30 Faculty Handbook – August 2022 • attending a study group that is assigned by the school; • participating in an online discussion about academic matters; and • initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course. Academically related activities do not include activities where a student may be present but not academically engaged, such as — • living in institutional housing; • participating in the school’s meal plan; • logging into an online class without active participation; or • participating in academic counseling or advisement. Participation in academic counseling and advising are no longer considered to be academic attendance or attendance at an academically related activity. Documenting attendance when students are enrolled in distance education courses In a distance education context, documenting that a student has logged into an online class is not sufficient, by itself, to demonstrate academic attendance by the student. A school must demonstrate that a student participated in class or was otherwise engaged in an academically related activity, such as by contributing to an online discussion or initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a course-related question. The Office of the Vice President for Student Affairs will notify professors only when students must be absent from class due to a death in the family, hospitalization or other illness expected to exceed three class days. The purpose of the notification is to provide information and not to validate the reason given for the absence. When a student is absent from class because of a Northern State University activity, the Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs will, at the request of the sponsoring faculty, notify the student's instructors that he or she is permitted to make up the work. Progress Reports Faculty are responsible for providing notice of deficiencies on all freshman and sophomore students at mid-term. While the other BOR schools enter DEF (Deficient) grades as appropriate in Banner, NSU has been given permission to use the EAB system. EAB flags generate an email to the student and to their advisor. Early Alert To improve retention, beginning fall 2006 an Early Alert grading system was put into place. Much like the mid-term deficiencies already done, this gives students, advisors, etc. and earlier notification of problems. The Early Alert system is required for all 000, 100- and 200- level courses, and its purpose is to provide students with notification of deficiency after three weeks of class. The challenge of determining that a student is having serious difficulty after such a short time is recognized. This determination might be based on attendance, homework, quizzes, class participation, or an examination. Faculty members should also use this to report non-attendance.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzkyNTY=