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.

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. 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 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. However, 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.
• Students verified as Not Attending will be dropped from the course and will not receive financial aid for the course.
• Attendance must also be verified for students who have a Hold Seat status for the student to receive financial aid for the course. 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.

If additional assistance in submitting attendance information is needed, you should contact the Registrar’s Office at 912-478-5152 or email regrecords@georgiasouthern.edu.

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. Before your course meets on the first day, one option is to click on Print Roster. This will print out the class roster so that you can take it to class and verify attendance. Other options for gathering attendance verification information may be used, such as an “Attendance Exam” in Folio. 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 class is completed, go back to your Attendance Verification, 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 Registrar. This will then take you to the next screen, which is 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. Take your printed course roster to each scheduled meeting and verify attendance for any newly registered student. (Repeat steps 4 and 5 above as necessary.)
7. Instructors can verify that their Attendance Verification has 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.

Important Note for Instructors with Online Courses:

• Under DOE guidance for online courses, you 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. You should also check with your Department Chair or Dean’s Office to determine if there is a policy in effect dealing with Attendance Verification for online courses. 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 you have done your initial attendance verification.
• Students in online courses are required to meet the same standards for Attendance Verification as 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 must be marked as Did Not Attend. Once drop/add is over, you can print out your final roster for your records if needed.

Please contact the Registrar’s Office at 912-478-5152 or email 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 internet (online) classes. 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 professor approves the absence, a seat will need to be held for the student.

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.

• Log into My.GeorgiaSouthern.edu
• Click on WINGS
• Click on FACULTY SERVICES
• Click on FACULTY AND STAFF CLASS 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.

Any grade change that needs to be processed for grades that are an academic year old or less must be submitted via the online Faculty Grade Change form in Faculty Wings. This electronic form will be routed to Department Chairs and Deans for electronic approval for grade-to-grade changes. Incomplete (I) and In Progress (IP) grade changes will not require these approvals for a student record/grade change update. Grade changes over a year old will require approval from the Office of the Provost before being processed by the Registrar’s Office. Submission of these types of grade changes need to be sent to provost@georgiasouthern.edu.

• Go to My.GeorgiaSouthern.edu
• Log into your MyGeorgiaSouthern account.
• Click WINGS
• Click on Faculty Services.
• Click on Term Selection.
• Use the pull-down menu to highlight the correct term and click on Submit Term.
• Click on CRN Selection.
• Use the pull-down menu to highlight the correct course to submit grades and click on Submit CRN.
• Click on Final Grades. Use the pull-down menu to assign the correct grade by each student’s name.
• For all students who made a grade of F, please enter the last date the student attended your class in the Last Attend Date column. If the student never attended, enter the first day of classes. If the student attended all term, enter the last day of classes. NOTE: Use the format of MM/DD/YYYY to enter Last Attendance Dates!
• You will continue submitting grades in this manner until you reach record number 25 (unless your roll has fewer than 25 students).
• Click on the Submit button.
• You will then click on the next set of records at the bottom of the screen (26-50, 51-75, etc.) and repeat the process to submit grades until all grades have been entered.
• If you have more than one course, return to the Faculty Services menu by clicking on the menu icon at the top of the web page. Repeat all processes until grades have been submitted for all courses.
• Remember to save your records at least every 15 minutes or you will be timed out of WINGS.
• Make sure you log out of WINGS after you have successfully submitted your final grades.
• You will also need to make sure that you log out of your MyGeorgiaSouthern account.
• After you have entered all of your grades and logged out of WINGS, please log back into WINGS, and double check that all grades were recorded correctly. You may print a copy for your records by using the print feature of your browser.

• W – Student dropped the course on or before the last day to drop without academic penalty *OR* the student never attended the course. ***Please see comment below.
• W/F – Enter either a W or WF grade. If the grade is left as W/F, the Registrar’s Office will assign a WF grade. It is suggested that the grade of W be given if the student is passing at the time of withdrawal.
• WF – If a student withdraws from all classes after the last day to withdraw without academic penalty and is passing, it is recommended that the instructor assign a W. If a student withdraws from all classes after the last day to withdraw without penalty and is failing, it is recommended that the instructor assign a WF. The grade is the prerogative of the instructor unless the student has reached the maximum of five withdrawals. If the student has reached the maximum of five withdrawals, a WF will be assigned by the Office of the Registrar.
• WM – Student withdrew from Georgia Southern University due to Military reasons (Withdrew Military).
• WX – Student was Administratively Withdrawn; however, override the WX and assign a grade. Please remember to put a last attend date if the student earned a grade of “F”.

• A B C D F – Official symbols used in reporting grades in a normal grading scale.
• S U – Official symbols used in reporting grades in a satisfactory/unsatisfactory grading scale.
• I – Incomplete grade; student was doing satisfactory work but was unable to complete the full requirements of the course due to non-academic reasons. An I must be removed by the end of one calendar year following the term in which it was received. Do NOT assign all I grades for an entire class. Justification is required for all “I” grades. You are responsible for keeping a record of all “I” grades assigned and the justification as to why you assigned the student the “I” grade. For auditing purposes, you are responsible for storage of the incomplete grade justification for two years. Upon retirement, resignation, or termination, you should leave the justifications with your department chair.
• IP – This symbol indicates that credit has not been given in courses that require an “IP” continuation of work beyond the term for which the student signed up for the course. The use of this symbol is approved for dissertation and thesis hours and project courses. With the exception of Learning Support courses, this symbol cannot be used for other courses. This symbol cannot be substituted for an “I”. No justification is required for IP grades.
• V or W – Student is auditing a course; a V grade should be given if student attended 75% of the class, or student should receive a grade of W.
• ***If a student has been assigned a grade of W in WINGS due to the status “Not Attending” and the student completed your course, please assign the student a grade. If the student stopped attending your course before the last day to drop without academic penalty and has the comment “Web Drop Course” or “Drop Course” in the status column by the grade of W – DO NOT CHANGE THE GRADE.
• You have the ability to assign grades to students that do not appear on your grade roster for the term. For any student whose name does not appear on the WINGS roster, click on the Email About Grades link at the bottom of the Final Grades page and fill in the boxes. Be sure to choose the option “Student Not On Roll” and put the student’s grade in the Please explain box.

Feel free to contact our office if you have any questions during the submission of grades via WINGS. Please call the Office of the Registrar at 912-478-5152.