Ungraded Exit Tickets

Students submit a paper ‘ticket’ at the end of class. Some types of tickets:

• Comprehension check: students respond to a question posed about lecture content
• Muddiest point: students write what they feel is the ‘muddiest’ point in the day’s lecture or readings—that is, a point they didn’t understand or hope to discuss further
• Summary: students write 1-2 key takeaways from the lecture. This gives them a chance to review notes before leaving class and moving on to their next subject.
• Minute Paper: instead of waiting to the end of class, use the first 5 minutes of class, or a mid-way point, for students to write down a ‘muddy point’ or ‘burning question’ from course readings or discussions.

Exit tickets take about 5 minutes toward the end of class, and are great for both taking attendance and gauging student engagement with course/lecture content. Students can pass exit tickets to the end of rows or drop them on the desk or door on the way out, depending on your classroom space. For all exit tickets, be sure students include their name on their submission!

Group Discussion Write-ups

If students engage in small group discussions or other activities during class, one group member can summarize the discussion in a line or two, and include all group member names, and turn it in to you.

Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere can be a useful tool for conducting in-class activities to monitor attendance such as check-in questions, a comprehension check, or a poll. You can sync Poll Everywhere with your Collab roster to give students credit for their participation. For more activities using Poll Everywhere that could double as a method of checking attendance, see What types of course activities can I conduct in Poll Everywhere?

Collab Discussions

The Discussions tool on Collab can also serve as a space for students to check in during class. You can create a forum and allow students to post topics or reply to each other's posts for participation credit. Student posts can be linked to the grade book on Collab in order to assess participation.

Further resources

• Teaching Tip: Taking attendance in large classes (The University of Nevada, Reno)