Yesterday I could not come to my on-campus class, so I called in for a notice to be put up pointing students to the class website for live chat instead. I sent out an email from Moodle to all the students, who use the site continually, letting them know in case they didn’t need to come to campus otherwise and could do it from home. I asked that the notice send any students whe did come to campus to the open lab to join the chat. When I encountered protest, that too many students would jam up the lab, I made the chat optional and asked those not attending the chat to post in an asynchronous forum by 9 pm to get attendance credit.
 Where I was not |
I was then told I could not do this, that another instructor had been told the same a coupla weeks ago. I held the online chat (which was great!) and kept the transcript. Meanwhile, emails about my activities were sent to my dean, the campus provost, my chair and a number of others. Ultimately I was cited as absent by an administrator, and was asked by the Senate Pres to bring the issue to Senate Council in March.
My claim is that I was in class at the time specified, but I had moved the session online, therefore I was not absent. Was I in class or not? You make the call.