Faculty and Staff

Federal regulations require the University to confirm that students are attending class before financial aid will be released to the students. Attendance must be verified for all students regardless of whether or not the student is receiving financial aid. Students will not receive aid for and will be dropped from classes for which attendance is not verified.

Students must complete an online Attendance Verification Quiz for each course within Folio (outside of eCore/GOML and miscellaneous eMajor courses) within the add/drop period and one day later. The quiz contains two questions that students must answer in order to be verified as attending. If a student answers “No” to either of these questions, then they will be removed from the course within 15 minutes of submitting the quiz. 

Once the Folio Attendance Verification Quiz has ended, the instructor of the course will submit any remaining outstanding attendance verifications for unverified students through their MyGeorgiaSouthern Portal under the Instructional Resources and Attendance Verification Tool (instructions on how to submit attendance are below).  

In an in-person course if an instructor has marked a student as “Did Not Attend” and the student is dropped from the roster, do not allow the student to continue in the course until he/she has gone through the proper process to be re-enrolled. 

Steps on How to be Re-Enrolled:

• If a seat is still available in the course during the drop/add period, the student can simply add your course back to his/her schedule. 
• If the course needs to be added after the drop/add period, the student must contact the Associate Dean of the appropriate College for permission to enroll in the course. If the permission is granted, the Associate Dean will notify the Office of the Registrar to process the registration. The Office of the Registrar representative will add the student back to the course and verify his/her attendance.

Please remember the following points regarding attendance verification:

• IMPORTANT: A student’s financial aid will be impacted if an instructor does not provide accurate and timely Attendance Verification for their course(s).
• A Folio Attendance Quiz is available for most classes (non-eCore/GOML and miscellaneous eMajor courses) offered each term. This 0-credit quiz is auto-loaded into each Folio course site and does not require any additional set up by the instructor. (Please do not adjust the quiz settings, specifically the title and date, as this will break the automation).
• Students may indicate their attendance status through the Attendance Quiz during the add/drop period and one day after.
  • After the add/drop period is over and the Folio Quiz is closed, the primary instructor is ultimately responsible for class attendance verification. Updates or corrections are made through the Instructional Resources tile in the MyGeorgiaSouthern portal under Attendance Verification. Students whose attendance has not been verified will appear at the top of the Attendance Verification list.
• Attendance is verified for all courses, including non-lecture types such as directed study, thesis, practicum, internship, and online courses through this 0-credit Attendance Verification Quiz within Folio.
• Students verified as Not Attending will be dropped from the course and will not receive financial aid for the course, if applicable.
• Attendance must also be verified for students who have a “Hold Seat” status. If the student does not start attending following the date which the student was expected to return, the student should be marked as “Did Not Attend” and dropped from the course.
• Students in online courses are required to meet the same standards for Attendance Verification as those in face-to-face courses. If the online student does not meet the instructor’s requirement to verify that they are attending the online class, then they will be marked as Did Not Attend. Once the drop/add period is over, students will be removed from the course for non-attendance.

If additional assistance in submitting attendance information is needed, you should contact the Registrar’s Office by emailing regrecords@georgiasouthern.edu.

Students registered in online courses (outside of eCore/GOML and miscellaneous eMajor courses) are required to meet the same standards for Attendance Verification as those in face-to-face courses. Attendance must be verified for all students regardless of whether or not the student is receiving financial aid. Students will not receive aid for and will be dropped from classes for which attendance is not verified.

Under DOE guidance for online courses, instructors should only report a student as attending an online course once the student has completed an academically related activity such as an initial assignment or post. Therefore, merely logging in and viewing course material are not grounds to verify attendance.

• Instructors should also check with their Department Chair or Dean’s Office to determine if there is a policy in effect dealing with Attendance Verification for online courses that differs from the above information.
• IMPORTANT: Please remember that students may have the ability to add the online course (if there are open seats or if there is a waitlist for the course) after the initial attendance verification has been completed. If so, please reach out to the student if they have not completed the Folio Attendance Verification Quiz prior to it ending the day after the drop/add date OR if the attendance is unverified.
• If the online student does not complete the Folio Attendance Verification Quiz to verify that they are attending the online class, then the student will be marked accordingly by the instructor. Once drop/add is over, you can print out your final roster for your records if needed. Instructions on how to print the roster can be found in the Attendance Verification Steps below.
  • Students that are removed due to being marked for non-attendance are removed from the course in Folio and will not have access to until they are re-added. For steps on how to be re-added, please review the Attendance Verification Information section above.

For more information regarding Attendance Verification, please review the above.

For steps on how to submit any remaining outstanding attendance verifications for unverified students through their MyGeorgiaSouthern Portal, please review the Attendance Verification Steps below.

Please contact the Registrar’s Office by emailing regrecords@georgiasouthern.edu if you have any further questions concerning Attendance Verification.

