Abstract:

COVID-19 is a public health crisis that became an immediate and disruptive worldwide event which brought devastating medical, psychological, and financial impacts to individuals, including college students (Tasso, Sahin, & San Roman, 2021). Further COVID-19 brought impacts to college students in universities and colleges around the globe causing them to make various adjustments. These adjustments have taken their toll on students in various ways, including financially and academically. While students were comfortable with online learning and confirmed benefits, the online modality highlighted various downsides including less in-class interaction and lower classroom engagement (Mata, 2021). Relative to student engagement, COVID-19 has made it challenging for many students to consistently attend and engage in the classroom. In the educational realm, for example, in Spring 2020, classes shifted from in-person to remote classroom instruction. Since that time, faculty had to adjust to fluctuations in class attendance due to COVID-19. While schools are back in person, quarantines and health concerns have students missing more classes (Barnum, 2021). For example, students who contracted COVID-19 had to either quarantine or isolate at home until they tested positive. Faculty members have been forced to take a look at how they took attendance and how attendance was factored in students’ grades. Some faculty members maintained their attendance policies, others approached attendance with creativity, some used more flexible approaches, and some used best practices such as graded attendance policies (Gonzalez, 2020). For some students, the past two years have shifted norms relative to what “going to class” could look like and what reasons for missing class make sense. Given this, some students may likely be confused and frustrated about attendance policies (Supiano, 2022). Ongoing positive cases of COVID-19 are not only a health concern for some students and faculty, but also an academic concern due to how self-isolation impacts students’ ability to attend class and keep up with in-person classes (Tyne, 2021). There is speculation that student classroom attendance is on a decline (Hoffman, 2021). Research confirms that in-person attendance is a strong predictor of academic success for undergraduate students Crede & Kieszczynka, 2010). Class attendance is an important predictor of academic success, but students encounter behavioral barriers which may prevent them from attending class, thereby reducing their attendance (Weigers, 2022). Given the pandemic, measuring attendance, and assessing which students are facing difficulties in showing up for learning is becoming more important than ever. Such policies can be instrumental in reducing the adverse impacts of Covid-19 on academic success (Attendance Works, 2021). The questions is – what is the impact of COVID-19 on class attendance? This research looks at college class attendance rates and students’ corresponding classroom performance (GPA). It intends to augment the literature on how to better understand the correlation between class attendance and academic performance based on classroom instruction during COVID-19. Future research should focus on different strategies to improve attendance in general including online, hybrid, and in-person class attendance. This research has important implications for improving classroom attendance in an effort to maximize student educational outcomes.

Keywords:

COVID-19, classroom attendance, academic achievement, higher education.