Attendance and Requiring Video
Required Attendance
We recommend thinking about the impacts of attendance policy on equity, and avoid requiring or giving credit for live attendance.
Like many of us, students are home with family members, some of whom may also be taking classes. It could be that a student has a sibling or child who has a Zoom class at the same time. If they do not have access to multiple devices or a strong, fast internet connection, it may cause them to have trouble coming into your class and staying with your class. For example, if a student has a second-grader at home who is having a Zoom class with their instructor, but is suddenly having audio problems, your student may feel they need to troubleshoot for their child.
Here are some tips for being inclusive when teaching via Zoom Links to an external site. [new tab].
If you do take attendance, you can screenshot the participants pane to have a record of who attended. Alternately, you can go to your profile page in Zoom. Click on "Reports," then choose "Usage," and then search for the meeting you'd like to see. Once you find the meeting, click on the participants (circled in blue below). The participants link will show you a list of participants in that meeting.
Requiring video cameras
In addition, if you want students to turn on their video, make sure they know it's okay not to as well. Consider:
- Some students don't have cameras, or don't have a strong enough internet connection to broadcast video.
- Some students don't want to share their living situation, whether it's because they are experiencing homelessness, or have relatives who don't want to be on video, or more.
Students can change their names on their Zoom accounts, so ask them to show the name they are registered under, or maybe post a still image as their Zoom profile picture.
- "5 Reasons to Let Students Keep Their Cameras Off During Zoom Classes Links to an external site." [new tab]
- "Please, Let Students Turn Their Videos Off in Class Links to an external site." [new tab]
The college does allow you to require video cameras, but for assessment monitoring only. If you do, remember to include appropriate syllabus language.