Skip to content

Academic Activity

What is Academic Activity? 

Campuses are required to confirm that students receiving financial aid began attendance in each of their courses by confirming some sort of academically related activity.  These activities include, but are not limited to, any of the following activities: 

  • physically attending a class where there is an opportunity for direct interaction between the instructor and students; 
  • submitting an academic assignment; 
  • taking an exam, completing an interactive tutorial, or participating in computer-assisted instruction; 
  • attending a study group that is assigned by the school; 
  • participating in an online discussion about academic matters; 
  • initiating contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course. 
  • For distance education, 
    • student submission of an academic assignment, 
    • student submission of an exam, 
    • documented student participation in an interactive tutorial or computer-assisted instruction, 
    • a posting by the student showing the student’s participation in an online study group that is assigned by the institution, 
    • a posting by the student in a discussion forum showing the student’s participation in an online discussion about academic matters, and an email from the student or other documentation showing that the student-initiated contact with a faculty member to ask a question about the academic subject studied in the course. 

Academic Activities do NOT include: 

  • living in institutional housing, 
  • participating in the school’s meal plan, 
  • logging into an online class without active participation, 
  • participating in academic counseling or advisement. 
  • course registration 

Why is Certification of Academic Activity Important? 

If we are unable to document your academic activity in a class by the end of the Add/Drop period, your aid will be adjusted to exclude the units for that class. You will have an opportunity to appeal if you have supporting documentation from the instructor confirming your attendance. 

How is my Academic Activity Certified? 

The school, not the student, must certify academic activity.  Therefore, UC Merced has developed an online Tool that offers multiple ways to confirm your academic activity by the Add/Drop deadline. 

  • We will extract your academic activity directly from CatCourses (e.g., assignment, quiz, test) and populate a Banner table with the date and type of occurrence as of Census. 
  • For faculty who do not use CatCourses in this way, they or a designated staff member from their School may log into our newly developed Tool and certify your academic activity by the Add/Drop deadline. 

How can I see if my faculty members have certified my Academic Activity in all my classes? 

You will be able to log into the Tool and see if academic activity has been certified for each course.  

A message box in the upper right of the screen will indicate whether you are missing academic activity, as shown in the example below.  The Academic Activity column shows the number of academic activities recorded for each course. 

Example:  

Once the add/drop period has ended, you may submit an appeal for courses where no academic activity was recorded. 

How do I Appeal? 

If any courses show no academic activity, an Appeal button will appear after the 15th day of instruction, that will allow you to submit an appeal with supporting documentation from the instructor confirming your attendance.  If approved, the units will be used to recalculate your financial aid eligibility. 

Example: