally, items submitted prior to the official start date or after the official end date of the term will not count for attendance.

Campus Class-Attendance

Students are expected to attend for the full duration of all regularly scheduled campus classes. Should absence, tardiness, or early departure be necessary, students are responsible for the material covered during the absence. Faculty cannot grant requests for excessive amounts of make-up material. Strayer University requires all faculty to take attendance during each class period, generally in the form of an attendance sheet, and to record it accurately on their permanent roster.  In order for a student to be marked as present for attendance purposes, the student must attend at least half of the class and be recorded as present on the attendance sheet. Being marked as present for attendance purposes does not obligate the professor to give the student credit for participation for grading purposes.

Absences from Campus and Online Classes

Students are advised to work directly with their professor as personal emergencies arise that prevent satisfactory class attendance.  A student who expects to be absent due to extended mitigating circumstances should contact his/her Campus Dean or Dean of Advising and professor. The University has defined the following as possible mitigating circumstances: serious illness of the student, serious illness of a member of the student’s immediate family for whom the student is the primary caregiver, or death of a member of student’s immediate family, military deployment, unforeseen travel requirements, or relocation related to the student’s employment. To request an accommodation or waiver based on mitigating circumstances, the student must provide the Campus Dean and professor with the appropriate written documentation supporting the student’s claim of mitigating circumstances. If the student’s request for an accommodation is granted based on the documentation provided, the Campus Dean or Dean of Advising will notify the student. 
Students may be required to submit additional documentation before enrolling in subsequent quarters to demonstrate that the mitigating circumstance has been alleviated or no longer exists. 
If circumstances are such that, due to the extended length of the class absences or anticipated absence, the preferable course of action is class withdrawal, the student may petition the Campus Director or Dean of Advising for withdrawal and consideration for a tuition and/or fee adjustment and/or waiver of the withdrawal fee. Appropriate written documentation supporting a withdrawal request must be provided to the Campus Director or Dean of Advising.
A student who is absent from four consecutive class meetings, excluding holidays and emergency cancellation of classes, will be withdrawn automatically from that course. A student will be withdrawn automatically from a mini-session course when he/she misses two consecutively scheduled classes. A student who does not attend any of the classes for which he/she is registered in a term will be administratively withdrawn from the University.