ITC: 123 - Grading Class Participation and Attendance in College

I am on the fence with this one. Primarily, I teach online classes so participation and attendance are slightly different. I also believe that the more one is involved in a course, the better they will do. But I also believe in treating adults like adults. That means, they get to make their own decisions and must accept responsibility for the decisions they make. All I can do is create the conditions that they will want to participate and succeed. The reason I am approaching this topic right now is that I have been helping faculty work on their courses and participation and attendance have been elements we have had to work out. Additionally, I had just read a couple of articles by James Lang in the Chronicle of Higher Education on the topic. I thought the articles made a lot of sense. The reason why we grade participation is that we recognize that engagement in the classroom leads to greater success. Students also understand this basic fact. Learning is about dialogue. The grade should not be the reason to participate. In this episode, we will look at grading participation and attendance to include the pros and cons. We will also discuss strategies for grading participation and attendance in your classroom. Come learn more. Join me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/InTheClassroomPodcast/  Other podcast episodes: https://tubarksblog.com/intheclassroom  Show notes: https://tubarksblog.com/itc123  Music credit: https://www.purple-planet.com/  Sponsor: https://tubarksblog.com/textexpander  Sponsor: https://tubarksblog.com/read-to-succeed/