Brian Rubrecht: Taking attendance at university: Some thoughts brought on by COVID-19
Channel: GIRES-Global Research Institute
Date: 2021-05-26

Brian G. Rubrecht, Ph.D., is a Professor in the School of Commerce at Meiji University, Tokyo, Japan. Dr. Rubrecht earned his Masters degree in TESOL and Bilingual Education from Georgetown University in 2000 and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 2004 with a doctoral degree in Foreign Language Education. His research interests include language learning motivation, pronunciation, identity, and cultural and pedagogical aspects that influence the learning of a foreign language.

ABSTRACT 
There is little consensus regarding the taking of student attendance at the university level. Many institutions and individual instructors in the West refrain from implementing attendance requirements, and they justify this decision based on various grounds (e.g., attendance is the responsibility of students, tracking student attendance distracts instructors from their lecturing duties), yet attendance policies elsewhere (such as in Japan) are often strict, with poor attendance alone being sufficient reason for students to fail a course.
Because of COVID-19, Japanese universities switched to remote teaching and learning (RTL) for AY2020. This move supported social distancing measures, but it also brought new difficulties and concerns (some technological and others pedagogical in nature). With this move, instructors and students alike questioned the necessity and feasibility of taking attendance remotely. Instructors did not all share the same views about taking attendance with students who were not physically present, with some abandoning the heretofore standard practice altogether.
Because the move to RTL brought to the forefront issues and practices that had previously gone unexamined or unquestioned pre-pandemic, the proposed presentation will discuss attendance, namely, the many reasons why attendance might or might not be taken in courses at the university level and how attendance might be taken in the classroom and while online. The presenter will draw from his own experience in teaching at Japanese universities by discussing several novel attendance-taking approaches.
 
CONFERENCE INFORMATION
"Education, Technology & Culture in Crisis: Secondary & Higher Education in a Time of Virtual Instruction"
Organizer: GIRES-Global Institute for Research Education & Scholarship  
Date: 15-16 May 2021
Place: Amsterdam (Virtual)
More information: https://www.gires.org/activities/conferences/education-technology-culture-crisis-secondary-higher-education-virtual-instruction/