Michael,
It is the student's responsibility to learn the information from the missed
class. An important warning is that some students take better notes than
others so it is a good strategy to get notes from at least two students,
look over those notes, and then talk with those students. After a student
has done those things I am willing to answer questions about the material
that they missed.
Dennis
Dennis M. Goff
Dept. of Psychology
Randolph-Macon Woman's College
Lynchburg, VA 24503
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael J. Kane [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Friday, November 03, 2000 10:21 AM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Responsibility for missed lectures
Hi all,
I've got a question for how you all handle (or would handle) situations
like this.
I teach a course in which attendance is not mandatory; that is, I don't
take attendance.
However, on the syllabus and throughout the semester I emphasize to
students that I often
lecture on material that's not in the book, so while they are free to miss
classes, they will also miss important course material that they are
responsible for.
Unfortunately, I've never thought to have an *explicit* policy about my
role and theirs in
"responsibility" for missed material.
I provide students with a study guide before each exam, which is
essentially an outline
of all the important topics, themes, theories, experiments, etc. that will
be fair game for the
exam. Yesterday, a student emailed me asking me to explain one of the
topics in the study
guide. I asked whether she didn't understand part of it, or just plain
missed those
classes, and she wrote back that she'd missed them altogether.
So, here's my question. Do I write her a long explanation of the topic,
essentially providing
her with the text of my lecture? Do I simply tell her it's her
responsibility to get the notes,
etc., from another student? The overworked faculty member in me leans
toward the latter,
but the teacher in me can't help considering the former.
Any thoughts would be appreciated. Perhaps there's a middle ground I
haven't considered.
-Mike
************************************************
Michael J. Kane
Department of Psychology
P.O. Box 26164
University of North Carolina at Greensboro
Greensboro, NC 27402-6164
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone: 336-256-1022
fax: 336-334-5066