Below are the steps to submit any remaining outstanding attendance verifications for unverified students after the Folio Attendance Verification Quiz has been closed:

1. Log into your MyGeorgiaSouthern (MyGS) portal.
2. Go to the Instructional Resources channel and click on Attendance Verification. (Click here for an example).
3. Next, you will see the course(es) that you are teaching.
   1. If you are teaching an in-person course and would like to take attendance during the first class meeting day, then click on Print Roster. This will print out the class roster so that you can take it to class and compare the attendance results as students submit the Attendance Verification Quiz within Folio until the day after the quiz closes when you start submitting your attendance. 
   2. For larger class sizes, if needed, you may consult with your department chair for alternate methods of attendance verification. (Click here for an example).
4. After the Folio Attendance Verification Quiz has closed, go back to your Attendance Verification Tool, choose the appropriate class, and click on Enter Attendance. On the next screen under Attendance Status, choose the appropriate status (Attended, Did Not Attend, Hold Seat) for each student on your roster. (Click here for an example.)
5. Next, click on Submit Attendance Verification to the Registrar. This will then take you to the next screen, which is the Attendance Verification Summary. Here you can review the attendance status of your course. After your review, click on Return to Portal, which will take you back to your MyGS portal.
6. Instructors can verify that their Attendance Verification has been recorded properly by asking their Department Administrative Assistant to open Banner and go to the form YFAATTD (Attendance Verification). The Attendance Verification that you submit feeds into YFAATTD, and it is from this form that you can ensure that your submission has been properly documented for your course. Additionally, if you have an issue with submitting your Attendance Verification, then the Department Administrative Assistant can assist you by updating YFAATTD with your Attendance Verification data.
7. Instructors should only report a student as attending an online course once the student has completed an academically related activity such as an initial assignment or post. Merely logging in and viewing course material does not constitute attendance. 

Please contact the Registrar’s Office by emailing regrecords@georgiasouthern.edu if you have questions concerning Attendance Verification.

University policy requires students to attend the first class meeting of all classes in which they are registered. Instructors are required to ensure first-day attendance is reported for all students registered in their classes. Students who are verified as “Not Attending” a course will be dropped. This policy applies to all courses and includes on-campus, off-campus, distance learning, two-way interactive video, and online classes (except for eCore and GOML courses). Students recorded as “Not Attending” may not receive financial aid, and their attendance will be officially verified before financial aid will be disbursed.

Students who have demonstrable extenuating circumstances that prohibit them from attending the first day of classes must contact their instructor to avoid being dropped from the course. If the instructor approves the absence, they will mark the student as “Held Seat” until they can verify the student as “Attending” or “Did Not Attend”.

A student whose military obligations require his/her absence from class for more than the first day may seek an exemption from the class attendance policy. The student will need to contact the college associate dean to request an exemption from the class attendance policy. Students must also provide the associate dean(s) with a copy of their military orders. The associate dean(s) will contact the appropriate department chair(s) and course instructor(s) with the exemption request. The course instructor(s) will carefully consider the request and base their decision on the course attendance policies and the student’s ability to address any missed coursework upon the student’s return.

The 0-credit hour Folio Attendance Verification Quiz begins on the first day of class for each course during the drop/add period at 7:00 a.m. and end one day after the drop/add period at 11:59 p.m.. The dates for the Folio Attendance Verification Quiz align with the Academic Calendars, which can be found here, based on the part of term outlined on the calendar.

The reason the Attendance Verification Quiz is due the day after the Drop/Add period is to allow those students who add the course on the last day of the drop/add period the chance to attend/review the course material/state they are attending the course. This also allows the student to make contact with the professor/instructor to let them know that they are attending, and that the student will be attending the next class session if the course is in-person.

While we do understand that the ‘first day attendance’ is mandatory, we do want the students to take the Folio Attendance Verification Quiz. Therefore, we would suggest that the instructors print the class roster and take attendance but not submit it until after the quiz closes the day after the drop/add period ends for that particular course. This way, when the quiz closes, you can easily compare your class attendance roster to those students that are still left on your roster that have not verified his/her attendance through the Folio quiz.

If the student verifies his/her attendance and do not show up for the course, then that is on the student as it is his/her responsibility to attend once he/she verifies their attendance through the quiz.

The quiz should be seen as a tool to assist instructors to verify attendance, and the instructors are ultimately the ones submitting attendance once the quiz closes. In the event the students submit the quiz but do not attend, the students should remain in the course and earn the grade they earn at the end of the semester unless they withdraw from the course on their own via WINGS or EAB.

There are actually four answers to this question:
1. You may have not completed the Folio Attendance Verification Quiz for all of your courses.
2. You may have answered “No” to one of the questions to the quiz for the course, which would remove you from the course.
3. The instructor may have verified you as “Did Not Attend”.
To find out which reason, please email regrecords@georgiasouthern.edu for further assistance if it is after the drop/add deadline. Otherwise, please visit the above steps on how to re-enroll in the course.

• Log into My.GeorgiaSouthern.edu
• Go to the WINGS channel and click on Registration
• Click on Browse Classes
• Select appropriate Term
• Click on Advanced Search and type in your desired search criteria. Once completed, click on the Search button
• OR
• Log into My.GeorgiaSouthern.edu
• Go to the Services channel and click on Course Search

If you are seeking enrollment data, degrees confirmed data, or retention or graduation rates, please refer to the Office of Institutional Research (IR) website-Facts and Figures tab (use https://em.georgiasouthern.edu/ir/). Most historical data are available through IR.

Academic departments or colleges can request a report from the Center for Academic Tech Support by submitting a MyTechHelp Support request by clicking here.

If other current data or information is needed outside of the paths noted above, please submit a request by clicking here.