3.5 Validation of Attendance

The course provider is required to verify that the student has attended the entire course offering to receive course credit. If the course provider cannot verify full attendance, the student must re-take the entire course.

The course provider must be able to do all of the following:

3.5.1 Verify Full Attendance

The course provider is required to verify that the student was present at the start of the course, returned from breaks, and was not tardy.

The course provider can use one of the following means to verify full attendance:

• Use of cameras
• Quizzes to monitor engagement
• Polls to monitor engagement
• Instructor engagement

3.5.2 Confirm Presence of Student

The course provider is required to routinely poll or ask every student to respond to questions to confirm their presence throughout the entire course.

3.5.3 Roll Call Requirements

The course provider is required to complete roll call to verify student attendance by using the following:

• Checking camera
• Using an engagement feature such as Polls, Quizzes, or
• Reactions/icons in the webinar platform.

3.5.4 Monitoring Attendance

Each student is required to be on camera which allows staff to verify attendance throughout the course. The course provider must monitor attendance during:

• Start of course
• Return from breaks
• Return from lunch

3.5.5 Process to Remove a Student for Lack of Presence

The course provider is required to have a process to deny or remove a student from a course who is unable to respond to questions in a timely manner (for more than 10 minutes).

• Less than 10 minutes it is the discretion of the provider to remove the students, if deemed necessary.

3.5.6 Addressing Tardiness

The course provider is to have a process for how to deal with tardiness. The SAFE Act requires students to complete a specific number of hours of instruction on various topics and NMLS expects course providers to meet the minimum number of hours that a course is approved for. Since it is nearly impossible to identify every scenario, and since NMLS does not want to send the message that any level of tardiness is acceptable, the term “tardiness” is left undefined. Generally, NMLS is not supportive of the following practices:

• Allowing student(s) to chronically start a course or to return from breaks or meals late.
• Allowing a student to begin and/or to return after he/she has missed a percentage of a course.
• Allowing a student who may have missed a percentage of the course to make-up just the missed portion later.