Online Class – Attendance
An academic week for online courses is from Monday 12:00 am ET to Sunday at 11:59 pm ET (seven calendar days). In rare instances, the academic calendar may stipulate that an academic week for an online course is only six calendar days. Attendance is recorded for the day the action was completed regardless of the day a particular assignment or item was due. Additionally, items submitted prior to the official start date or after the official end date of an academic week do not record attendance for that week; rather, they record attendance for the academic week submitted.
In order to satisfy weekly attendance requirements, online students must complete one or more of the following actions: (1) submit an academic assignment in Blackboard, (2) submit a quiz or an exam in Blackboard, or (3) actively participate in a posted online academic discussion in Blackboard. 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.
Weekly attendance participation must be within the class-specific online learning management system, such as Blackboard. Logging into the online class without active participation (as described above) does not constitute official weekly attendance.
Campus and Hybrid Class – Attendance
Students are expected to attend for the full duration of all regularly scheduled campus and hybrid 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 makeup material. Strayer University requires all faculty to take attendance during each class period, generally in the form of a sign-in sheet, and to record it accurately on their permanent roster.
In order for a campus class 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 sign-in sheet. For hybrid classes, following the circulation of the class sign-in sheet, the instructor will mark his or her own signature next to each student to confirm he/she was actually present in class. Being marked as present for attendance purposes does not obligate the instructor to give the student credit for participation for grading purposes.
Absences from Campus and Online Classes
Students are advised to work directly with their instructor as personal emergencies arise that prevent satisfactory class attendance. A student who expects to be absent due to extended mitigating circumstances should contact a dean, advisor, or coach and his or her instructor. 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, 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 a dean, advisor, or coach and his or her instructor 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, a dean, advisor, or coach 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 an advisor or coach 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 advisor/coach.
For campus and synchronous classes, a student who is absent from four consecutive class meetings (two consecutive class meetings for mini-sessions), will be withdrawn automatically from that course. Note: in situations when a class was rescheduled because the originally scheduled class was cancelled or fell on a scheduled Strayer holiday, it is possible that the four (two for mini-sessions) consecutive class meetings may be greater than or less than 28 (14 for mini-sessions) calendar days.
An online student who is absent for four (two for mini-sessions) consecutive academic weeks (i.e., for online classes an academic week is Monday, 12:00 a.m. EST to Sunday at 11:59 p.m. EST) will be withdrawn automatically from that course.
A student who does not attend any of the classes for which he or she is registered in a term will be administratively withdrawn from the university.
Attendance – Veterans Educational Benefits Eligibility
To maintain compliance with federal regulations governing Veterans Educational Benefits, each quarter the university will report to the Department of Veterans Affairs all veteran students who have not attended a class for 21 consecutive days, along with the date of last attendance. Once reported to the Department of Veterans Affairs, any student who has not attended a class for 21 consecutive days, will no longer be eligible for Veteran Educational Benefits for that quarter. The student may continue in their current course(s) by satisfying any outstanding balance via an alternate payment method; provided, however, if the student does not attend a class for four consecutive weeks, the student will be administratively withdrawn from such class.
Emergency Cancellation of Classes
In case of inclement weather or other emergencies, the university will notify the campus community that classes are canceled. Students may also view emergency announcements on the website at https://icampus.strayer.edu and will receive notification from StrayerAlert via text message and/or email. When cancellation of classes is necessary, instructors will arrange for additional class meetings to compensate for attendance time.