A few students requesting to cancel lectures due to their personal reasons. What should I do?

If you do this for a minority, then you will have to do it every time a few students have some excuse.

I suggest that you don’t consider this and make it clear that if they miss lectures then it is up to them to catch up on material.

Providing double or triple repeats of lectures due to a few absences, especially if unpaid, is not a good use of your time.

Some students will want to rationalize their choices and make sure which they attend - some workshops can be valuable. If you think one workshop is very worthwhile then you could consider re-scheduling for all, but that depends on your schedule, and yes, I have done this for similar reasons involving the majority.

Based on a comment> I always provide the material used in class - notes & worked example on Moodle as well as further practice problems (some 10 to 20 for each topic with solutions) for those who attend as well as those who do not.


There is really no need to do this. Lecture is an efficient way for a single person to help a group to learn, but it isn't the most effective way for an individual to learn material. There are other ways to learn the material and they need to become familiar with them. Books, notes, discussions, but most important, exercises to make the material part of their deep learning.

Point them to alternative sources if you like. And maybe some exercises, also. It is very unlikely that such sources don't exist. But learning is their responsibility. Your responsibility is to provide the environment in which learning can occur.

Moreover the request shouldn't result in impeding the learning of the rest of the class.


From the comments:

I provide the notes, worked example and further practice questions on Moodle for those who do, and do not, attend without fear or favour.

If they choose to attend a workshop instead of your class, they are still receiving the material so are not at a disadvantage (other than missing out on what I'm sure is a superb lecture).

They are making the choice to go to this workshop, it's not compulsory. I think that you therefore have no ethical obligation to provide them anything more. When I was at university many lecturers would only provide notes to those who attended or didn't provide notes at all, regardless of your reasons.

You sound like a fair lecturer who wants the best for their students, but don't let them take advantage of your kind nature. I would respond with:

All material covered in the lecture will be available in the lecture notes in the usual format, I will therefore not be cancelling or repeating the lecture, but understand your decision to not attend on this occasion. Please feel free to ask next class if there is anything from the notes which you did not understand.