The Office of Teaching and Learning Advancement is seeking input from Ball State University students about issues concerning learning environments.
OTLA held a forum on attendance policies at Teachers College Monday.
The forum invited faculty members to share their experience concerning attendance and participation in the classroom with a panel of students.
Jeff Barnard, senior human resources student and student panel member, said students and faculty members would benefit from hearing the others' perspectives.
He said he thought most teachers wanted students to attend every class because it would benefit their grades and learning experiences.
The students and faculty discussed ways to encourage students to attend class, participate in class and what policy would work best for teachers to use.
"I think the best policy is a combination of taking attendance every day and maybe give an extra credit to students that do attend," he said. "But it also depends on what class the students are taking."
Faculty also mentioned final exam week and how much flexibility should be applied for students who couldn't take an exam on the scheduled day.
Faculty development coordinator Greg Siering said he expected professors to gain ideas for the development of their attendance policies.
"I don't know if this forum will have an immediate impact on faculty," he said, "but it might have a long-term impact in terms of how they are thinking about their teaching and their policies."
The attendance policies discussion was the third of a series of forums organized by the office of teaching and learning called "What Do Students Think About..?" The other two forums were "Motivating Students and Getting Them to Read" and "Computers in the Classroom."
Siering said faculty members enjoyed the discussions because of the panel's willingness to share its perspectives with faculty.
"Most of the activities in this office are usually just workshops and discussions only among faculty," he said. "This is the first semester we decided to try this format with a student panel."
One of the major issues approached at the discussion was how to take attendance in a class of more than a 150 students. Faculty members were concerned about students not passing classes because of attendance.
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