Flexible Attendance Policies and Learning Continuity

Laura E. Bennett

Flexible Attendance Policies and Learning Continuity

Author(s)	Dr. Laura E. Bennett
Country	United States
Abstract	Class attendance remains strongly associated with academic performance in higher education, yet physical presence is not synonymous with learning continuity. The longstanding meta-analysis by Credé, Roch, and Kieszczynka found substantial relationships between college attendance and both class grades and grade-point average, while more recent longitudinal and course-level studies continue to identify positive associations between attendance and academic outcomes. At the same time, rigid attendance requirements can create disproportionate barriers for students managing chronic or episodic health conditions, disability, paid employment, caring responsibilities, commuting, financial constraints, or other circumstances that do not necessarily reflect weak academic commitment. Recent higher-education research therefore increasingly raises a more nuanced question: how can institutions preserve the educational benefits of participation while ensuring that a temporary inability to occupy a physical classroom does not unnecessarily sever a student's connection to learning? This study develops an Adaptive Learning-Continuity Attendance Framework in which attendance expectations are paired with clearly defined alternative participation and recovery pathways. A synthetic population of 800 university students and 16,000 student-week observations was modeled across four attendance-policy conditions: rigid threshold-based attendance, unstructured flexibility, flexible attendance with formal catch-up pathways, and an adaptive continuity policy integrating equivalent participation, rapid academic reconnection, instructor outreach, assessment-recovery options, and progressive intervention when learning engagement declines. Outcomes included learning access, continuity following absence, participation quality, academic belonging, assessment recovery, academic accountability, course-completion readiness, and unresolved learning-loss risk. The adaptive continuity condition achieved a simulated composite continuity score of 90.7 compared with 60.2 for rigid attendance and 64.9 for unstructured flexibility. The findings illustrate an important distinction. Rigid policies preserved a strong accountability signal but produced greater continuity loss following unavoidable absence, whereas unrestricted flexibility increased access but weakened participation consistency and academic accountability. The strongest modeled architecture combined flexibility with explicit expectations regarding how missed learning would be recovered.
Keywords	flexible attendance, learning continuity, higher education, student attendance, HyFlex learning, inclusive education, student engagement, academic belonging, attendance policy, adaptive learning
Field	Engineering
Published In	Volume 3, Issue 6, November-December 2022
Published On	2022-12-12

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American Journal of Advanced Multidisciplinary Innovation and Research

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Flexible Attendance Policies and Learning Continuity

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