Motivating Students

Research on the factors that influence student attendance, including research conducted at KU, has highlighted three key class dimensions that are positively related to attendance:

1. Engagement and Social Connection. Students are more likely to attend classes that provide opportunities for students to engage with each other and with the instructor (e.g., through active and collaborative learning, discussion), and that foster a climate of care and community. 
2. Grading and Accountability. Students are more likely to attend classes in which there is some accountability for showing up: the instructor and/or other students know and care whether they are there, and/or attendance affects their grade, or there are other clear lines of accountability (e.g., students' group members are counting on them being there).
3. In-Class Learning Benefits. Attendance is more likely when the benefits of attending class are visible to students. For instance, in-class activities center on themes that are inherently interesting to students, or the class provides material or opportunities to practice skills that will clearly help them do better on other assignments, assessments, or in future endeavors. Research shows that Millennial and Gen Z learners report a need to understand how learning will link to their real lives. Spending time creating assignments that are clearly linked to current or future life activities will pay off in greater student attention and motivation.

Additional ideas for encouraging both attendance and participation are provided under Fostering Engagement below. 

In 2012, Dr. Michael Bugeja published an article in Inside Higher Ed titled “Attendance Not Required.” In this article, Bugeja includes his unique attendance policy for his Media Ethics course at Iowa State University:

You can miss as many lectures as you like, as long as an exam or project is not due that day. Simply write a brief e-mail to me explaining the real reason for the absence. The only requirement is that you tell the truth. Do not say you were ill if you overslept, for instance. Do not invade your own or another person’s privacy in telling the truth (i.e., simply say you had a medical appointment – don’t explain symptoms). Send the e-mail to me before you miss the scheduled lecture or deliver it within 24 hours. Note: Title your absence email "462 Absence."

Bugeja’s approach to attendance raises the larger question of whether or not students’ grades should be negatively impacted because of their attendance. Many would argue that students who skip five or more classes in a semester don’t deserve the same grade as a student with perfect attendance. On the other hand, some would argue that presence has nothing to do with performance. Following this line of argument, if a student can master the material without attending class, then their grade should not be automatically reduced because of their attendance. As instructors, how are we to know what sort of attendance policy works best for our classes, and for our students?

In her article for “The Innovate Instructor Blog,” published through John Hopkins University, Macie Hall reminds us that “an attendance policy will not guarantee attendance.” What it does guarantee, however, is that students who do not attend class consistently will receive worse grades than students who show up. If you believe that attendance is a prerequisite for success in your course, keep in mind that you cannot guarantee attendance, let alone participation. While attendance polices aim to enforce attendance, you must remain motivated to encouraging student learning in order to make attending class important for your students. Requiring attendance cannot fix the problem of low student participation and motivation. As Michael B. Lindsay explains in his article “Attending to Attendance,” we must remember that “college classrooms work when they take advantage of what they do, which is to put people together, in time and in space. They are meeting places, social places – places that have the potential to offer something you can’t get everywhere: an intersubjective learning experience.”

University policy defines a University Excused Absence as an absence for which a student cannot be penalized and shall receive an accommodation for completing the missed work. University excused absences apply to all course requirements, including any final examinations, quizzes, in class work, and tests other than final examinations. Review the policy to determine how to handle a university excused absence. 

This document provides more details about expectations and best practices for students and instructors in relation to the excused absence policy.

The Office of Faculty Affairs created a page of FAQs that address common questions about the university's excused absence policy. 

In 2022-2023, a group of KU teachers and scholars conducted a study to explore the factors that influence student attendance. You can read more their observations here.   

The 2022-2023 study was a replication and extension of a prior project conducted by CTE in 1999. This study, titled “Why Students Do and Do Not Attend Classes,” examined the relationship between course characteristics, student characteristics, and the rationale of students for either attending class or not attending class on a daily basis. The study sought to answer the following four questions:

1. How do characteristics of the students relate to their attendance behavior?

2. How do characteristics of the courses in which students are enrolled relate to their attendance behavior?

3. What reasons do students give for their day-to-day attendance decisions?

4. How do these reasons relate to the number of their absences?

Variables assessed included gender, class standing, age, grade point average, employment, residence (either on campus or off), cost of tuition and who was paying it, and the number of credit hours the student was enrolled in. A total of 333 students participated in this study, and they had an average of 3.17 absences per class, with a range from 0 to 12.25 absences.

Some of the reasons provided by students for why they attended classes included personal values, obtaining course content, fulfilling grade requirements, factors related to the teacher, and peer influence. Reasons not to attend class included being sick, participating in other school or non-school-related activities, participating in leisure activities, avoiding teacher- or class-related experiences, and having no incentive to attend.

Results indicate that students who had higher GPAs had fewer absences than those students who had lower grades. Other student characteristics, such as gender, age, class, residence, method of funding education, or number of credits enrolled in, did not correlate with number of absences.

Students were more likely to attend classes that were taught by a GTA as opposed to those taught by a professor. The main reason cited for attending GTA-taught classes was that “absences above the minimum affect my grade,” and one of the main reasons cited for not attending professor-taught classes was that “attendance is not taken or does not affect my grade.”

Therefore, it appears that whether or not attendance is required significantly predicts whether students attend class or not. Students also said that they were more likely to attend class if the class size was small due to the teacher noticing if they were present, if their presence affected their course grade, and if they had the opportunity to participate in class discussion.

Overall, a combination of teacher and student influences affect class attendance, with a large factor being whether or not a penalty exists for missing class. The study concludes, “If students believe they should attend class, are not sick, not tired from having fun the night before, and like the subject matter, and if teachers notice when students are there, take their attendance into account for the course grade, and provide information students must be in class to get, attendance will be optimal.”

Resources: Friedman, P., McComb, J. & Rodriquez, F. (1999). “Why Students Do and Do Not Attend Class.” The Scholarship of Teaching: Classroom Research at KU. Published by the Center for Teaching Excellence.