OrientationAcademic Continuity
Overview
Promoting Academic Continuity for Students Temporarily Absent from Class
Academic continuity is the process of maintaining continuity of learning in a situation caused by events that make it difficult or impossible for students and or faculty to attend classes. In recent years, there have been several climate related events that have resulted in entire institutions having to close for a period of time. However, it is much more common to find the learning processes being disrupted due to local events (bus strike), or the arrival of the flu season.
This year, there seems to be a heightened concern regarding the possible effects of the H1N1 virus, but in reality, faculty and students at Algonquin College have always had to deal with issues related to Academic Continuity as may be caused by illness, conflicting work schedules, travel (sports teams), and or family matters.
Due to the growing concern related to the H1N1 virus, students who come down with the flu will most likely be given medical advice by their physicians to stay home and/or to quarantine themselves for a period of time following their illness even if they feel well enough to return. As such, there may be students who feel able to do work, but who really shouldn't be in class. It is important that these students be able to access learning materials and make contact with their professors and classmates as may be required.
Students temporarily absent from class are at risk for falling behind and possibly being unsuccessful or abandoning the course all together. There are many proactive strategies and tools we can put in place to accommodate such students who will be absent for a block of successive classes. The goal is to keep them active during and successful in the course.
What follows are some suggestions for how we can support those students who, although they are unable to attend their classes/labs/field experiences, would be able to stay connected with peers and accomplish some or most of the course work/assessments off-campus. These suggestions include both the face-to-face and online learning environments and are organized around maintaining four categories of support:
1) proactive orientation activities
2) strategies for supporting the absent student
3) using technology to support learning and assessment
4) return-to-college support
The list of suggestions serves to stimulate our thinking about how we can be both proactive and supportive of students who are at risk for not succeeding in the course because of unplanned, temporary absences. The Centre for Organizational Learning welcomes input from faculty for expanding the list.