Attendance

A buddy of mine who is a college professor and I were recently e-mailing about attendance policies, and I suddenly realized I am a huge kill joy when it comes to attendance:

1. The class is designed a certain way. If face to face is an important part of the class design, then students should be heavily graded on attendance.
2. Sterotypically in the past, students argue that they don't need to attend class because they can cram from the book and class notes and "pass the final."
1. Shame on any university that wastes face time in this way.
1. Any lecture that takes place should be highly interactive, answering questions from students, having students answer each others questions, and provoking questions and so on.
2. Face time is generally too valuable to waste on lecture. Students should be in simulations or in small group work/discussion.
3. Teachers who feel they must lecture uninterrupted should just make a video and have people watch it outside of face time.
2. If this is true of the subject matter, there is not much point in wasting student or teacher time in class.
1. Instead they should have had a capstone paper they had to write for the course that summarized the course materials, guaranteeing they were exposed to the course material OR
2. The entire course should have been one big take-home open book test, hundreds or thousands of questions that hit every point the instructor wanted the student to learn in the class.
3. Students should not be let off the hook from the learning they did not get from failing to attend class. On those grounds I think attendance should be graded, and heavily.
1. Likewise, students should be given credit for learning they got from attending class but which might not show up on other forms of student learning evaluation.
2. Example: Brazillian Jui Jitsu. A hot shot weight lifter decides he only needs to go to the class a few times a month, and that he should get belt promotions because he watches so much BJJ youtube on his own. Compare that to the average cubical dweller who manages get get to BJJ class four times a week. A year latter, as far as scoring in BJJ tournaments is concerned, the cubical dweller is going to kill the weight lifter, the cubical dweller really should be considered to have a higher grade of knowledge.
4. Students have a responsibility to participate in learning communities. 
1. Frankly it reflects poorly on any higher education program that produces students who can't work as a team, participate in civil conversation, and show up on time where they are supposed to. Attendance, attendance, attendance.
2. The student got into the school based on their academic reputation. It is their PRIVILEDGE to go there, not their RIGHT. Part of that privilege involves an obligation to help class mates learn. Good luck doing this when you don't even attend class. That sort of Ayn Rand "I can just pass the final after I cram" BS should be grounds for expulsion.
3. And if you don't grade based on attendance, the Ayn Rand student will blame you when they get a D on the final, when in reality they deserve an F in the class for taking up a spot at the school that could have been used by a student who was actually interested in learning something.