Can we cancel class?

Personally, as a student, I don't agree with pop quizzes. We have a lot to do and we're not necessarily on top of everything. Not even the honours students (myself included) are prepared all the time for every course. Luckily, at my school we have policies in places that require 2 weeks notice for evaluations, but I suppose one could say "There will be a pop quiz in 2 weeks or so" but then that's not really a pop quiz I guess.

I've always found it strange that universities require students to pay for classes, then demand they show up as much as possible. Some things can get out of the control of the student. Students may have a bigger project for another class and need more time for it, thus taking time out from the class they miss. Etc.

So far the schools I've been to make it mandatory for instructors to move down grades for students who miss more than one week of class instruction time. If the student passes the finals and otherwise understands the course, does it matter how often the student shows up? Is there a reason to knock down an earned grade as punishment?

I agree with you and the writers above about the skipping class thing. For the having class outside, though, it can be a fun change of pace from time to time. It's hard to write equations and such in the air (for math or physics), though.

I agree, mostly. Yes, they are sort of adults, but most still have some development remaining. Second, you are not their babysitter, but you can signal that it is not ok to miss class by having it affect their grade (nominally). As most adults that miss work get penalized, I don't think it is outside the lines to punish a student likewise. The other issue I have is that at state-funded institutions taxpayers are subsidizing their education. I view them not participating in class as wasting that money.

It makes sense not to have attendance grades in science courses, where conceivably you can learn everything you need outside of class. It makes sense to have attendance grades in humanities because much of the learning takes place, not in lecture and note-taking, but in articulating and defending your ideas in real-time to other humans.

At least, that's how it broke down for me while I was in school, and while I often complained about having to show up for certain classes, I knew even at the time why those policies were in place. And honestly, I went to all my science and math lectures anyway, even without an attendance grade, just because my profs and their lectures were so dang interesting. Maybe I just got lucky, but I found that their explanations and (sometimes tangentially related) examples gave me a deeper and broader understanding of the material.

Here is the point I am trying to make - class is for students. Class is not for me. Students pay for classes, so they should get them.

And you are paid to teach those classes, so it is your duty to give those lectures to those students who choose to attend.

Sometimes it is reasonable to cancel a class. If it would be too dangerous for you or your students to travel to campus, or some condition temporarily prevents the university from offering adequate facilities for your class, or if some sudden unforeseen emergency (e.g., you had to go to the hospital via ambulance) makes you unavailable, then it is reasonable to cancel class. (My university has a system in place for students and employees to check whether one of the first two conditions holds.) Unusually nice weather or proximity to holidays is not a good reason to cancel class--the student is not obligated to attend, but the professor is obligated to try to give the class.

When I was an undergraduate, I admit I did, at times, wish class could be held outside or canceled on a nice spring day. Now that I'm taking courses at night for a hobby, I'd rather instructors not waste my time. If I keep my appointments, I expect the instructor to do so as well (barring an emergency). It's poor customer service for a professor to cancel without prior warning.

That said, I generally don't like instructors that mandate attendance and/or give pop quizzes to encourage it. I enjoy attending lectures, but time is short. If a lecture merely covers the content of the book or a topic Iâm already familiar with, attending them just wastes my time. Personally, I think as long as the work gets done (exams, papers, etc) attendance should not matter. Although really, I would much prefer for lectures to be interesting (i.e., expand upon topics covered in the book rather than just be PowerPoint summaries of it). Thankfully, the nice part about not pursuing a degree is I can be more selective and only pick courses for which the lectures are interesting.

@Eric,

I agree on the dangerous weather issue - but if it is just "not nice outside" - that is essentially the same as "it is nice outside".

@CalcDave,

I think I was making the assumption that "having class outside" meant essentially not having class. This was probably a bad assumption. I am sure there are many situations where you could get just as much accomplished outside.

Both my wife and I have struggled with how much responsibility to hand over to college students. On one hand, I agree that they are adults and should be able to make their own choices about what they need to do to succeed. The reality of it is that I see significantly higher performance when I utilize pop quizzes or some other mechanism to keep the students on top of things. Letting them be responsible for themselves is respectful and might teach them about life skills such as managing there own time. However, my job is to teach them course content to the best of my ability and that often requires holding their hands and treating them like children. Of course, in each class there are exceptions to the rule. I hate to require attendance or additional work from students that are doing fine without.

