Last Date of Attendance Reporting for Online/Distance Learning

Faculty are expected to monitor student participation in on-line courses. If a student appears to have stopped participating in your course, and the final grade is reported as a "W" or "UW," course instructors are obligated to accurately report the date the student last attended the course.

The last date of attendance (LDA) should be recorded as the last date of participation in an academically-related activity. Recent governmental guidance has made clear that the sole act of logging into the course is not sufficient to support the LDA. Faculty should retain documented evidence beyond course log in of the activities which support the reported LDA.

Depending on the nature of your course there are various ways to determine when a student was last academically engaged in a course.

Examples include:

• submitting an academic assignment
• taking an exam, an interactive tutorial, or computer-assisted instruction
• participating in a discussion group about academic matters
• initiating contact with a faculty member to ask questions about the course subject matter

The accurate reporting of student's LDA when assigning a "W" or "UW" grade is an essential part of NYIT's compliance with federal regulations permitting the institution to participate in receiving Title IV Federal Aid funding. In the furtherance of properly documenting LDA, we strongly recommend that faculty utilize the reporting features of current educational technologies in use to determine the last chat session, discussion post or other academically-related activity from the student in question.

If you have any technology related questions concerning the above, please contact Academic Affairs at 516-686-7630.