Recording attendance

When I worked at the University of Wollongong, tutorial attendance was required. Here, at Monash, I say to my students I expect that they attend both lectures and tutorials. I record attendance at tutorials, but this practice is not meant to be a case of 'catching people out' or reinforcing an attendance policy, as Monash's attendance policy states that attendance is not required.

But, a recent comment led me to consider why indeed I do record attendance. It doesn't fulfill a mandated requirement that we track students. So when I started to think about why I record tutorial attendance (automatically), these are the following reasons that come to mind:

1. It helps me to learn students' names.
2. When I walk around each tutorial at the beginning and record students' names, it enables me to have personal contact with each student. Some times this is the only time I may talk directly with a student. Other times it provides the opportunity for students to inform me of something or ask me a question.
3. It enables me to see who might be falling through the cracks pre-census and post-census date.
4. It makes me aware of issues that may be affecting a lot of students such as when there is a flu bug or such going around, or when there might be a whole lot of assignments due.
   
5. It enables me to contact students who may be undergoing circumstances that affect their attendance, such as health, work commitments, carer commitments, or trauma. By sending them an email to say, 'hey, you've missed a couple of tutorials. It's hard to pass this unit without attending as it makes it hard to complete the assignments if you don't know the content, so what's going on, and how can I assist you?', I am empowered to help these people who have complicated lives and competing priorities.

I acknowledge that in the past, I probably was using attendance to gauge who was committed to their university education and who wasn't. However, at no time was this ever used in a punitive way. I can't enforce an explicit or implicit expectation that students attend. Neither can I penalize or harrass students to attend (not that I would if I could!).

I benefit from recording students' attendance even though it is extra work. It means I can embrace their humanity and circumstances and provide them with further help should they require it. This practice helps me to be a better teacher. It's not something that is expected, but it does mean I know more about my students and I can be more aware about what content they might have missed, and what I can suggest they do should attendance not be a possibility.

Sincerely.