By SUSAN JONES
In the post-pandemic world, where staying home when you’re sick has become more acceptable and often encouraged and mental health issues are at new highs, faculty members are struggling with how to deal with students who miss quizzes or exams for legitimate health problems.
At the Swanson School of Engineering, this was one of the topics of workshops offered pre-semester by the Engineering Education Research Center. Bob Kerestes, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and the director of the Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Program, led the discussion on “Best Practices for Dealing with Student Absences in the Wake of the Pandemic.”
Kerestes presented two different scenarios — both actual incidents — and asked those attending to identify the problems in each and to suggest solutions.
SCENARIO #1: A faculty member has quizzes scheduled weekly during an 8 a.m. class. They check their email 20 minutes before class and find a note from a student. “Last night I had a sore throat. I went to sleep early hoping it would be better today, but it’s worse. I now have a fever and don’t want to expose others. Can I take the quiz remotely or take it later?”
Most at the session thought the student should have emailed the instructor the night before. There’s also the question of is the student legitimately sick. The group agreed that while some students try to game the system, most are honest. And with the University encouraging people to stay home when they’re sick, faculty need to be understanding of that. The instructor also needs to make sure whatever the policy is on missing class or quizzes is very clear in the syllabus.
Several solutions were offered:
1. Give frequent quizzes for fewer points and say in the syllabus that students can drop the lowest two grades. This takes the pressure off the students, who don’t need to have an excuse, and the instructor, who doesn’t need to create make-up exams. One faculty member said he puts in his syllabus that he’ll drop one quiz grade, but actually drops two. This is to encourage students to not miss the quizzes randomly.
2. Create make-up quizzes that are more difficult than the original. Kerestes said he previously did this, but found there were always a few students missing from his 65-person class. This meant he was spending lots of time creating new quizzes.
3. Have the student take the quiz over Zoom. This idea was rejected by most of the faculty members, who said if the student is really sick, they aren’t up to taking a test, and if they’re not, they can now quickly find answers online through artificial intelligence.
4. Have extra credit projects that students can do to make up for the points missed on the quiz.
SCENARIO #2: The morning of the midterm exam (worth 25 percent of the semester’s grade), a student contacts you and says they’ve been having mental health issues that will prevent them from taking the test. They say they’ve been in contact with the Pitt’s Disability Resources and Services office but they do not have an accommodation agreement on file with them. They also say they’ve been seeing a psychiatrist and will be reaching out to DRS for more resources.
This is a particularly tricky issue, with the rise in mental health diagnoses. For the past three years, former Provost Ann Cudd’s annual message to faculty in August about being flexible when dealing with students’ various religious observations also has included language about applying that same flexibility when dealing with mental health issues. Several faculty have complained that the language in the announcement is vague.
Mary Besterfield-Sacre, the Swanson School’s senior associate dean for academic affairs, said in these situations you can “help a student going forward, but not going backward.” This means that you can encourage them to get an official accommodation or to decide if they need to take a break from school. But without that accommodation, they are really out of luck if they’re contacting their professor of the day of the exam.
She noted that faculty should try to inform the student about this in a “kindly” way and make it clear that until the instructor has the information from DRS, they can not make an accommodation. That is University policy. But also let them know that there is help available at the University.
Faculty need to be wary of letting one student take up all their time at the risk of all the others in the class. “You can’t focus 99 percent of your effort on one student,” Besterfield-Sacre said.
That doesn’t mean professors can never offer make-up exams. Kerestes pointed out he had one student who was hit by a car on the way to the exam and taken to the hospital. But for students experiencing ongoing mental or other health issues, it’s their responsibility to contact DRS and get an accommodation.
In the Swanson School and in most of the other schools, faculty are required to include a Disability Resources statement in their syllabus. For engineering, that statement reads:
“If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services (DRS), 140 William Pitt Union, (412) 648-7890, drsrecep@pitt.edu, (412) 228-5347 for P3 ASL users, as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodation for this course.”
One faculty member at the seminar said she might recommend that the student make an appointment that day with a doctor or therapist and bring in documentation from the doctor, and then she would give a make-up exam. But Besterfield-Sacre said that could cause problems if other faculty aren’t allowing the same accommodation.
Best practices
Kerestes ended the seminar by going through some of the best practices he uses when dealing with absent students.
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Be prepared. There are going to be students who miss exams.
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Think about dropping assignment or quiz scores. Give them more frequently but with less weight.
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Don’t just hand out the syllabus and forget about it. Remind students before exams what your policy is.
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Require that the student get an excused absence from their doctor. This needs to be more than a note saying they went to Student Health. He prefers that the note have the date and the doctor’s name and address.
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Be fair and consistent, sticking to the policy in your syllabus.
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Consult your peers or Besterfield-Sacre’s office when you run into situations you’ve never encountered before.
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
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