From the wasted resources dept.

[Watson]

Students at Northern Arizona University will have a hard time skipping large classes next fall because of a new attendance monitoring system.


The new system will use sensors to detect students’ university identification cards when they enter classrooms, according to NAU spokesperson Tom Bauer. The data will be recorded and available for professors to examine.

http://badgerherald.com/news/2010/05/04/ariz_college_to_posi.php?asdf

[countryboy]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

thats money well spent....

[deaduck]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

That ain't gonn stop diddly.

One guy could carry multiple cards for sleeping roomate and so on...

Plus it's College, when did they start caring about attendance?

[cardsfan2222]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

When I was in college, I had 3 or 4 professors who cared about attendance. The rest either didn't care if you were there or not, or figured those that didn't show up would probably fail anyway. Seriously, it's college, let them make their own decision about whether to go or not.

[Cebby]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

Doesn't seem like a big deal.

Some professors care about attendance and this is easier than passing out a sign in sheet.

[SuperBowlNachos]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

That ain't gonn stop diddly.

One guy could carry multiple cards for sleeping roomate and so on...

Plus it's College, when did they start caring about attendance?

I am in CC right now, after the 6th absence they say they can drop you from the class completely. Not sure if they legally could though.

I always thought it was dumb to even take it, if you can you pass without ever showing up you shouldn't have to.

[Beantown]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

At Providence, we used to have to swipe our IDs in a card-reader when we entered the class.

If you wanted to skip, just give your card to someone on your floor who is in the same class and bam, you were there. Very easy.

[mgoblue]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

This is dumb...why do they care? If you don't show up regularly you're wasting your own money and will probably fail. Treat people like adults.

[GAMEC0CK2002]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

Anything with that many loopholes, is a waste.

Thumb print reader or eye scanner--that's the ticket.

[deaduck]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

Anything with that many loopholes, is a waste.

Thumb print reader or eye scanner--that's the ticket.

That's just silly to waste money to monitor attendance in College...If a moron wants to sign up for a class and not attend that's their choice and their money to waste

[Buckeyes_Doc]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

That's just silly to waste money to monitor attendance in College...If a moron wants to sign up for a class and not attend that's their choice and their money to waste

I agree, college students are adults. Let them make their own choices. If they want to skip class and fail and waste their money that is their choice.

[Cebby]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

I agree, college students are adults. Let them make their own choices. If they want to skip class and fail and waste their money that is their choice.

They are allowed to make their own choices.

Probably a third of my classes had some 5-10% of the grade being based on "participation" which was generally attendance. In the other classes there was a general, mostly unmentioned policy of "if you show up everyday and get an 88% (or any similarly borderline grade) you might get an A, but if you don't ever come to class you'll get the B."

It's not like the teachers are going to hunt the absent students down. They just get the data for attendance without any of the hassle.

[Buckeyes_Doc]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

They are allowed to make their own choices.

Probably a third of my classes had some 5-10% of the grade being based on "participation" which was generally attendance. In the other classes there was a general, mostly unmentioned policy of "if you show up everyday and get an 88% (or any similarly borderline grade) you might get an A, but if you don't ever come to class you'll get the B."

It's not like the teachers are going to hunt the absent students down. They just get the data for attendance without any of the hassle.

In some of mine if we missed more then 5 days of classes we failed the class.

[legendkiller5]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

They are allowed to make their own choices.

Probably a third of my classes had some 5-10% of the grade being based on "participation" which was generally attendance. In the other classes there was a general, mostly unmentioned policy of "if you show up everyday and get an 88% (or any similarly borderline grade) you might get an A, but if you don't ever come to class you'll get the B."

It's not like the teachers are going to hunt the absent students down. They just get the data for attendance without any of the hassle.

This.

A lot of my classes have been/are engineered to keep attendance up (even if they are large lecture auditoriums) through different ways. For example:

In my Management class, you have to go to class to take the notes. About 55 of the 75 exam questions come from the notes and the skeleton outline he gives during each module isn't near enough to pass the exams.

In my Accounting class, she uses the clicker system and clicker points to keep up with attendance. You don't have to get the question right (unlike other classes), but the clicker points work as participation points. I think they were worth 20% of the grade.

In my Econ class, she took some form of 'attendance' every lecture. She would ask a question or two from the reading/lecture and it'd either be counted as an attendance quiz, pop quiz or extra credit quiz.

And in my Culture and Media class, he passed around a sign-up sheet for attendance every class. He made it so if you missed the majority of the classes, it would significantly drop your grade, even if you've done well o the exams and papers. He even told us about a guy in the class who just showed up for tests/to turn in papers, and failed because of his attendance.

[stewaat]

Re: From the wasted resources dept.

This might be a tool for parents more than anything. If I had a kid and they were skipping classes I pay for then hell yes they are getting disciplined and if it continues they are getting cut off.