I'm experimenting with having an attendance policy this semester (which I haven't done in the past). About 10% of my student evaluations from last semester contained comments to the effect that students would have preferred to have an attendance policy. I don't understand why--whether it's a generalized motivation to attend or whether it helps students feel that everyone is responsible for contributing to the learning process or for some other reason. This is in addition to my class participation policy, which I have used in the past, and which counts both in-class discussion and comments left on the course Blackboard.

So far the only changes I've noticed are a slightly higher drop rate early in the semester and roughly equal attendance on quiz days as compared to non-quiz days. There were students last semester who only showed up for exams.

I'm not sure whether I want to continue this policy in the next class I teach.

Ping!

@Eric,

I think you have the key question. If we want to help them learn, should we force them to learn? My feelings is that I am also helping them learn how to be responsible. Perhaps this is not the best policy, but I have to make a choice.

I saw this on Dr. Free-Ride's blog and posted there, but I think it worth making the same point here. I don't care if the students come to class or not. As you say, they are adults. But in my class, discussion and participation is a part of the learning experience and counts for 10% of the grade. (I take attendance and note when someone asks or answers a question.) I tell them up front that it's easy to get that part of the grade. They don't have to be right, they just have to participate in the discussion. If they ask me if they have to be there, I say "no, but then you don't get the credit for it." Everything's up front. They know the grading. It's their choice if they want to take it.

PS. It's a relatively small class (30 students) and relatively advanced (sr UG and 1st/2nd yr Grad). But I'd do the same for any class. Tell them the grading scheme. If they want it, they can take it. If they don't, they can drop the class.

Two comments:
1) Thanks goodness I got my degree before PowerPoint (But I have to confess a weakness for Keynote).

2) If the only assessment is only one final exam, then I would submit that grades are highly susceptible to noise. I mean, anyone can have a bad day, and if that one bad day happens to coincide with the final, then in technical terms that is known as a "bummer."

@TGAP Dad,

You have a good point about the final exam. However, I do not encourage students to ONLY take the final exam - just like I encourage my kids to take small bites of their food.

Also, I think you can reduce the noise in the final exam by not having multiple choice tests and giving partial credit. Ideally, an oral exam would be best. If you take a student and you need to determine what level they really understand something, oral exams work well.

Honestly, if a student wanted to take an oral exam instead of a written exam, I would like to do that - but it could be a time problem.

Regarding what Janet wrote in her blog, linked @12:

There is a point where unprepared students make a lecture class a waste of their time and even yours. I had that today, where it has become apparent that one group of students needs a pop quiz on what they have actively forgotten since Monday. Why come to class if all you intend to do is forget it all the next day? There is little point in passing physics by cramming for a test if you are going to fail your engineering classes or epic fail in life. I was thinking I had Toyota engineers in the room!

On the plus side, I know one question that is going to be on the next exam....

Are the respondents here familiar with the concept of retention? This is the idea that the more students who graduate, the better. It is well thought of, and often pushed, by administrators and legislators. If there is a correlation between attending class and successfully graduating, then professors may be encouraged to do something to increase class attendance.

@Jim,

I agree that is what the administrators would like. But, why not just give everyone an A? Wouldn't that help retention? Also, admins worry about tuition. Why not give students extra points on their grade if they pay more? Or....maybe students will have higher graduation rates if they eat right. We could give bonus points for students eating their veggies?

Please note that I am being sarcastic. However, the point is: the role of the grade is supposed to evaluate student understanding. I am not too happy with grades, but that is what they are for. If you start trying to use them to do other things...I just don't know about that.

P.S. If you are an administrator, I hope I have not offended you.

P.P.S If you are my administrator, I was just joking (but not really)

There is grade inflation you know, and part of it is from subtle and not so subtle pressures for retention. We had an instance where a professor recorded failing grades for an entire class. The Dean's daughter was a member of the class and reported it to her father. Unfortunately, the professor had done some, he thought reasonable and agreeable to the students, class rescheduling which was used to pressure him to change the grades. That is just a story, but I suggest you do not fail an entire class, no matter what.

I am well convinced, from spending 32 years at a regional university drawing students from the same local pool, that the 1997 cohort was not as capable as the, say, 1977 cohort.
When we did get a dorm, there was enough demand that we were able to select the most capable entering students. There was faculty mentoring for all the dorm students, etc. etc. At the end of the first semester 60% of the dorm students went on scholastic probation.

My last class went well, so I retired at age 62 feeling no pain. However, I am convinced that if I had stayed on to age 65, I would have retired a bitter old man.