On April 30, 2019, Faculty Senate approved a recommendation from the Academic Policy subcommittee to require Last Date of Attendance (LDA) collection during the faculty grading period. As a result, the last date of attendance will be required when faculty are issuing a grade of ‘F’, ‘U’ or ‘I’ to any student. An instructor will not be able to successfully submit one of these grades without entering the last date of attendance for the student.
What You Need To Know:
If you do not enter a last date of attendance (LDA) when assigning a grade of ‘F’, ‘U’ or ‘I’, you will receive an error message. You must correct the error and submit the grade again.
When recording an Incomplete (‘I’) grade, a last date of attendance must be entered in the “Last Attend Date” field and should coincide with when the student last attended or participated in the course. Typically, this should be the last day of class or some date closer to the end of the semester/term due to extenuating circumstances experienced by the student. Remember that an incomplete should only be assigned because of sickness or some other unavoidable cause. An incomplete is not given merely because assignments were not completed during the semester, nor is an incomplete given if the student never attended the class.
When recording a grade of 'F' or 'U' for a student, faculty should include the last date of attendance or participation by that student in the “Last Attend Date” field.
If the student did attend at least one class or showed activity in the course, enter the date the student last attended or showed activity in the course.
If the student attended or participated in the course the entire semester, you should enter the last day of class for that semester/term.
If the student never attended or never participated in any course activities, you should enter the first day of class for that course and enter '0' in the "Hours Attended" column.
Why Do I Have To Enter a Last Date of Attendance (LDA):
Federal financial aid guidelines require institutions reconcile awards for students who earn grades of 'F', ‘I’ or 'U'. If the institution cannot document academic participation/activity for a grade of 'F',’I’ or 'U' then the student's financial aid must be adjusted.
Academically related activities include but are not limited to the following:
- physically attending a class where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and students;
- submitting an academic assignment;
- taking an exam, completing an interactive tutorial, or participating in computer-assisted instruction;
- attending a study group that is assigned by the school;
- participating in an online discussion about academic matters; and
- initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course.
Please note: The last date of attendance is a federal requirement for the Office of Financial Aid and has been for a long time. The changes at Appalachian State University have been implemented at several sister institutions. These changes have shown to be more efficient and help ensure students receive aid that the student earned by participating in each course. Overall, this should reduce the email burden on most faculty by allowing the system to collect this information while faculty are entering grades rather than after grades have been posted.