Marco Polo Academy Online (MPAOnline) Attendance Policy

The Ministry of Education mandates accurate attendance records of all students in a school.  For purposes of attendance, Marco Polo Academy Online uses the notion that a student was “present” when he/she has actively engaged and completed an online lesson and/or unit.  Consequently, the teacher will provide students with clear instructions for how they are required to participate in the course and what constitutes acceptable attendance.

A student must be required to do more than just "log in" to be documented as having attended an online course. Additional indications of attendance for an online course may include:

• Student submission of an academic assignment
• Student submission of an exam
• Documented student participation in an interactive tutorial or computer-assisted instruction, research, virtual labs, review of movies and video connected to course work
• A posting by the student showing the student's participation in an online study group that is assigned or required by the teacher
• A posting by the student in a discussion forum showing the student's participation in an online discussion about a unit or assignment
• An email from the student or other documentation showing that the student initiated contact with the teacher to ask a question about the course or related work or assignments.

The school consider on-line attendance in the form of number of log ins, hours spent on activities, and student learning logs.  Each unit constitutes the equivalent of (number of units divided by 110 hours = number of login hours).

Teachers will reviews these methods for documenting student participation.  The methods can be a discussion board assignment, submitting/completing assignments, research or communicating with the teacher.

Students who have not actively participated prior to the Mid-term date of a course will be considered a no-show and will be administratively withdrawn from the class.

Attendance and Course Drop-Deadlines:

• Once a student registers into a course they are expected to login daily or a minimum of 3-times per week and complete their coursework. Each unit must be completed within four (weeks).
• First Warning: A student has not logged in to the course and completed any work between 8 - 12 days.
• Secondary Warning: A student has not logged in and completed any work in over 13+ days.
• Final Warning: A drop deadline will be established within a week of the second warning if no communication is made from the students and/or no progress is made in the course.
• The student will be dropped from the course. If this occurs prior to the midterm point of the course there will not be any academic penalty. If this occurs after 5 days from when the midterm report card has been issued a ‘W’ ie. Withdrawal will be reported on their transcript.