Why Are People Obsessed with Attendance?
Filling the attendance link is important, but it’s not everything in the learning process.
Lately, I’ve been taking a lot of online classes to level up my skills. And after a few sessions, I noticed something that’s actually pretty common, but still kinda annoying. It’s about people who constantly ask for the attendance link.
So, the class just started. It hasn’t even been 10 minutes yet, I guess, and the comments section of the live class is already flooded with people asking for attendance link. I mean, the class literally just started. The instructor hasn’t even made it past the introduction slide of the presentation.
And it’s not just a few people, either. Out of the 500+ participants, more than 10 are already stressing about the attendance link. Like, come on. The class has barely started — can we just focus on the lesson for a sec? It honestly gets kind of annoying seeing this chaos in the comment just over attendance.
Some people did reply to the ones asking for the link, saying, “Just follow along first.” And honestly, for this case, I agree. Like, chill and pay attention to the class first.
Get Rachma’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Sure, attendance matters. But can we not make a big deal about it right away?
It’s something that should be handled at the end of the class as proof that we were actually there. So, when people are rushing to fill out the attendance form in the first few minutes, it makes me wonder:
Are they even serious about learning? Are they more focused on checking the box than actually paying attention?
Okay, I get it. Maybe people are asking for the link early because they’re anxious or afraid of missing out. Since this is an online class, network issues happen — like getting disconnected or the link timing out — so they’re worried they might not get marked as present. Make sense.
But here’s the thing: Maybe the real problem is how attendance is being counted? How much does attendance really affect your learning in class? Shouldn’t the focus be on understanding the material, not just showing up?
Honestly, attendance shouldn’t be the main measure of whether or not someone is “present” in the class. It’d be much better of we focused on actually understanding the material and taking notes.
In the end, best proof that you were there is what you learned and how well you can apply it — not just whether you clicked the link.
