I see a lot of concerns about the attendance certification in response to the late notices. Attendance certification is important for various student support and other institutional processes — which is why you get those nagging notices. It can also be puzzling when you know you’ve submitted your certification, so I want to share the number 1 reason professors get them: You’re conscientious.
Seriously.
Here’s how it happens:
- Step 1: You get your notice that you need to submit your Attendance Certification.
- Step 2: You interrupt getting your lessons together for the class that starts in 20 minutes, log in and submit your Attendance Certification. Job Done.
- Step 3: The deadline passes and you get a notice that you didn’t do it, in spite of having proof that you did. Job Not Done.
This is one of those rare cases in which everyone is right. You did do it. And you didn’t.
This epistemological oddity is built into the process — and it’s confusing. Attendance Certification looks like it’s a “per section” operation, but it isn’t. It’s a “per student” operation. Which means that every time a student is added to your roster, you have to log in and certify that student. Right up to the Attendance Certification deadline.
Of course, I and your department chairs, registration liaisons, advisors, and other student guides actually do try not to add students after the session begins, because, believe it or not, all those people are as committed to student success as professors are. Yes, people do occasionally make a bad call, or we have a technical glitch, but most often, people add students only when there’s a compelling need. Trust me — this is experience speaking — I know how frustrating it can be to get a new student after you’ve spent the first three days of the session creating some sense of community and explaining your course design — but please don’t let frustration tempt you to believe that the motive for putting students in classes after they start is to annoy professors.
At any rate, not submitting an Attendance Certification on a particular student who joined your class after you submitted your Attendance Certification is the explanation of the majority of situations in which a prof gets a nagging “you didn’t do it” notice.
It also explains why the situation looks like a Violation of the Law of Excluded Middle: You did submit Attendance Certification, and you also did not.
To help with this, I’ve devised a fool-proof method, which at ACC can only mean an acronym:
ACIAPSONAPSO
or
Attendance Certification Is A Per Student Operation Not A Per Section Operation
Now, isn’t that easy?
I’m thinking about making t-shirts. Who’s in?
