WVU recognizes that ongoing engagement is critical to student success and instructional strategies need to include opportunities for such interaction. WVU is also required to comply with Federal Title IV regulations to ensure that recipients of federal student aid demonstrate academic engagement even if the student withdraws from the course. This is mandated across all course delivery modalities.
To help meet these goals, instructors are encouraged to require at least one of the following student engagement activities within the first two weeks of the course and then routinely throughout the course (at least once every two weeks). These activities do not necessarily need to be graded but they should be recorded within a WVU-authenticated Learning Management System (e.g., eCampus or SOLE) unless otherwise indicated below.
- Submitting an academic assignment;
- Completing a quiz/check your understanding assessment or interaction that relates to the course material. (A course syllabus quiz is not sufficient.);
- Responding to a discussion board post based on a prompt that is relevant to the course material. (A getting-to-know-you question is not sufficient.);
- Participating in an assigned study group or group project (instructor will need to be able to show evidence of participation);
- Attending a synchronous class or lab session, in-person or online, where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and student(s).* (Just logging into the LMS is not sufficient.)
* When you take attendance, it is highly recommended that instructors utilize a WVU-supported tool (such as Mobile ID or iClicker) for this purpose but this selection is at the instructor’s discretion. For online synchronous sessions instructors can run a Usage Report in Zoom or a Session Attendance Report in Collaborate Ultra. It will be the instructor’s responsibility to provide documentation of attendance if requested/applicable.
Activity Reporting and Data Retrieval
All instructors are urged to become familiar with WVU withdrawal procedures and the appropriate coding for failing grades and last date of attendance. This coding is important to maintain an accurate record of student activity. In the case of a financial aid audit, instructors are responsible for providing student data relevant to activity tracking, which can be pulled in several ways for individuals using eCampus**:
- If an activity is tied to grades, then instructors can pull the information for students who have dropped the course by going to the grade center and reviewing the grade history. Information on how to do this is available here.
- Instructors can run course reports to view and document academic activity.
- Last day of attendance in the course - Instructors can review the “Last Course Access” by using the Performance Dashboard tool in eCampus.
**For more information on using SOLE (HSC’s primary learning management system), please contact HSC Information Technology Services.