Tuesday, September 8, 2020

Taking attendance on Zoom


There are about a gazillion reasons why in-person classes are easier and more productive than Zoom classes . . . but I've discovered one (1!) way in which doing something via Zoom is easier.

I've started taking attendance via the Chat tool. At some point during each class, when I feel it's good to see if we're all present (and paying attention), I ask everyone a simple and fun-ish question (favorite breakfast food, a good way to relax, etc). I have the students type their answers (but not submit it) into the chat, and then we ALL submit at the same time. [I think this takes pressure off of worrying that people will judge what you write]. 

After the meeting, I cut-and-paste the chat into a spreadsheet, and  then I sort. All the "From Peter to you", "From Sylvia to you" lines come in one bundle, alphabetized by first name, so it is easy to see who was there and who wasn't.

I also snagged a cool idea from the MAA (Math Association of America) listserve; I've got a template email for students who seem to be missing from class.   It essentially says, "I see you missed class; I hope everything's okay.  If you need technical help, remember you can go here. If you need health or counseling help, you can go here; if you are getting overwhelmed, you can go here.  And as a reminder, here's our class attendance policy with how you ought to catch up on the stuff you missed."

So, there's that. 





3 comments:

  1. I love the template email idea! Hopefully, people are able to get the help they need to participate in class.

    You can take attendance in a similar way during a lecture by having students respond in via an app on their phones. Things like socrativ (and other apps I'm sure) work in a similar way -- students can answer a quick question and log that they are present.

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    1. Oh, that's cool. Do you know how well those apps translate to students in China. We keep running into difficulties because of what is (and isn't) banned there. Fortunately, zoom seems to work okay, as long as their internet is up and running well.

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    2. oh, I was meaning for in-person lecture. I am not sure which apps work in China. I feel you on the compatibility! I'm taking this year off (having a baby in October!) but had some issues last spring because of my students in China.

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